Ethical Revolution

This book shows who I am and what I have been wondering and pondering about throughout my life. Although it is highly theoretical in its contents, this book is practical in its application. It contains several study questions for each chapter for you to reflect, discuss, and apply your new learning and insights. It is geared for you to start from your mind to arrive at trying out your understanding for practical changes in your daily life.

It contains essential ethical factors that I continuously love to struggle with. Among many, some of them are eugenics, responsive relationship between the church and the state, and dialectical relationship between love and justice, mind control, power in the powerless, discipleship, and the future. This is my ongoing search for answers on those topics, in order to upgrade the quality of human civilization, not just American or Western, but overall global civilization on this tiny planet called the earth.

What I am questioning in this book are basically values and principles by which we humans, Americans in particular, go by. Unless they are sound, logical, and ethical, we are bound to make more mistakes and mishaps as we move onto the next century, the twenty-second. In fact, we humanity may not even be able to meet the next century, unless we make major drastic changes in the ways that we value certain things, in the principles that we choose to uphold, and in the attitudes and behaviors that we exercise in our relationships with the rest of humanity on this planet.

In its style, this book is philosophical in search of truth. It is descriptive as well as prescriptive positing some ways to correct and to improve present conditions of human conventions, for the purpose of upgrading human civilization not only for Americans and Westerners, but more for the rest of the world.

Further, this book is for those who have passion for humanity, i.e., who passionately would like to see change to upgrade the quality of human civilization. This book will challenge you, provoke you, or even depress you to some extent, depending upon your values and attitudes. This book requires you to have thought about meaning of life, values, conscience, morality, ethics, and eugenics to fully appreciate it. That is, this book presupposes sufficient prior knowledge on those topics. It does not explain definitions and concepts of major terms for the topics. So, if you have not, then this will be a new frontier for you to embark, although it may be a thought provoking challenge for you.

For instance, this book is to convince you to change your view on conventions in order to see what is beyond human conventions. It is practical to follow through the conventions as members of society. But, it is crucial to see the spirit and rational behind the conventions, so that we can change our conventions to be true to the nature, for the purpose of moving it closer towards the supernatural. Most of our conventions are anti-natural or unnatural, which consequently create so many by-products ruining the nature. That is why we are currently dealing with global warming so alarmingly as a global warning. The best human conventions are those that honor the nature reflecting natural courses in order.

Further, this book is for you if your have passion for future. It is to touch the conceptual arenas that never have been dealt with before, and the frontier that no man has gone before, This book is for thinkers who would like to ponder and meditate, to wonder and speculate, to check and verify, to dream and innovate, to challenge and to create something new and better for the sake of humanity, especially for the future generations. This book is for leaders, not managers, for dreamers and not for those set in their ways. This book is philosophical in its way of discoursing, because it is the best way to get to the bottom of the truth. It will also help you to follow through if you take time to test out the major premises.

In its composition, this book is less a manual for procedural steps to follow through, but more a conceptual discourse for you to wonder to reach the truth and the subsequent practical solutions on your own. In terms of its content, this book is a collection of ethical reflections on major principles and values. It is highly theoretical employing much analytical logic and little contextual aspects. Unless you are familiar with theoretical discourses, this book will be a great challenge for you to appreciate. Please read this book slowly since some words are loaded with meanings. Every term is not fully explained here because that is not one of the objectives of this book, and because as you ponder on those terms, you may be able to come up with newer insights.

Besides, this book is to seek major structural skeletons of human mind and spirit in search of solutions for ongoing human problems. Thus, it is deliberately principle oriented without paying much attention to situational or contextual variations or deviations. In principle, they echo basically the same problems. That is to say, this book is not to entertain dealing with the same old problems in different historical, geographical, or cultural contexts or situations. It is at least an attempt to seek solutions to human situations. It is to strive much more for quality than quantity for the future of humanity.

In order to make this book more practical, some study questions are posited for your reflection, discussion, and application. Whether you are an educator, a student, a professional, or an entrepreneur, this book can be a practical educational resource in ethics hopefully for the change of the world. As for me, I plan to use this book for my teaching in ethics.

If you are a truth seeker, you will enjoy this book which has been started since 2000. This book is a small token as an expression of my gift to humanity, in thanksgiving to God for letting be part of it for several decades. You are invited to respond back to me with more enriching and fascinating insights on those elements that you may not agree with, as totally ethical, prophetic, yet holistic friends.

It takes a good deal of trust to read a writing of someone whom you do not know. Especially, when you need to spend a good amount of money to buy it first, you obviously want to know about the author, to see whether it will benefit you to read his book or not, to see whether he is the one whom you think you can learn from. Since you are seeking something entertaining or inspiring, you obviously would like to know about the book as well. For I would do the same!

