Tuesday, December 11, 2007

About Integrity

Paul Smith has a good piece expressing concern about Mitt Romney's "JFK" speech:
The problem with both Romney's and Giuliani's statements (and JFK's) is that they seem to compartmentalize their religious beliefs. They are claiming to have religious beliefs, but that they won't carry them over to their activities as President. If you're truly devoted to God, how can your belief in Him not carry over to every part of your life? We should strive to make God part of every moment of our lives and allow Him to direct us at all times, not push Him aside at certain points. Now, realistically, due to our imperfections, we don't live up to that standard, but that should be our goal at all times. We can't consciously decide to push Him out of a certain part of our lives because our faith might inconvenient to ourselves or others.
Exactly. I touched on this a bit some years ago with a piece on morality and integrity. Integrity is not about whether you are a good person or not. It is about whether you are a consistent person in different settings and situations. Romney's speech was largely about compartmentalizing his faith away from everything else. You can't do that and have integrity. Perhaps Romney has been in politics too long to realize this.

The sad thing is that too many people don't seem to understand this concept.

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