Rogue Reverend

The Word of the Day: Integrity

The word of the day was going to be “asshat,” but I’ve changed my mind.

The word of the day is “integrity.” One web definition is “an undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting.” Wiki defines integrity as “Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code; The state of being wholesome; unimpaired; The quality or condition of being complete; pure.”

Unfortunately, integrity is one of those words that the Religious Right has ruined for me. But today, I’m taking it back. The Religious Right thinks you have no integrity if you don’t do what they think is right.

Instead, I’m going with the nerd definition, “an undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting.” See? There’s a consistency in integrity. What you think with your head will match what you feel with your heart and what you do with your actions. Integrity doesn’t imply, for me, a morality of good or bad, but instead, a steadfastness of those three things, thought, emotion and will.

There’s a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew:

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’” ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered.

I’ve always been the first child, saying, “No,” then doing it anyway. I know too many people who say, “Yes, of course,” then don’t follow through.

I’d rather know a person who was consistently evil than one who pretends to be good, then does evil. Of course, that second person is an asshat to me. So, maybe the word for the day is really asshat.