How exactly do we define substandard values? Are they the values of those we don’t believe live appropriately or are they the values which lead to headlines and hurt? Where is the magic line between acceptance for others and supporting substandard values? Not many of us can embrace the values of a child molester and few of us can accept the values of those who kill to get what they want. But is that where we draw the line? Our country is filled with people living by a myriad of substandard values, and we are all so sure we know which ones are bound to lead directly to crime, the pain of another, or death. Does the drug addict share the same substandard values as the child molester? Or is it something more than mere behaviors that determine whether we should accept the values someone lives with?
Values are not so easy to thread through and understand. Just because we don’t agree with someone’s values doesn’t mean they are wrong. Just because someone’s interpretation of religious values is different from ours doesn’t make them wrong either. Yet we are quick to come down on someone else’s value system for fear of what it might lead to. We are quick to judge someone else’s values as substandard so that we do not need to feel culpable should their value system lead to crime and someone else’s pain. Then we can say we knew better all along. It’s an interesting web we have woven, and the answers toward finding our way out are just as difficult.
