Components of Spirituality # 3: Do you "Fudge" on Your Value System? The Passing Parade, #2

O.K., you are an individual who considers themself as part of a "group," with regard to your belief system.

You are a "good member" of a certain Race, Religion, Society (the Masons, as 1 example), Culture (Latino, African-American, Oriental, Native American, Other) Ethnic Origin, or even a "gang" (Sons of Silence is 1 example).

Whatever Race, Religion, Society, Culture, Ethnic Origin, "gang," Other, you know how you identify  yourself and often, to those folks around you and with whom you come in contact.  Most folks might say, "well, I belong to more than one of the above" (I am Roman Catholic and Italian, as 1 example).

Fine.  However you identify yourself, it is your CHOICE to be a part of whatever group with whom you identify.  Do you realize that your value system is largely determined by the choices you make with regard to the group(s) with whom you identify?

I am Protestant, Anglo-Saxon and Caucasian.  (I will label this collection of "groups," a Culture Set.") Some of my "Culture Set's" core" values might be:
-Martin Luther was a "hero."
-I identify and feel most comfortable, with "white people,"
-I live in a mostly white suburban neighborhood,-
-I attend a protestant church with a predominantly white congregation,
-I vote for mostly caucasian politicians. Further, I could never vote for a black person for high office...
You get the idea.

These are some of the "traditional" values of Caucasian, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant culture (WASP's = White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants).  If you are a WASP, reading this, you may find some of these "traditional" values uncomfortable, but you probably wouldn"t deny they exist.

If you are of another "Culture Set," you are saying "Yes!" to the above identified WASP values and maybe, just maybe, in the privacy of yourself, "belittling" and rejecting them. 

But WAIT!  Whatever "Culture Set," of which YOU are a part, (as you identify that "Culture Set" for yourself, remember) has it's own core values that other culture sets belittle and also reject.

Are you still with me or are you now so uncomfortable you are "bailing out" on reading this blog further?

Then for those who "stick with," this blog to the finish, I ask you this question?

Do you "fudge" on your Culture Set Values?

For example: "I am a Roman Catholic and I practice birth control."  I am Muslim but I don't bother to pray 5 times every day, facing toward Mecca."   "I am honest but I cheat a little on my income tax, consistently drive far over the speed limit, occasionally "swipe" something I really, really want from a store...etc., etc.

In some Culture Set sub areas, it is still "officially" not OK to "fudge" on a core value.

But many, many do so.

So, here's the point of this blog.

If I consistently (discarding more than 1, by choice) "fudge" on core values of my Culture Set, what makes me different from someone who has discarded ALL traditional core values and created their own value system by which they live?

Stated another way, whatever choices I have made with regard to the Culture Set groups to which I belong, if I disregard some of their core values, then I am "not one of them."  Not really.

My Values determine everything I do.

It is out of my Value System that all my thoughts, words and deeds, originate.

If you follow this reasoning and find yourself in a value dilema, what are you going to do?

If you have read these blogs so far, read the next installment, The Passing Parade, #3

Dr. Walter Wayne Hopewell