Some friends from Canada were recently visiting and observed me posing for a picture with four older Vietnamese men. One friend commented with a smile, "I noticed Nelson that you were the tallest person in the photo." I smiled and said I have noticed (and I kind of like the fact) that I am often the tallest person in a group of Vietnamese.
The measurement "tall" is obviously a relative term. At about grade seven I stopped gaining height and in the next few years watched almost all of the boys and a few of the girls grow past me. "Tall" is not an adjective that is used for me in North America. But here among most women; and among men over 40, I am often the tallest. Given the change in diet and living conditions, a good number of the younger men and teens are growing beyond my 5'7" height.
"Big" is also a relative term. Jan (who buys tops marked 8 or 10 in North America) here in Saigon buys tops marked as Xlarge; anything else is too small for her. And she weighs 15 pounds less than she did four months ago in Calgary! We do have fun joking about her being extra large in this land of very petite women. The terms "tall or big" are relative to the people against whom you are measured.
Why do so many people believe that moral and ethical definitions and standards are all relative? We probably see this most clearly in the area of sexual ethics and in debates about abortion and euthanasia. If tall and big change according to different cultures or different eras, should it not be the same with morality and ethics?
That seems a logical conclusion if there is no absolute standard by which we can measure. However
Christians who take the Bible seriously believe that we do have an absolute standard. The Bible gives us truth that is not generated from a changing culture but from an unchanging God. His truth must remain our standard even in a culture that likes to claim almost everything is "relative".
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