More and more people are trading off their morals for lesser values, hoping for a shortcut to contentment and happiness.
EXPY Award winner Raymond Comeau is a long-time author and blogger with years of experience in media and communications. He has been a guest at Hollywood Live twice since 2019 and has spoken as a keynote speaker at the National Committee Conference. Raymond now works as a National Administrator for Outreach Reentry Ministry and is dedicated to making his lifelong dream of writing a series focused on morality a reality.
Religion has always been an integral part of human existence. People have always believed in a deity or something more powerful than them that knows better since the dawn of mankind. Naturally, that leads to a moral code of conduct that dictates human lifestyle, trade, and commerce. Add in the fact that all great civilizations had rules and laws, separating right from wrong, and we know humanity has mostly prevailed by morality.
However, a system does not always guarantee individual obedience. Sure, it accounts for the masses and the doctrinal transgressions, but what of individual accountability? No authority aside from God is omnipresent, so it’s no surprise that anyone with the right motivation can find their way around the system.
If someone wants to lie, steal, mime, and murder their way to the top, they need only practice secrecy and connect with the right people to carry out their plan. Only the fear or love of God or some higher power that one does not want to displease or anger can strengthen individual morality. For some people, this higher power can be their community, upbringing, or family—people who push them to be good.
For the most part, most of the world’s population has had no trouble maintaining their individual morality except in times of war and turmoil. They are drawn toward community, crave social approval, and thrive on mass validation—all of which humbles them into good samaritans. Still, some stray minds or depraved souls find themselves toeing the lines between acceptability and outright damnation.
To put things in perspective, these “bad people” only amount to 2% of the world’s entire population, proving that humanity is suffering at the hands of few. Note that this doesn’t account for the daily misdemeanors like lying, swearing, anger, etc., and is only limited to reported crimes.
Despite the general consensus over human depravity, there is no denying that more and more people are substituting their morals for lesser values. The concept of goodness has been muddied as the majority of people are pushing God out of their life, bringing about an age of lawlessness across continents.
Around 20 million children are under the care of a single parent, and 4 million more are in the foster care system. Divorce rates have always been worrisome so are the reported cases of domestic abuse, sexual violence, harassment, and rape. And that’s only the adults, sending ripple effects throughout mankind.
Factor in the millions of reported school bullying and cyberbullying cases, and you’ll realize we are standing on shaky grounds. Even our children, who were supposed to symbolize everything good and innocent, are now tainted by the rampant lawlessness around us.
Simply put, human morality has hit a new low, creating an air of emergency for ministers, religious leaders, and institutions. It’s time to reintroduce the concepts of goodness and morality in our society and devise an intervention for the masses.
“What Bad We Do” does exactly that!
It is the need of the hour and a book that should have been published a decade earlier to benefit all lost souls. If we had a moral treatise like this earlier, we wouldn’t have been struggling to rehabilitate human morality at present. In fact, it would have provided us a leg up in our ongoing mission to restore human morality to its peak.
In “What Bad We Do,” I have discussed 34 misdeeds common in our society in 34 different chapters. Each chapter explains the context of the misdeed, an individual’s motivations to commit it, and the grave consequences that made the misdeed unacceptable in the first place. Each chapter is accompanied by an ex-offender’s experience through it, painting things black and white for people who are tempted by the darkness.
I wanted my readers to understand the reasons behind the growing violence and lawlessness in society and their role in combating it. Hence, the narrative of my book heavily relies on research, proven facts, and conversations I’ve had with other ministers and scholars. Pastor Simpson of Outreach Reentry Ministry has referenced “What Bad We Do” as a viable resource to decrease recidivism in ex-offenders.
Closing Thoughts:
As the most intelligent and sentient creatures in their ecosystem, humans are more responsible for their well-being than anyone else. With the current onslaught of lawlessness in society and the 360-degree shift in priorities leading to a skewed moral compass, we need a planned intervention to remind the masses of what truly matters. “What Bad We Do” is a step in the right direction and is the beginning of a revolutionary reform.