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As we think about things that are pure, one nuance to consider is moral purity. Yet, the words moral purity, or morality, sounds so old-fashioned. We don’t use these words much in everyday speech. Do we even care about moral purity?
I decided to do a web search to find out. I searched the words moral purity in the Duck Duck Go search engine. In the first two pages of results, every result except one pointed to some type of religious article, post or page. That’s not surprising, because religion often focuses on being moral.
However, the one exception in my search, said that most people value morality. It was an article in Psychology Today posted in 2016 by Anna Hartley entitled “The Importance of Being Moral.”
Hartley researched how people evaluate others. Here’s a quote from the article: “When deciding whether we like, respect, and understand a person, we care most about whether that person is moral, more so than whether he or she is sociable or competent.”*
I find it fascinating that something Scripture urges upon us — being a moral person — is actually very practical. Having moral purity means others are more likely to respect us and like us. And don’t we all want to be liked and respected?
So keep thinking about things that are pure. And keep pursuing moral purity in your life. It’s practical, not just religious!
*Anna Hartley, “The Importance of Being Moral,” Psychology Today, July 6, 2016, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/one-among-many/201607/the-importance-being-moral
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Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.