In high school, it was sad day when "Beloved" by Toni Morrison hit my desk. The book was thick and worn, with a bright purple cover that was sure to smile up at me mockingly from my bag whenever I looked in it.
The teacher who dropped it on my desk was a wise woman. She was young, and had just finished her PhD. All the students in her class were bright, and she made each of us feel as if we all held a solid portion of the world's future on our shoulders. As a person, she was well liked. When her father died, the whole class pitched in and bought her 3 dozen red roses. As a teacher, she was hated. She thought her class was the only one that required homework or outside research and reading. Most of us had several classes with teachers of the same mindset, thus making us pretty stressed. But for some reason, no matter how busy or unmotivated I was, I always made sure the work for her class was done. She'd make us arrange all the desks in the room into a circle, and we would all sit there and discuss themes and topics found in the books we read. We'd spend days on the same topic, and then the students would continue to argue their opinions and points after class, through lunch, and even via instant message that night. We were fish flopping on the shores of the beaches of knoweldge. We couldn't wait to get immersed.
In case you haven't read "Beloved", its about a woman who is an escaped slave. She has 3 children, and although the ages escape me, they were all young, and one was an infant. One day, she sees that the slave catchers are coming. She knows that their capture is imminent, and doesn't want her children to live the slave's life like she has for so many years, and so she drowns all three of the children. In a well. Shortly thereafter, she is captured.
The day after everyone had read that, we walked into class bewildered. Why had the woman killed her children? How could she live with herself after doing that? Why didn't we, as readers, feel mad or angry at her?
That day we learned what moral ambiguity is. It's against the law to speed, but its ok for an ambulance to speed to get someone to a hospital safely.
Its not right to take someone else's life, but what if they are trying to take your own?
A lot of these questions seem easy to answer, but I think this topic merits discussion.
Is it ok for a man to lie to his spouse so that he can free himself from the mental slavery of a cult?
Is it ok for a kid to steal a book from a church building, knowing that it has the potential free others from lies?
Is it ok for a child to talk to strangers in order to gain an understanding of their parent's religion?
Is it ok to give public discourses on certain Bible topics when you don't believe in what the Bible says, or any of the doctrines suppourted by the religion you're supposedly representing?
Why does everything have to be black and white? Where does gray become white or black?