Living by Different Standards

I've blogged about this before, but it's been on my mind lately, so I think it bears repeating. I think that everyone should do what they think is right and not do what they think is wrong. Essentially, I think that everyone should live by whatever moral standards they have. An interesting, and slightly more controversial extension of this thought is that, in at least some cases, I think it's okay for people to do things that are okay by their standards, even if it's not okay by others' standards.

Let me give you an example: My family and I had pork for dinner tonight, and I think that that's okay. I don't consider it immoral for me to eat pork, even though there are others who have moral reasons not to eat pork. Their standards are higher than mine in this particular area, but that doesn't mean that I'm wrong to live by my (lower) moral standards.

For another example, let's take coffee. Drinking coffee is against the Word of Wisdom, a set of divinely-given health rules for members of the church to which I belong. Given that drinking coffee is against part of my moral standards, I consider it immoral for me to drink coffee, just as it would be immoral for a Jew or a Muslim to eat pork. Yet, I don't hold everyone to that standard. For most of the world, drinking coffee isn't a sin but a daily part of life. I don't consider other people "sinners" for drinking coffee because I'm not sure it's a sin for them. God judges us based on the light we have, and the amount and types of light they have don't indicate that there's anything wrong with drinking coffee.

Granted, I'm sure there are some sins that are still sinful, no matter what set of standards one chooses to live by. Murdering a living, breathing, innocent human being is one of the most egregious sins one can commit, no matter how low their moral standards are. Some people may think of ways to "justify" it, but I doubt that such actions would be justified in the eyes of God. Acts that go against the conscience with which each human being is born are all almost certainly sins, no matter what moral standards they follow.

But that said, I don't think God would judge someone as harshly for doing something they think is alright as He would judge someone for doing something they believe is wrong. And regardless, it's not really our place to judge them at all. People live by different standards. Some of those standards are higher than ours in some ways, and some of them are lower in other ways. Just as we wouldn't want others to judge us harshly for not living up to their standards, we shouldn't judge others harshly for not living up to ours. I think that the most important thing, besides not hurting others, is agreeing to live and let live. They're free to live by their standards, and we're free to live by ours. We should maintain our standards religiously, but we should also grant others the privilege to peacefully live by theirs.