Moral values

Moral values, simply stated, are beliefs about right and wrong. [1]

• Moral judgements attach to a person's motives (bad/evil/vicious) and deeds or actions (good/kind/generous), and whether or not something is the right thing to do. [2]

• There are both positive and negative traits of a person's moral character: honesty, kindness, courageous, responsible. These traits apply to people and not to their actions "or to the outcomes they seek to achieve." [3]

• Moral values "at the national level are idealized family values projected onto the nation." These values are "care and responsibility, fairness and equality, freedom and courage, fulfillment in life, opportunity and community, cooperation and trust, honesty and openness." [4]

• In the 2004 U.S. presidential election, voters are said to have "focused on four issues: moral values, the economy, terrorism and the war in Iraq. The issue most voters thought was most important was moral values." [5]

"What exactly are those moral values? Different voters defined them differently, but those who voted for President Bush oppose gay marriage and feel matrimony ought to be a union between a man and a woman. They also oppose abortion rights to some degree, and oppose broader government support for stem-cell research." [6]

SourceWatch Resources

• Moral Majority
• Religious Left
• Religious Right

External links

• "Moral Values: A Decisive Issue?," 60 Minutes/CBS, November 4, 2004.
• Dick Meyer, "Moral Values Malarkey," CBS News, November 5, 2004.
• "Liberals Dismayed by 'Moral Values' Claims," AP, November 8, 2004.
• "Exit Polls and Moral Values," Procrastination, November 11, 2004.
• Charles Krauthammer, "'Moral Values' Myth," Washington Post, November 11, 2004.
• George Lakoff, "Our Moral Values," The Nation, November 18, 2004.
• Maura Jane Farrelly, "Moral Values: a Hot Political Issue in America," Voice of America, November 19, 2004.
• Jim Wallis, "Neither Democrats nor Republicans have a clue," USA Today, December 19, 2004.
• Jennifer Wheary, "Who Owns America's Moral Values?," Denver Post, January 2, 2005.
• Cathy Young, "The 'Values' Panic. The right has no monopoly on morals—or on moral bullying," Reason Online, February 2005.
• G.R. Anderson, Jr., "They talk about freedom and values, but they really don't believe in representative government," CityPages, March 10, 2005: Former Minnesota Senator, Republican Dave Durenberger says that "We use the words 'national security' to justify absolutely everything that goes on in this country. And that's not American. But that's the track [Bush] is on."