At least culturally, I am a Korean-Russian-American who is not a native in the States. So I have very different perspective on almost everything from the typical American perspectives. This may interest you if you are seeking something different from the typical. And I happen to be an ordained pastor for parish ministry who served several local churches for about two decades. So, if you are not a Christian, this will give you another twist. But, please relax! I was not a typical protestant pastor. I left the United Methodist Church about a decade ago due to our incompatibility between us. Among several theological disagreements, the major problem is the trend within the denomination to ordain homosexuals to be spiritual leaders for the church. To me, that is a heresy!

Another major problem is in their organizational and structural approach, more precisely, in their process of appointment. Their current appointment process is based much more upon seniority than local church's unique needs and particular objectives and interests. The denomination has been declining for the last several decades, like most mainline denominations. This is one of the signs of the degeneration of American society. Unless they repent and correct those wrong moves and malpractices, the church will not stop declining. Yet, I wholeheartedly pray that they turn around and start to grow again.

Yet, my twelve years of higher education may convince you that I may have something to share with you. I went to UC Berkeley for BA/BS double majoring in Philosophy and Psychology, Claremont School of Theology for Master in Religion, Princeton Theological Seminary for Master's in Divinity and Master's in Theology, and later the Candler School of Theology in Emory University for the residency in Doctor of Ministry program after several years of parish ministry after Princeton. I could not get the doctorate degree because I left the denomination before I could finish my dissertation. The university is affiliated with the UMC.

During my twelve years of higher education, my major interest was ethics, e.g., Christian ethics, social ethics, and ethical leadership. My passion has been always to search for how we can build just society for every single person so that there is no such division as the rich and the poor, but simply equal. Yet, to establish such equitable society, what I believe must happen is ethical revolution. American culture must be moralized in every sector of the society. Conscience must be highly valued, cherished, and cultivated to bring about ethical revolution. For every grade level in the public education, ethics course must be installed, so that character formation, conscience sensitization, and moral value development can be taught and trained. The mass media, especially the Hollywood, must support this ethical revolution that is gradual incremental educational process, by producing creative and innovative programs, not necessarily glamorizing, but encouraging and praising ethical attitudes and moral behaviors. That will create incentives for people, especially, the younger generations to copy such ethical attitudes and moral behaviors.

Without the support of the mass media and the leadership of the government, especially for the public education, this crucial necessity of ethical revolution will not take place to its fulfillment. If not, then the American society will continuously degenerate and eventually perish like the Roman Empire, actually more quickly than the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire lasted about four hundreds thirty years. The USA has been officially running about two hundreds thirty two years since 1776. The question is how longer America can deal with the entire social problems that it is facing today, before they can eventually lead to its self-destruction.

After I left the UMC, my life was like riding a rollercoaster, especially for the part of dropping down. I had little income for my family, not enough to meet all the needs in spite of my part time jobs as a pastor for a local church and as a substitute teacher for several school districts at the South Bay in Northern California. Later, I had to be separated from my family due to my teaching engagements in overseas. Several years later, my marriage finally ended up in divorce. Realistically, though, this is part of the reasons why and how I could write about the problems of social evils, in particular, the breakdown of the institution of family. Unfortunately, it did not stop there. God led me to experience more of the hard and low parts of life. As a part of it, as the third class traveler, I had to travel extensively throughout the globe to observe and to teach at seminaries, missions, and churches.

Through traveling around close to twenty countries in Asia, Western and Eastern Europe, what I learned throughout the journey is that, no matter where I went, human struggle is basically the same. All of us pursue for the better life. Many of us do not care how we pursued it. Yet, some surprised me by the way that they treated me. They were honest, giving me the correct changes even though they could get away with having short-changed me. They may be trivial insignificant cases. But, such small matters actually speak louder about the people. Believe it or not, they were more and less poor selling simple drinks and plain snacks on the street as vendors. Yet, they were smiling at me giving me the right change, knowing that I could not tell the difference any way at that time. All these expectations led me to believe that poor people tend to be more honest than rich ones. Yet, all of us strive for the better life and happiness, no matter how they defined the idea of happiness.

After about a year of my journey around the globe, I came back to the States as a homeless person. Not even my own large family members were willing to take me in. Yet, through this humbling experience living at the bottom of society as a homeless person, I experienced things that I never had imagined before. As a result, I became much more realistic about life, turning almost one hundred eighty degree around from being idealistic, through my three years of homeless life at San Francisco. The reality was harsher than I thought. Even at shelters, the ego-centric behaviors were prevalent. Maybe, it was a little less in degree than the corporate America, but it was definitely more transparent. All of the homeless wanted a larger blanket and the best corner for sound sleep. They were comfortably outspoken about it, but they did not lie or manipulate others to get what they wanted.

