When I think of the term moral compass, I think of this as used in reference to a person's ability to judge what is right and wrong and act accordingly. “New thought” does not give you a set of guidelines that are as stringent and defined as those in Christianity. To me, that’s a good thing. What Christianity gives us is explicit commandments and scriptures that define what is acceptable and what constitutes "sin." This may work good for some folks, but to me they were far too rigid. Plus, these were external, not internal values.
What I often saw was when people lost their religion, their external moral compass, they lost any moral compass whatsoever. All of a sudden they would go batshit crazy. I saw good people go from being church mice to doing drugs, having unprotected sex with strangers and more than once, getting pregnant from casual sex.
I think we all need to have internal moral compasses based upon values that are not applied by any religion. Each of us have to decide what that means for us, inside. That’s what I like. I choose my spiritual center because it did not tell me what was right. It let me live by my own truth, my own moral compass.
The external moral compass I saw applied by Christianity, when I was a regular church gower, said that homosexuality was a “sin” and I saw people who were queer (LGBTQIA) struggling with their own orientations. I saw people try to pray the gay away. I saw other people who exclaimed righteously that AIDS was God’s punishment for homosexuality. Some even expressed their happiness over AIDS. That’s a moral compass I want no part of!
So, what’s my moral compass? I believe in the concept of if you are harming none, do what you will. Harming none includes harming yourself. It also means consent, it means honesty even with yourself. It means forgiveness, radical forgiveness. To me conservative Christianity violates my moral compass. I have seen it do a lot of harm, in the name of self righteousness.
Sure, people in my spiritual world, like Christian church people make mistakes. Even Christian ministers do too. I know, I don’t need to tell you that. As they say, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
