For a culture that says there are no morals, we have surprisingly severe penalties for moral failures. Hardly a day goes by without amoral celebrities condemning other amoral celebrities for their ‘immoral’ views of sex, gender, race, global warming, COVID vaccines, or Donald Trump.

Where does our much-denied but irresistible moral sense come from? In chapter 7 of Telling a Better Story Josh Chatrow trains us to guide people from the secular narrative of morality to the sacred narrative. 

INSIDE THE SECULAR STORY

The three main secular narratives about morality are:

• Morality is grounded in preferences: Right and wrong do not exist independently, but are determined by our feelings.

• Morality is grounded in culture: As each social group decides what’s right and wrong, these values will vary by time, place, and situation.

• Morality is grounded in science: Evolution has favored the morals that help the survival of the fittest.

While appreciating people’s moral sense, we also have to question their narratives:

• If there are no external objective standards, why do you pass judgments on individuals or cultures?

• Where do you get the moral value that we should or shouldn’t judge individuals or cultures?

•  How do you explain the sense that truth, beauty, justice, and love, seem to impose themselves upon us as if they came from elsewhere?

•  Can you have moral values without a moral purpose, or end? What is your moral goal?

 OUTSIDE TO THE CHRISTIAN STORY

•  The Christian story of morality begins with the moral purpose of living for God.

•  Christian morals are designed and given by God to guide us to our moral purpose and thereby maximize human flourishing.

Where does our moral sense come from? Get your morals from God who designed them to help us fulfill our moral purpose.