Is Character Works a religious program?

© 2004 Colin Pearce

This is the most common question I am asked about Character Works.

THE ANSWER IS ‘NO’ AND ‘YES’
If you are asking if Character Works tells you to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem via the six directions, east, west, north, south, up and down, only in the dark so as not to offend the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, become a celibate, bead carrying, candle lightin’, Devil rebukin', Bible thumpin', tongues talkin’, God Botherer who takes the trip with seven stones in your shoes, wearing horse hair underwear inside out, eating nothing but dried peas, lapping water only from puddles, chanting the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad-Vita banging a tumbrel on your left elbow, hopping along on one leg, stopping every five minutes to take off your clothes and smear yourself with cow dung, before flagellating yourself 39 times with a camel leather purse full of shekels and bone shards, blow a ram's horn to the four winds at dawn, face Rome and say 47 Hail Marys, well... no.

If you want to know if the program reflects the Natural or Moral Law as captured in modern justice and good government and respected at the core of most religious systems one way or another, well ... yes.

It's a bit of a dumb question really. You should be more specific.

‘SO WHY WOULD YOU BE ASKING’, I ASK MYSELF
I have thought about what motivates the question and can only come up with four motives:

•  You don't like religion and you hope Character Works doesn't encroach on your distaste.
I know of no overtly religious character development programs on the market so I cannot think what would have kicked off your motivation to ask that question. It's not as if character programs are hitting the headlines as secret societies' surreptitious schemes to entrap the foolish and seduce the simple in order to enslave them or steal their money. Anyway, Character Works isn’t going to mention religion of any sort so relax.

•  You like religion and you hope that Character Works supports your position.
If your religious views support living a life of character then you will feel right at home. If you are looking for fire, brimstone threats of Hell and other dogma you are not going to find much joy in Character Works.

• You like a particular religion and hope that Character Works doesn't interfere with your sacred cows.
I didn’t go out of my way to offend any religious persuasion so if you find something offensive please tell me (so I can explain why you are wrong!)

•  You couldn't think of anything else to ask and wanted to sound like a philosopher.
I like your honesty if not your dullness of mind.

The truth is that I have never had anyone ask me the question without there being an element of fear or suspicion in their question. And that’s a possible fifth reason: Fear.

WHY DOES CHARACTER PRESS SOME PEOPLE’S RELIGIOUS ALARM BUTTON
Perhaps it is because the subject itself reminds people of early childhood experiences in religious education or religious experience that makes them wonder if Character Works is from the same side of the factory.

After all, the last place most people ever heard anything about character traits or character strengths in any detail was at a church, a temple, mosque or religious school.

It couldn’t be from the rest of society because the rest of society has very little idea about character and the topic is very rarely raised except when discussing someone’s courage on the battle field or their solidarity in refusing to tell the boss who stole the power drill so when someone raises character the mind races straight to its strongest anchor point – religious institutionalism.

SO WHY THE SUSPICION AND FEAR?
That’s pretty simple.

1. Fear of bigotry. Some religious people can be a bit one eyed and they simply get on our nerves when they ‘go on’ so it is fairly natural to want to avoid that.

2. Fear of being disturbed. We have spent time nurturing our own sacred cows and we are not keen to see them cross breeding with strange herds.

3. Fear of breaking the code. We have the saying in Australia and New Zealand, ‘Never discuss religion and politics.’ No-one really knows why they say it. Personally I think it stems from a protocol they used to have in men’s mutual societies and lodges of earlier times to keep out sectarianism and boost a sense of brotherhood and it has somehow leaked into the national mind and become a National Credo.

4. Fear of having to think. Religion is a knotty topic at times and anything that looks like it might make ask us to think is challenging and most of us like to be left comfortable.

5. Fear of complaints. Anyone suffering from the above fears could make our lives miserable by telling us they were unhappy if we let in a religiously bigoted program or presenter. So although that may explain the fear of religion it raises another question.

WHY DOES CHARACTER APPEAR TO SOME PEOPLE TO HAVE RELIGIOUS CONNOTATIONS?
I have been a regular church goer all my life yet I have never looked on character as being religion based. I would have thought that if anyone would have asked if character were a religious thing it would have been me yet it never occurred to me. In fact when I started the research into this program it was a new field altogether for me. I had even written about character in Lesson Two in ‘The Fox-Proof Chook House’ and it still didn’t seem to me to be a religious issue.

So why do some people who have no religious bone in their body leap straight to the religious question?

I think it has to do with Moral Law.

Character is shelved on the same side of the * metaphysical factory as conscience, right, wrong, morality and immorality, natural law and the universal sense of justice.

Perhaps you really want to ask if a dark and mysterious religious system owns the program.

No. Colin and Christine Pearce are the owners.

Perhaps you really want to ask if Colin and Christine Pearce are religious and if they are 'up to something'.

Yes they are and yes they are.

They are common and/or garden variety Christians. Surely that's bearable. You wouldn't rather they were notorious reprobates with no moral compass at all would you?

The thing they are 'up to' is to help you live a satisfying life steeped in good character. Surely that's bearable too isn't it?

If that motivates you to seek a higher path and get immortal help they won't stand in your way.

If it doesn't, you won't find them looking down their noses at you.

FOOTNOTES:
1. The term metaphysics originally referred to the writings of Aristotle that came after his writings on physics, in the arrangement made by Andronicus of Rhodes about three centuries after Aristotle's death.
Traditionally, metaphysics refers to the branch of philosophy that attempts to understand the fundamental nature of all reality, whether visible or invisible.
http://websyte.com/alan/metamul.htm
2. Aristotle believed that a person who has difficulty behaving ethically is morally imperfect. His ideal person practices behaving reasonably and properly until he or she can do so naturally and without effort. Aristotle believed that moral virtue is a matter of avoiding extremes in behavior and finding instead the mean between the extremes. For example, the virtue of courage is the mean between the vices of cowardice at one extreme and foolhardiness at the other. Similarly, the virtue of generosity is the mean between stinginess and wastefulness.
Ivan Soll, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Madison. World Book Encyclopedia