Lamar Howell's Weblog

In order for a society to continue peacefully and cohesively, there are certain foundational principles and practices which must be respected and followed. The Christian virtues of love, mercy, forgiveness, and charity among them. The Torah-derived values of justice, fairness, and restitution alongside those.

Certain values are built upon – and sometimes – spring from, foundation stones of civilization. I will attempt to list them below:

1. DIGNITY. Recognizing God’s spark within people allows us to build upon that dignity with RESPECT.
2. LOVE. Being loved gives us personal and societal SECURITY.
3. LAW. Recognizing a divine and physical plan to the universe allows us to have ORDER.
4. MORTALITY. Knowing we have limits allows us to accommodate weakness with TOLERANCE.

If the basic values of dignity, love, law, and mortality are ignored, then respect, security, order, and tolerance go down with them.

Let us hold onto these values, unless and until we find something greater – like utopia.