Running head: Core Values/ Ethics Paper
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Core Values/ Ethics Paper
Judy Juarez
Azusa Pacific University
CORE VALUES/ ETHICS PAPER
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“What do you value?” is not a common question in today’s culture. It is not until you are
faced with a critical situation where you must make a decision that you need to evaluate your
core values. To build my ethical framework I have given deep thought to what my core values
are. I have articulated my core values by reflecting on my family, culture, spiritual background,
personal lived experience as well as asking myself specific questions. What I am most proud of?
When I am happiest? When do I feel most fulfilled? Through careful and honest reflection I have
come up with an acronym to best guide my ethical framework: (F)aith, (C)onnectedness,
(A)chievement, and (L)earning (FCAL).
Faith is my upmost core value for several reasons. Firstly, my faith is what gives me
purpose in life. It is through faith and hope in Jesus Christ that I know who I am and what I am
on this earth for. I believe that my purpose in life is to serve others with love and compassion and
to always seek understanding. Secondly, my faith is largely owed to my family upbringing;
believing that Christ has died for my sins to be forgiven has been something I have been taught
since I was a child. Lastly, faith gives me hope that no matter the difficulty of the situation,
things will work out and God is in control. The hope that I receive from my faith allows me to
have joy and remain positive even when times are tough.
Although my faith is my top core value, it has not always been that way. There have been
many factors that have caused me to question this value and in some instances have caused me to
reject this value. Coming into college was a very new experience, not only for me but to my
family as well. Being a first generation Christian Latina sociology major in a mid-size public
institution held its share of struggles. My college experience pushed me to reevaluate what I
believed in, especially being a sociology major. Studying sociology led me to see a very different
side of the world I thought I knew. I learned a lot about racism, sexism and injustices that in
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many ways were results of people who claimed belief systems similar to mine. This created
dissonance because what I grew up believing was being unveiled as something very different. In
turn, faith as a core value had disappeared from my life because it did not fit well with what I
had been recently learning. It has been up until recently that I have recommitted my life to
pursuing Christ and having faith reappear as a core value in my life.
Rejecting my faith in God and living a life away from Him for a few years caused me to
see that not having faith as a core value really damaged my life. Although I felt proud that I was
making a choice to decide my faith instead of my parents doing so, I realized that after
everything is said and done, my faith in Christ is really the only thing that holds me together; my
faith in Christ is what gives me purpose. Since this has been a recent decision for me I am still
figuring out where I stand on certain issues such as homosexuality and abortion. Initially, my
first response is to choose the divine command theory (Wilkens, 2011) because it honors my
faith. However, I am not using that as my only ethical framework because I hold several other
core values that can at times overlap. While faith is my first and most important core value, it is
still somewhat unclear mostly because I am still learning about what and why I believe in Jesus
Christ.
Connectedness as a core value for me means that everyone in this world is connected to
each other. Through this core value, I believe that we are all part of a larger picture and that our
actions affect more than just ourselves. Since we are all part of something, we should work in
unity with each other. My belief in connectedness has truly been an innate value; one of my
favorite books as a child was A Book of Virtues. This book played a critical role in my
development as a child of the importance of being kind, just and compassionate towards others.
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As I have gotten older I have continued to see the importance of this value especially when it
comes to social justice issues.
Connectedness can in many ways be tied to virtue ethics (Wilkens, 2011, p. 129-146).
Wilkens (2011) describes virtue as not a multiple-choice affair in which people pick and choose
the virtues they like. Instead, the goal is to be a good person (p. 131). Connectedness presents the
idea that being a good person is being kind, respectful, hardworking, loyal and compassionate.
Virtue ethics works for me as an ethical framework since I hold strong values to connectedness
however I understand that this framework may not hold for those who do not hold the same
values. Much like divine command theory as an ethical framework, I accept parts of the theory
and others I acknowledge that they may not hold true to every situation.
Achievement is another core value that drives my ethical framework. This value has been
instilled and inherited by my family. Both of my parents came to this country with the intention
of living a better life, and with constant hard work and strive towards achievement, that my
parents reached their goals. The Fairness/Justice approach and the Rights Approach help guide
my value of achievement. The Fairness/Justice approach infers that in order to achieve, one must
work harder. The Rights approach reminds me that since I have the opportunity, I should take
advantage of that right and work towards my goals diligently (as cited from class PowerPoint).
My final core value that helps guide my ethical framework is learning. The ability to
gain deeper knowledge about something truly excites me. Since I could remember I have loved
to read; I read everything I could because the idea of understanding something more clearly
made me feel as if I was better connected to the world. Learning gives me context and in turns
allows me to make better decisions, have more conscious opinions and be a better person. In a
way, I feel that learning as a value has had a large influence on my other values. Learning brings
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all the different ethical approaches together (Divine Command Theory, Virtue Ethics, Justice
Approach and the Rights Approach), it motivates me to continue to contemplate what I value as I
experience more in life. Learning as a value also helps me not take extreme measures to
demonstrate my values. It gives me a balanced approach and reminds me that everything in life
is situational and changes across time and space.
Understanding my core values will help guide my work in student affairs because I know
now what may trigger my biases or beliefs. Understanding what guides my ethical framework
leads me to become a better leader, a better decision maker and a better overall person. Wilkens
(2011) reminds us in his last chapter of Socrates and his belief that truth is available if we seek it
earnestly, “Socrates says ethical rightness is objective and capable of discovery if we search
faithfully enough and use the proper methods” (p. 221). Ethics can become very complex and
difficult to clearly define for all situations, while it may apply easily to some situations, it does
not do so for all. Therefore, ethical frameworks cannot be “bumper sticker” phrases because life
is not that simple. There is truth available if we seek it in a “proper method” as Socrates
believed, and this is what I will continue to do.
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CORE VALUES/ ETHICS PAPER
References
Wilkens, S. . Beyond bumper sticker ethics, an introduction to theories of right & wrong. IVP
Academic, 2011.