Have
you noticed that the world seems to have gone noticeably crazy? A couple of
days ago I turned on a news channel and the first reports were these:
● Litchfield Park, AZ – 11 year-old boy murdered his grandmother
by shooting her in the back of the head and then committed suicide. Why? She
had been telling him to clean up his room.1
● Daytona
Beach, FL – 15 year-old boy strangles mother to death. Why? They had an
argument over his grades.2
● Chippewa Falls, WI – 10 year-old girl charged with murder
for stomping head of 6 month-old baby boy.3
● Rowan County, NC – 11 year-old boy charged with putting
sewing needles in Halloween candy.4
The
next day there was the shooting at the bar in California5 – the 307th mass shooting in
America this year.6 Even though these things seem “crazy” to
most of us, our work at the TOV Center suggests that there is a factor that we
need to consider. A growing number of Americans value other things above human
lives – attention, power, unexamined beliefs,
predatory profits, entertainment, individual appetites, desires and longings, addictions,
etc.
We
discovered a standard for making decisions and examining human actions in the
ancient Hebrew text of Bible. We call it the TOV Standard. It doesn’t involve or promote a theology. Almost
everyone that hears about calls it “common
sense.” It is a tool that helps us keep Lives 1st in our
thoughts, decisions and actions. When you need to make a decision, write down
the answers to the questions before you make the decision:
1. Whose lives will be protected or harmed?
2. Whose lives will be preserved or
threatened?
3. Whose lives will become more or less
functional?
4. Whose quality of life will be increased
or decreased?
5. Who will receive or pay money?
This
is a model you can also teach very young children. As a matter of fact, many
times children have an easier time answering the questions because they haven’t
learned how to rationalize and justify actions that fail to measure up to the
TOV Standard – like adults often do so
well.
When
you are involved in a decision making discussion use your creativity to come up
with TOV options!
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