In fact, human life can be very simple when you become homeless. You can definitely enjoy the sense of peace from the simplicity of homeless life, although it is forced simplicity. In fact, we do not need many of the possessions that even lower middle class people believe to have to have for life. Actually, we can survive without all those luxuries and conveniences. I happened to remind myself often the life of St. Francis of Assisi who gave up all the riches of his father to be a homeless beggar for the sake of peace in his soul which is possible only by the simplicity of life. When you give up greed, you do not need all the social status and recognitions from others, and all the material possessions required to support such conventional status and prestige.

And, definitely, there are people with the heart of altruism without any ulterior motif, but simply for the joy of exercising hospitality, kindness, and generosity. But, needless to say, they are a minority even among all the people running places for free foods and overnight sleep. Even within the humanitarian communities, there are seniority, hierarchy, and power struggle. Obviously, many of them were in such social services for ulterior motives. No motif is absolutely pure. But, it was quite apparent to read that their main motif was not altruistic humanitarian. The sense of respect towards them quickly disappeared. Then, I wondered how many of us seek respect from others much more than any other things in life. I asked myself whether I would do the same. If you have not experienced the homeless life, please try it out for a while. You will be surprised to see totally different dimensions of life that you may never have experienced before. It is worth it although it is stigmatized!

I started to see building a new career as a public school teacher since there is so much need of more teachers, actually more qualified and, most of all, more committed teachers. Having been a substitute teacher for four years working everyday, I have "felt" the problems that have been caused by devaluation of public education. It is the first item on the state budget to be axed out for a considerable amount almost every time when the state needs to reduce its expenditures. That is a clear indication that the value of public education in American culture has been declining steadily. That also points out that the quality of public education has been decreasing as well. That further makes it true that the quality of the teachers is also diminishing. There are not enough funds to provide continuing education to teachers for their professional developments. When the teachers know that the public education is not valued enough by the state government, if not by the general population, it is understandable why teachers have low morale with poor commitment to their profession. In capitalistic society, money talks! But, there is not enough money going into the public education to talk about.

Have you ever seriously wondered why the budget for public education is the first one to be cut down, that is, why public education is devalued by the society every year? It is because public education is not a good business. You do not see the results of the investment right away. Even if you can see it, it usually takes one generation, if not more. You also do not see the consequences of its budget cut right away either. It seems as if it does not make much difference either way because the consequences are so intangible and unaccountable for reliable accuracy. When the American culture is so highly materialistic, it is hard to think and pursue for the matters that are not visible, touchable, and audible. Unless the culture is much more sensitive and friendly with such dimensions of life that are abstract, intangible, and immaterialistic, the value of public education will continuously decline along with its quality. Then, the question is how we can change the American culture. Ironically, education is one of the best ways for changing the culture that down plays the value of public education.

For one year I went to San Jose State University for the Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential Program. It is one of the oldest institutions in the Northern California. It has relatively a large student population for the Education Department. Because of its larger facility and it comparatively lower admission standards, many young women and men are in the program to be teachers in the public schools. Yet, the quality of the education in the program is relatively low. It is not demanding or rigorous enough as it should be, knowing how desperate it is for the public school system to have quality and committed teachers. They seem to be willing to sacrifice the quality to satisfy the quantity, i.e., to attract as many students as possible. Even many of the instructors in the program do not have doctorate degrees; some do not have even master's degrees either. They may have much experience in public school teaching. But, they definitely lack the leadership with visions that is required to change and to improve the current public education system. If such condition reflects also the situations of other teaching credential programs across the nation, then it may take several generations, even if every generation is willing to commit to the objectives, to really upgrade the quality of the public education system in America.

I have dreamed about writing a book for such a long time. But, until now, I have not gotten a chance to write one, no matter how it turns out. I thank God for this precious opportunity. Dreams never get fulfilled unless he allows it, as you know. This book is a collection of short reflections, précis, and extracts that I have been wondering and pondering about for the last several decades of my life. They reflect my passions, my convictions, and beliefs as well as my prejudices, orthodoxies, and tunnel visions. I pray that you get the worth of your time, money, and effort for reading this book. I hope that you reap much benefit from it, for the improvements of your life as well as of humanity. If God allows me to write another book, it will be a sweet and sour blessing. I have learned firsthand that it is not easy to write a book. But, for now, this book may be the first and last gift to humanity that I care, and to God whom I adore.


"EL" Lee

Silicon Valley, California
2008