You may have heard of the trolley problem. This is a now famous ethics problem wherein we are asked to study the effects of right and wrong in a no-win situation. It goes like this. Suppose there is a big trolley (or train) barreling down a track. Now imagine there are five people tied up on the track somewhere down the line. If there is no intervention the trolley will run over these people. But there is hope. You are standing next to a switch that, if pulled, will divert the trolley to another track before it can get to those people. If that was all there was to it you might have no trouble saying you would pull the lever to divert the trolley to another track. But now suppose there is one person tied up on this other track. If you pull the lever, you will save those five people, but you will doom the other person on the alternate track.
Now what do you do?
This question challenges us to question what we think is right and wrong. Do you argue that saving the lives of the five people is a better outcome vs killing the other person? Do you simply not get involved and do nothing, arguing that then you wouldn’t be the cause of anyone losing a life even though you failed to save five people? And what if that one person is someone you know well? What if the five people are strangers and the other person is a close member of your family? Would that change your answer?
You might argue this is just a hypothetical situation and therefore it doesn’t matter that much. But we see variations of the trolley problem in life all the time. What if a lifeguard has to chose to save either one person drowning close to shore or three drowning people farther away? Or what if you have to choose between two charities, one that will give all of your money to one person who greatly needs it, or the other that will spread your money out to a lot of people and therefore only help each one a little?
The problem I want to focus on today is not this problem, but it is like it. I am referring to what some call the shopping cart problem. You can be forgiven if you haven’t heard of this one. Picture yourself in the parking lot of a large supermarket. You have a shopping cart with you and have taken it to your car to unload your purchased groceries. You have parked far away from the store and are not near any cart return stations. Is it ok to leave the cart there and drive off?
It isn’t illegal to abandon your cart in the parking lot. You won’t get in trouble for doing this. But you know that leaving the cart where your car was parked is not a good thing to do. You may have seen examples of this before, where shopping carts are strewn about the parking lot. I know I have. When I see this I wonder why someone didn’t take the time to take them back. So you know the correct thing to do is to return the cart. But what if you don’t?
Believe it or not, this is an ethical dilemma. We know what the right thing to do is, but we won’t be punished for doing the wrong thing. So what do we do?
This is a bit like what happened with Joseph in the book of Genesis. He was wrongly imprisoned along with the chief cupbearer/butler and the baker. Here is that account:
Genesis 40:9-23
9 So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, 10 and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. 11 Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup and put the cup in his hand.”
12 “This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. 13 Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. 14 But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. 15 I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.”
16 When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread.[a] 17 In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”
18 “This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. 19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh.”
20 Now the third day was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials: 21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand— 22 but he impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation.
23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.
How likely is it really that the chief cupbearer forgot Joseph? I find that hard to believe. This man correctly interpreted your dream. All he asked for in return was for you to mention him to the Pharaoh. The cupbearer knew what the right thing to do was, but there wasn’t any penalty if he didn’t do it. It is the same situation as the shopping cart problem, and the cupbearer chose not to do the right thing.
Ethics is what you do when no one is looking. Or rather, it is what you do when you know there will be no penalties for your actions. We see this in the news today. People are sometimes given money that doesn’t belong to them through a bank error or ATM mistake. What do they do? Do they return the money or spend it?
And there is another thing to consider. If ethics is really about what you do when no one is looking, is there ever really a time when that is the case? As a Christian, do you believe that no one is looking? We can’t have it both ways. We can’t pray for God to be with us all the time and then hope God isn’t around to see us do the wrong thing.
Think about this the next time you go shopping for groceries. Ethics situations are everywhere, and thankfully, so is God.
God Bless