Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The Morality In Jobs

The nice thing about long drives with people is it enables you to talk... or sometimes forces you to do so. Yesterday, Dan of Gun Lovin' Alaskan Catholic Club and I went out to our hunting site to put some bait out. The drive was a good 30-45 minutes each way, and it enabled us to talk about "stuff." You know, the random conversations that flow from topic to topic, and evolve organically into really deep life issues. 

We started talking about "Moral Issues" in our jobs, or more precisely how we deal with these issues balancing our Catholic faith and the requirements of our job to ensure we get paid and therefore feed and house our family. Working in the legal field, it is really easy to think of situations where morality and my faith are implicated. In fact, I deal with it on an almost daily issue. Honestly, this makes it easier I think because I went into the field knowing that I would be dealing with such issues. In fact, I went to a law school that specifically prepared for for such issues, and one that taught me how to think from a Natural Law philosophical base. Therefore, I feel as if I am ready for the day to day onslaught of morally difficult situations.

What seemed harder were jobs where the difficult moral situations weren't around every corner. Let's say a person that works at a home improvement store? What are the serious moral issues that come up, where as a worker you say, "As a Catholic how do I handle this situation?" Obviously you can construct situations in your head; for example if a person comes in and asks how to build a temple to satan, you might have to get someone else to help them.

The difficulty comes in when you need to balance your faith, with your responsibility and obligation to your employer. So what are some odd or unexpected moral situations you all have been in, and how have you handled it? This is more of an open thread type of post... more of a question than an answer, but I think it is interesting and would like to know how you all dealt with the surprises that pop up at work.

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