By Francis J. Kong
(The Philippine Star) Updated March 10, 2012
“Francis, you are so hopelessly out of fashion,” one businessman remarked. “Of course, honesty depends on the situation of the moment.” This is a typical comment I get from business people.
If you are at a streetlight and it turns red, you stop because it’s
red, because you’re supposed to stop. (This isn’t really always true in
our country though.) But when the light turns red, and you look at the
car next to you and it’s moving, you become unsure whether to stop or
keep on moving as well. So what do you do?
You put on the brakes… but
even then you’re unsure of what to do exactly.
This is relativism. You don’t know where you are, whether you’re
really supposed to stop or keep on moving. That is what happens when
you do not have a moral reference.
There’s an old story of a man who worked at a factory in the Lester.
He used to stop outside a clockmaker’s store and synchronize his watch
with a clock. After seeing him do that day after day, the clockmaker
remarked, “You stop and synchronize your watch with our clock every
day. What kind of work do you do?”
The man replied, “I’m the timekeeper in the factory. I have to ring
the bell at four o’clock every afternoon. I’m embarrassed to say that
my watch doesn’t work very well, so I synchronize it with your clock each morning.”
The clockmaker confessed, “I have something to tell you. My clock
doesn’t work very well either. I synchronize it with the bell that I
hear from the factory at four o’clock every afternoon.”
This is what relativism ends up doing.
Truth is absolute. And honesty should be based on moral absolutes.
I have been in business for a long time. I want only honest people
to work for me. I think any businessman wouldn’t want anything less. If
you’re in business, would you be willing to hire an accountant who’s
relatively honest?
In the same way, when I go out of town and do talks and trainings (or get me some training), I don’t expect The Ilocana to say, “Sweetheart, have you been relatively faithful lately?” when I come home.
Truth is narrow. Truth is exclusive. You cannot add to truth and
make it more truthful. Neither can you remove a little bit from it and
claim it to be almost true.
Life is simple. Ill-meaning, self-interest-wielding people complicate it by coming up with goodbad or wrong. No matter the good reason, this is still moral compromise. reasons to do
Be truthful. God sees everything, including what’s in the heart. And drive carefully – stop at red lights as well!
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