IN EVERY CHILD'S CORNER

Ethics can be defined as a group of moral principles that govern or guide a person or a group’s behaviors. Ethics seeks to distinguish human behaviors on a continuum between right and wrong.   

Ethics define the beliefs that every individual holds as to what they believe signifies correct and appropriate conduct. Ethical codes are often created in many professions and within organizations in order to provide guidelines for individuals and groups as a framework for understanding ethical expectations.  

We should always continuously strive for uncompromising aspirational ethics in everything that we do, both personally and professionally.

My areas of ethical specialization include assisting clinicians, educators, researchers, and organizations navigate through the complex ethical dilemmas and ethical considerations that may occur when religious, spiritual, and non-religious beliefs become inserted, intentionally or unintentionally, into clinical, educational, organizational, and business environments.   

Microaggressions are everyday occurrences of verbal or behavioral insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate a negative or derogatory racial or religious insult that causes a harmful and cumulative psychological impact on the targeted individual or group.  There are three forms of microaggressions: the microassault – which is a blatant verbal or nonverbal attack on an individual or group with the intention of conveying a discriminatory, prejudicial, and biased point of view; the microinsult – which is an unintentional behavior or comment which conveys a demeaning lack of sensitivity or rudeness toward a person’s identity, their racial heritage, their gender identity, their religious affiliations or beliefs, their socioeconomic status, or their sexual orientation; and the microinvalidation – which are unintentional verbal comments are behaviors whose intention is to negate, dismiss, or exclude the feelings or experiences or thoughts of an individual or a targeted group.

Microaggressions occur with such frequency that they have become a part of the American lexicon.  Some examples of microaggressions are: assuming people who speak with an accent are not American, assuming people of a certain ethnicity have a higher level of intelligence, telling a person of color that color does not matter, assuming someone is a criminal based upon how they look, using sexist or heterosexist language, denying the discrimination that someone has experienced, assuming that white privilege and westernized culture are the only viable and successful cultures, assuming racial ethnic stereotyping, objectifying men and women as sexual objects, assuming someone is wrong or abnormal because of their sexual orientation, denying someone’s personal identity, or assuming that your religion is the only correct one.

Bullying is defined as a form of aggression which is intentional, repeated, and involves a power differential between the victim and the victimizer.  Bullying manifests in many forms including; physical, verbal, social, or relational. The newest form of bullying is cyberbullying, and it is especially problematic because of the far-reaching capabilities of cell phone usage, the Internet, and all forms of social media. 

All forms of bullying have an inherent probability of causing pain, stress, anxiety, and anguish to the victim, which can sometimes result in the victim feeling so hopeless and helpless that they may be at much higher risk for self-harm.  Bullying is a deeply entrenched and ubiquitous problem within school systems. Focused attention needs to be paid on immediate and pro-social interventions so that both the victims and the victimizers can learn how to move beyond the bullying cycle.

This construct is often very challenging for most people to accept or understand, and frequently results in rigorous pushback or denial as individuals grapple with the contrast between their personal convictions and empirical research.  Understanding the importance of this construct helps us to be more aware of all forms of discrimination.  Religious privilege may be defined as a wide array of unearned, invisible privileges which bestows religious and cultural dominance upon the majority religious group.  

As the overwhelming majority faith in America, Christianity enjoys a privileged status which dominates many levels of daily life, continually broadcasting and reinforcing an ethnocentric view of Christianity as the religious norm, conferring upon its believers a host of unearned benefits and privileges which are denied to members of religious, spiritual, and nonreligious minorities.  This domination through religious privilege frequently results in the unintentional oppression, subordination,  or marginalization of individuals and groups who adhere to or practice non-Christian expressions of religious, spiritual, or nonreligious beliefs.

Christian privilege impacts every aspect of American life, affording Christians the unchallenged and ubiquitous ability to successfully broadcast Christian-centered social values and religious beliefs upon others while unintentionally subjugating individuals who embrace a different set of religious, spiritual, or nonreligious ideologies.  Christianity, as a non-conscious ideology, often manifests in a lack of awareness or a denial of privileged religious status among believers, principally, because religious prominence and power are all that Christians have ever experienced as the dominant religious group in America.  

Manifestations of Christian privilege include implicit or explicit forms of religious or spiritual oppression, microaggressions, marginalization, or prejudices and biases toward the beliefs and religious cultures of others. 

In other parts of the world where Christianity is not the dominant religious group, they are subjected to the same negative effects of religious privilege as non-Christians experience in America.

Hate starts small.  The seeds of hatred are often unwittingly planted in childhood and develop deep roots and strong branches over a lifetime of apathy, ignorance, or acquiescence.  Hatred toward people who hold different religious, spiritual, or nonreligious belief is not new.  Anti-Semitism is a form of religious hatred which is focused upon Jews and has existed, without ceasing, for over twenty-three centuries.  It is so prevalent throughout the world that it exists in places with almost no Jewish populations.  Its universality and enduring intensity, together with its capacity to evolve has succeeded in creating a climate of tacit anti-Semitic acquiescence or ignorance, so ingrained within our social lexicon that most people erroneously assume that anti-Semitism no longer exists.

The insidious nature of anti-Semitism ensures that the most consciously religiously tolerant among us, those who harbor no known prejudicial biases against Jews, may not be aware of holding any unconscious anti-Semitic feelings toward Jews.  Disturbingly, anti-Semitism is an evolving form of religious hatred, whose presence is currently experiencing an alarming worldwide resurgence.  Overt and violent forms of anti-Semitism still endure, although modern anti-Semitism has found expression through the frequent use of covert or subtle interpretations of religious hatred, propagated through outlets such as social media, and often exemplified through the use of microaggressions and derogatory stereotypes.  

Anti-Semitism is a challenging and often divisive topic, frequently met with vigorous pushback by those who deny its importance or existence.  Regrettably, anti-Semitism is not a resolved footnote in our collective past, nor is it simply a Jewish problem that we can politely ignore.  It is an evolving litmus test for hatred of all kinds.  Denying that anti-Semitism exists is actually a form of anti-Semitism.

Scientific thinking permeates all of our lives and manifests in a multitude of ways. From early childhood we begin to develop specific skills which allow us to think scientifically as we navigate through our lives, whether through the processes of decision-making, problem-solving, emotional regulation, our interpersonal relationships, communication styles, and so much more.