Assumptions
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
8:37 AM
Ethical decision-making involves making the case for a particular choice in the face of other possible choices.  
People are frequently uninterested in engaging in reasoning about their ethical choices.  They want the freedom to express their opinions and receive affirmation that their opinions are valid but then do not desire to justify their opinions beyond that.  People are clearly free to do that.  However, thinking ethically requires us to "show our work" as it were with regard to the decisions are making and to be open to discussing the possible contradictions or trade-offs we have made in making that decision.
I find Stephen Toulmin's language helpful here.  (Uses of Argument)
Claim--A claim is gt
We want to approach ethical questions as Christians.  We believe that Christian identity, texts, the moral tradition of the faith, and spirituality play a role in the ethical decisions we make.  
While that may seem like an obvious statement, it is not.  If we did an historical study of ethics and ethical decision-making in the Western tradition, we would see that at certain points in Western history, Christianity was so marginalized that it could not have much influence over much more than people's own private personal moral decisions.  Then there came a time when Christianity, or at least the structures of Christianity, sought to touch every aspect of ethical decision making.  With the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, formation of democracies and free enterprise culture has produced large pockets of culture, science and business where religious ethical reasoning is not persuasive.  Rather than giving in to hand-wringing and complaining as many Christians do over this observation, I would like us to realize Christianity itself has contributed to this situation and that many Christians feel that there are contexts in which we should readily accept the limits on Christian ethical reasoning.  The obvious example here is that of ethical reasoning and politics.  Some Christians argue that Christian moral and ethical reasoning should govern the way we make political choices.  
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