Contentions of absolute truth in Ingredient Eight:

(Participant Cards)

• No matter who tells you differently, the “hav’s” and the “have nots” will never get along. 

• There is a reason the rich want to hold onto their money. There is a reason why poor people want more money. 

• These are inconvenient truths that nobody wants to talk about because it opens up issues which are very hard. 

• Although we make a great effort to help our fellow Americans who are in need, and fall upon hard times, we have come up short.  

• We come to expect doing what we can, but never enough, as the American way of life.

• Poverty in America is not someone else's problem, it is all of our problem, as Americans.

• If we followed the natural law, we would seek to moderate disparities in life experience until we can achieve some acceptable happy medium, a more balanced approach.

•  We can have a merit based economy, and still be compassionate to the poor.

• It's not our laws that are broken, it’s the detachment from our moral duties (to self and others) which needs correction.

• It requires that we work individually to see the great value in being a “bigger person”.

(All Together) 

Sacrificing for others, who we don’t even know, is a pathway not a burden.

Quotations: 

“Courage is not only one of the great virtues. It is the form of all virtue at its testing point.” 

C.S Lewis

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"  

Bible: Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31

"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." 

Dwight Eisenhower

Further discussion:

How do we bridge the divides so that people live with less resentment and anger toward one another.   Do we do enough to help fellow Americans overcome trauma and hard life experiences?  Could a shared underlying belief system rooted in our shared human nature possibly contribute?Can general morality training courses like this one provide improvement in this area?  

In 18th century America, the people seemed to place a barometer of compassion at the forefront of our approach to government and politics. Has our society become less moral? Less giving? Less compassionate? Is it possible that we can bridge the great divide between rich and poor with less government and more shared morality? 

Resources:

5000 Year Leap. Cleon Skousen. Explains the founders intent and recognition that free markets and maximum liberty require a moral people or only a few wind up with the benefits..

Poverty By America: Matthew Desmond