Opinion: At the inaugural Let’s Talk Tulsa event, during a discussion about homeschooling, one member of the audience revealed that in a Tulsa County public school, their child was given an assignment to try to pick a side on the question of abortion and/or gay marriage, and argue for it without using morality. At the time, I was quite struck and confounded – how would someone even possibly begin to answer such questions without morality.
Usually, though, when someone says, “let’s not talk about morality” or “let’s not include religion in this” or “let’s leave philosophy out,” what it usually means is quite the opposite. It usually means that they have already given you the morality, religion, or philosophy, but you are not allowed to question it. In this case, since the student is supposed to argue for a particular side, they have to have some basis for their claims. That means that they are being restricted to arguing based on the material status of the one party. Focusing on the material status of the acting party isn’t amoral, it is instead substituting a new morality for an old one.
