The Importance Of Moral Freedom

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As society as a whole we are most often times given a set of rules to follow. These rules or laws act as a pathway to help us choose between right and wrong. If someone were to choose the wrong path, there can be severe consequences. In the United States it is common to see jail time when we go against the set moral code. In other countries we may see forced labor or find people put to death for their actions. Each society sets it’s own rules and moral standards. But there is much more to being a moral person than following the laws of a society. As defined by Alan Wolfe, moral freedom means “individuals should determine for themselves what it means to lead a good and virtuous life” (Wolfe, 2001). This means that even though we are given a …show more content…

They involve new issues that we never had in the past. In the past we dealt with things such as civil rights for African Americans, today we struggle with rights for gay, lesbian and transgender people. While some people believe that choice of sexual orientation is moral based on their personal choices. Kenny Miller from Wolfe’s Moral Freedom is the perfect example of this. Although he doesn’t believe in his friend’s fascination with sadomasochism he believes that is makes sense for his friend (Wolfe, 2001). The women described in this book (Mary Masters and Julia Fenton) would find that these types of actions are immoral based on their religious beliefs. Although this is not necessarily a gay rights issue, but an issue regarding sexual freedom, it can still relate to issues we face today. Recently, gay marriage was made legal in all fifty states. While much of the United States rejoiced in a major civil rights movement, others feared that it threatened traditional families and standards that were previously upheld. This is a positive step forward in terms of the amount of moral freedom that we have. We need to be able to have freedom in order to have moral freedom. It could be seen that when given more freedom on the issue, some may choose to take this path and continue in homosexual marriages, and those who do not believe in in neither have to participate and do not have to agree with it

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