Dear Editor
In 1 Corinthians, Paul warns us gently but seriously to avoid influences that could lead us away from the truth. “Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals,” he counsels. And it’s true. Close association with people of poor character or false beliefs can negatively influence and degrade a person’s own values.
Our values are our ethics (our rules of conduct), morals (our personal beliefs of right and wrong), and principles (the foundational rules that guide our actions).
Humans tend to adopt the values and attitudes of those they spend the most time with. The actions of some people, including friends, family members, neighbors, and even our leaders, reveal weak character that repeatedly threatens our integrity, our perception, and our inner discipline. These people slowly erode the foundation of a strong mind: they distort truth, they punish virtue, and they weaken our character if we allow them to remain close.
We cannot afford to pretend that our integrity — the strength of our morals and principles — is sound enough to withstand assault. We associate with “bad company” for reasons that are simply unjustified. “He or she is a friend,” we say, or “We’re family,” or, in the case of our nation’s leaders, “Everybody I know supports him.” And, just like that, our integrity is compromised.
Deep, deep inside each of us resides a Spark of Purity. Some call it the soul or our essence. To some, it is the Voice of God. To reach it, to hear it, one needs to go into deep reflection. In it, there is profound honesty. We know in our heart when we reach it. To it, the most important thing is not status, or money, or reputation. It is character.
It channels intellectual honesty, not willful ignorance— not the conscious, active choice to disregard, avoid, or remain uninformed about uncomfortable truths or responsibility. Willful ignorance differs from simple ignorance in that it is a deliberate avoidance of knowledge to protect one’s current beliefs or one’s comfort.
Obvious examples are ignoring medical advice despite symptoms, ignoring scientific evidence regarding climate change, or refusing to learn about a diagnosed serious illness to avoid fear.
But the most serious act of willful ignorance today, the one with the most negative impact on us, our children, and their future, is choosing not to engage with factual reporting on political issues in order to maintain a pre-existing bias. Intellectual honesty must be disengaged to achieve this, and, by this act, we detach ourselves from our Spark of Purity; we choose to be deaf to the Voice of God.
This go-along-to-get-along attitude most of us have defeats our individuality, compromises our integrity, and endangers any Eternal Reward in which so many of us believe. If we shed our associations with “bad company,” perhaps by example, others will too. And there’s a chance that “bad company” will then go along to get along. Look at that—you’ve just changed the world for the better.
Paul Flentge, Montana subscriber
