It was “Ethics Awareness Week” at UVU this week, and on Wednesday the Excellence in Ethics Award was presented to Utah Supreme Court Justice Christine Durham. One of the Legal Studies faculty members was on the selection committee & invited the rest of us in the department to attend…so I “invited” Eli to come too.
Prior to receiving her award Justice Durham spoke on the topic of “Situational Ethics.” In her presentation she addressed the fact that even though you can teach someone the difference between right & wrong, sometimes because of the situation & circumstance a person is in wrong can begin to look a little right. She then told us about an experiment that had been inspired by the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Two psychologists reasoned that the priest and the Levite were probably preoccupied with religious thoughts as they traveled down the road, and further speculated that the Samaritan was probably thinking about more mundane matters at the moment of ethical decision and might not have had so demanding a schedule as those of the priest and the Levite.
In December of 1970, the two psychologists gathered a sample of 40 students from the Princeton Theological Seminary. Half of the students were given a copy of the Good Samaritan and were told they would be giving a sermon on the subject in a few minutes & the other half were told they would be speaking about employment opportunities for seminary students. All the students were told to report to another building to deliver their talk. Some were told to hurry because people were waiting for them, while others were lead to believe they had a little more time to get to the other building.
On their way to deliver their talks, each student passed by a poorly dressed person, slumped in a doorway, possibly in need of help. As each subject passed by, the man coughed twice & groaned.
Sixty percent of the seminary students walked past without offering assistance. The students thinking about the parable were no more likely to stop than the others. In fact several stepped right over the distressed man.
It seemed the deciding factor of whether to stop or not was time. The majority of the students that stopped to offer aid were the ones that had been lead to believe they had a little extra time.
The psychologists were drawn to conclude that as the speed of daily life increases, ethics becomes a luxury.
Her topic prompted me to think about how often I hurry past others without thought. I get so wrapped up in my own “to do” list that I forget to slow down & give thought to those around me. So for the past few days, as I rushed about my business, I’ve tried to be more aware of others. A friendly “hello” to strangers I pass in the hall, holding the door for someone loaded down with books, or not speeding up to beat the load of students that just got off the bus to the crosswalk, so I won’t have to wait forever!
I’m not sure that any of my actions actually equate to those of the Good Samaritan, but I had way less stress & felt much happier myself.
