The tragedy of last week’s crashing of the cruise ship off the coast of Tuscany was heightened by the news that the ship’s captain may have abandoned the doomed ship before all of the passengers were safely removed. Other reports indicate the captain may have run the ship aground while trying to entertain his head waiter, a native of the island. What a flagrant dereliction of duty!
The 4200 people aboard the Costa Concordia trusted the captain and crew to do their duty, not only in the good times common to cruising in a luxury liner, but in the bad times when things go wrong. But “doing one’s duty” is not always easy, as I’m sure Captain Francesco Schettino would attest.
Duty, according to one dictionary, is “what one is expected or required to do by moral or legal obligation.”
The ship’s captain could spend up to 12 years in an Italian prison if he is found guilty of not fulfilling his legal duty.
But what of his moral duty? What about the obligation of doing what was expected because it was morally right? I think many people will say, whatever the legal ramifications of Captain Schettino’s actions, he is morally responsible for what he did (or didn’t do). He is morally responsible for the loss of a half dozen innocent lives.
In the face of this tragedy many people will agree with my comments about the captain, and yet I wonder how many of us really believe in “moral duty?” How many really believe it is our moral duty to do such things as love our family, work hard for our employer, pay our taxes, be faithful to God, and keep our spiritual vows? How many people really believe we have a moral duty to be good people and, if believers, to be good Christians?
When you consider the number of Christians who have walked out on their family, cheated their employer out of an honest day’s work, reneged on their commitments to their church and ... well, you get the idea ... it’s hard to believe we really know what it means to “do our duty.”
Maybe Francesco isn't the only one who abandoned ship and failed to do his duty.
(Be sure to join me this week for my Bible study on the rightful role of spiritual gifts at www.FaithNowMinistries.com/broadcasts.)
