Window or Mirror?

���Find what’s right, and do it loudly.” (Orrick)

1. The quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards
2. The state of being complete or undivided

It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe. - Thomas Paine

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. - Martin Luther King, Jr

I learned that falsifying this one fact about my life made me feel phony, ridiculous, complicit, and, worst of all, undermined by my own hand. - Gloria Steinem

These quotes are all correct, and insightful, but the balance of my opinions I have shamelessly purloined from Dr. Stephen L. Carter, author of the book Integrity. If you do not own a copy of this book, buy it, read it, and read it every year until you shuffle off this mortal coil – I cannot recommend it enough.

My thoughts on integrity are:

Discern always between right and wrong (moral reflection)
Most of us fall down on this step – do you know what you value? What you believe? The fact that you’re reading this means that you do, or desire to. Discernment takes time and emotional energy. It is hard work, and most people won’t do it. Before we do what we believe is good, and shun what we know is bad, we have to decide what those things are. It is important to note that 100% honesty and full disclosure is not integrity. What is right changes based on the situation and environment; see why this is hard work?

Act on what is right – even at personal cost (as an absolute)
Discerning between right and wrong is difficult, but even this hard won success is rendered impotent by the individual that will not act on his conviction. People have an amazing capacity to say one thing and to do another. The life with integrity must include action to implement the right or to discourage the wrong. That is, we must be activists on behalf of our strongly held beliefs.

Express openly that you are acting based on the right as you have discerned it.
Saying openly that you acting on what you believe to be the right will likely make you unpopular. Not only does our society reward those who conform, guilty people don’t like to be reminded that they are not acting with integrity. Beyond standing and loudly proclaiming the right, sometimes integrity requires breaking social norms; and rarely, even the law.

Again, read Carter’s book to get an eloquent and complete discussion of integrity. He covers the basic concepts of promises, marriage, and other applications that demonstrate an integral life.