Is Morality the Product of Christianity

There are over 4,000 known religions throughout the world, with Christianity being one of the most prominent(source). Many people associate Christianity with ethics and moral behavior, which is often true. There are however numerous examples of non-religious people who demonstrate moral behavior. There are people who have practiced Christianity their whole lives and often demonstrate immoral behavior, but there are also people who have never practiced religion and are still capable of having a strong set of ethics. Therefore, Morality is not the product of Christianity, but of other spheres of influence.

Many proclaimed Christians have acted in unethical ways, or have misused their positions of power over the public. For example, in May of 2001, fourteen-year-old Nathaniel Brazill fatally shot his school teacher in Florida (Carter). He was raised in a two parent Christian household, yet he still acted immorally when he committed this crime. There are also a large amount of reports of sexual abuse from the clergy, especially involving minors. Andrew Greeley has estimated that “between 2,000 and 4,000 members of the Roman Catholic clergy have been involved in sexual abuse of minors in the US and that there are over 100,000 victims” (“Clergy sex abuse widespread…”).

These statistics demonstrate how even the most respected Christians can abuse the power given to them through their religion. If the people that most Christians admire cannot act ethically, how are they supposed to help guide the individuals who are just joining the religion? The wrongdoings of one Christian triggers a chain reaction that allows other religious people to think that unethical behavior will be accepted and blamed on something or someone else. Christianity itself is also a very judgemental religion and has stemmed from the concept of the “Original Sin”(Tinder). There have been many times throughout the world that Christians have accepted and even supported wrongdoings, such as slavery and poverty. Although, there were also many non-religious people that supported these evils there is no connection to the lack of religion that allowed them to think that this was a moral decision. Christians have also been involved in many wars over religion and land. For example the Christian crusades against the Muslims for the Holy Land in the Middle East. The Crusades were fought for things as little as political power, the overthrow of other dominant religions, or for jurisdiction over the territory.

A majority of people believe that Christianity is an understanding religion, when in reality they have participated in the oppression of many groups of people such as, homosexuals, other races, and sometimes they have even victimized other people of the same religion. It is often suggested that there are three separate spheres that have influence on a person’s behavior; their family, their school, and their religion (Carter). When children misbehave or do something that is unethical the public often questions the child’s parents and why they did not prevent their child from doing the act. The public very rarely blames a child’s behavior on their religion, but on their family life. Nathaniel Brazill’s parents were the people in question when he killed his teacher, not his place of worship (Carter). People often blame behavior on the school system as well, but public schools no longer mention religion due to the fear of being caught in a right versus wrong debate because of political crossfire (source). Societies themselves are often based on the foundation of shared traits such as, language and politics, not solely religion. Many people may argue that people raised in non-Christian households have more behavioral issues and act immorally than those that have been raised Christian. When the public was given a survey 45% of people said that Christians and non-Christians are equally honest, while 7% say that religious people are less honest than non-religious people(source). There are also many cases of non-Christians doing moral things. For example, a convention was held called Nuns and Nones, referring to religious people versus non-religious people. Both groups of people had similar issues with the world that they live in such as, “racism, white privilege, and capitalism”. Non-religious young people have also shown immense dedication to making a difference in their community, they claim that they do this because of their spiritual connection to people, not because of religion (source).

Morality is not the product of Christianity due to the fact that there are three separate spheres that influence a person, proclaimed Christians have done many immoral things, and Christianity itself has a base of sin. There are many Christians that have morals, but there are also many non-religious people that are moral. There is no correlation to Christianity or any religion for that matter solely making people moral. Morals are most likely the product of our biological instincts and our social influences such as our family and friends.

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