Different Perspectives
Christianity teaches that basic human rights, and moral values come from God. On the other hand, moral relativism says that basic human rights and moral values come from natural sources such as a society, a government, or the mechanisms of Evolution. These are vastly different viewpoints, which have very different implications for the everyday behaviors of the people who adopt these worldviews.
For adopters of the Christian belief system, there are objective universal moral values and standards which all of its adopters are to follow. Since the Christian belief system includes commandments about being fair and truthful, this leads to there logically being a certain degree of expectation and trust of (non-nominal) adopters of Christianity being fair in their behavior and truthful in the things that they say, including when/if they make statements about personal and public issues; the specific degree of trust largely being dependent on the particular individual adopter in question, as well as where along Christianity's adherence spectrum they fall.
For adopters of moral relativism, there are no objective universal moral values and standards set for adopters to follow (which is the core nature of moral relativism); that morality may legitimately vary from person to person, group to group or, situation to situation. Therefore, there is no inherent logical basis for one person to have expectations or trust that a holder of moral relativism will act in a manner that the first person (whether a Christian, or another holder of moral relativism) considers to be a fair and truthful manner. Though an adopter of moral relativism may have trust bestowed upon them by others based on some criteria or other factors, this trust is theoretically and fundamentally less sound, and more fragile than the trust that has as its fundamental basis a worldview that has objective universal moral values and standards and being fair and truthful is part of those values and standards (e.g. Christianity). This is primarily because for the holder of moral relativism, their values (including the one(s) that lead to the bestowal of trust upon the person), are, because of the nature of moral revivalism, more volatile (apt to change over time, or under a particular situation/circumstances).
Negative Influence Throughout
Society
A core aspect of moral relativism is the denial of the existence universal basic human rights. In the everyday world, due to the very significant spread of moral relativism, over recent decades its influence has been manifested very visibly. In the U.S. over the past decade or two this has taken a number of forms, including the various attempted denials to people of their constitutional (i.e. universal and basic) rights in many areas of society; such as the preventing of particular public speakers from speaking on college campuses through threats, intrusive demonstrations, or shout downs; the incitement to social and public exclusion of people of the opposing political party by some politicians; and the presumption of guilt instead of the presumption of innocence, used against people, by some proponents of the Metoo movement.
Thus, moral relativism has spread in modern times among the population and into all areas of American society, and this has had major consequences. One of the biggest consequences, one particularly visible, and one that the 2016 presidential election served as a catalyst for, is the death of trust in people and public institutions who had previously enjoyed a relatively large degree of trust from the general public to perform their jobs, functions or duties in a relativity fair and truthful manner.
The News Media
Probably, the most visible, and easy to observe and consistent manafestations of this is what has happened with the American news media. The people in the news media (television, print, and radio). up until the 2016 election, generally had reputation and a public perception of being (though somewhat liberally biased) at least fairly trustworthy to do their investigations and reporting mostly in an overall fair and truthful manner. But after the election, they have largely demonstrated through their words and actions that they have become undependable for being fair and truthful, and particularly about issues and events of national importance, to the general public; or alternatively that maybe they never actually were as trustworthy as they previously had been considered and/or appeared to be.
Since the 2016 election, in numerous cases, things that were initially reported and stated as being true concerning various issues, subjects, events, and people by newspapers, and radio and television news show hosts and commentators, have turned out to be false in the end (e.g. the Covington High School students). Hearsay and unsubstantiated claims, mere personal (i.e. subjective) opinion or analysis stated by someone, and unconfirmed statements of "anonymous sources", have repeatedly been passed off to the public by many people in the news media as if they were facts (i.e. objective truth).
Essentially, it seems that the personal feeling, preferences, values, and/or political desires of most news people have overridden the idea of fairness and objective facts (i.e. objective truth),in news investigating and reporting. These actions in all probability stem from the well established fact that a good majority of people in the news business at the current time are Liberals, and generally Liberals tend to hold to moral relativism. Also, since from the moral relativism perspective such actions are not viewed as objectively being morally bad (since according to that worldview there are no objective moral values), it can be understood why such behavior is repeatedly done, instead of such behavior being recognized as being bad and efforts made to not continue to do so.
Public Sectors
Unfortunately, similar to the news industry, moral relativism has greatly been adopted by many people in the public sectors and professional areas of society, areas such as the politics, science, law, and academia (teachers, professors, and school administrators); many of whom in various ways have demonstrated a willingness to place their own personal preferences or social/political values over any others in the performance their jobs and in fulfillment of their established duties and responsibilities.
What Basis For Continued Trust?
The fact that many prominent people and organizations, and public institutions have not been honest and/or been unfair in their words or actions towards fellow Americans because they hold a differing viewpoint on a given public issue(s), and even more so concerning issues and people related to the Trump presidency, is troubling for many Americans, but it raises an even bigger issue. This is because, though important, the Trump presidency is a relatively small thing in the overall scheme of history and humanity.
Specifically, there is a relevant Bible verse;
“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good
and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I
will set you over many things... “
- Mat. 25:23
Therefore
the point is that, people, organizations, and public institution who
hold to moral relativism that have shown by their actions that they
can not be trusted to fairly and truthfully relate to the public
information related to a relatively small thing, such as issues and
people related to the 2016
election and Trump presidency, then
(independent
of the issue that the beliefs
of
their adopted worldview inherently makes trust relatively more
problematic) they
should not be freely trusted to fairly and in a truthful manner
relate to the public information about relatively big issues.
Some
of the more prominent of such big issues being:
--
Abortion
-- The Origin and Nature of Human Life (e.g. The Theory
of Evolution)
– Embryonic Stem Cell Research
-- DNA
Manipulation (eg. CRISPR technology)
-- Man Made Global
Warming
-- Gender Identity Issues
-- Racism and
Discrimination
--
Assertion of it being good that Internet content is totally
unrestricted
–
Assertion of it being necessary
and
naturally acceptable
to give
young
people smartphones
and/or
free access to the Internet
-- Aspects of the field
of
Psychology
-- Moral Values and Social Standards
-- Dark
Matter and Dark Energy
Going Forward According To
Scripture
The Bible also gives advice on what to do in such a situation as the current one;
“Beloved, don’t believe every spirit,...”
In other words, as false prophets spoke of spiritual issues and matters based their own desires and values, instead of actual truth revealed by God. In a similar way, many people, organizations, and public institutions today who hold to moral relativism do so about various issues and topics, including relatively big issues and topics; the ones that are most important ones for people to try to understand and decide about.
“...but test the spirits, whether they are
of God,...”
- 1 John 13:1
Thus, people should not freely place their trust in the words of others, or just take other peoples' (or an organization's) statements on some matter as accurate or as fact, even if that person is known as, or is proclaimed to be, "an academic scholar", "a historian","an expert", "a renowned scientist", "an entertainment/sports icon"; or belongs to the same racial/ethnic group, etc. But instead, question them on what they say, and press them to present a rational bases for their statements and explanation of them, and when appropriate reasonably prove them. Additionally, it would seem prudent when possible and appropriate, that a person should do their on research and/or verification about what was stated or done.
It is also recommended for people to search for and recognize people and organizations (news, political, social, religious), that have a record of being relatively fair and truthful in the presenting the facts about issues, events, and people, and focus on using them for sources of current and future information; at the exclusion of those that have been shown to be non-trustworthy. Based upon the current social environment and condition of American society, in it would be reasonable to estimate and expect that most such trustworthy people and organizations, and/or most people connected with such organizations, will believe in universal basic human rights, objective moral values and absolute truth, and so probably be conservative Christians.
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