When I got to page 4, it hit me: was the author going to toss out all the moral rules we learned as children? "In 60 seconds," she writes, "I could think of three situations where the right thing to do would be to tell a lie." For me the three examples that followed simply sounded like the epitome of the double standard that separates adults from children. In retrospect, I think that page was carefully crafted to "hook" the reader to read on.
The book presents love God and love your neighbor as yourself as the Christian's basis for morality and then provides an opportunity to grapple with tough moral decisions. It presents questions, but doesn't spoon-feed you the answer. Various points are made pro and con from scriptural sources, but the readers are left to develop their own opinions by applying biblical principles through inductive reasoning.
Doing the Right Thing would be beneficial for leading a discussion group for teens or younger adults that haven't already confronted similar issues. The author's style is to argue for both opposing viewpoints, and she does not take a clear, authoritative stance. This is helpful when readers want to grapple with the morals of a specific situation. While a definitive rule to cover the predicament might feel more comfortable, it may not allow for as much personal character growth.
This book is organized logically, with the first chapter dealing with case studies that show the nature of moral dilemmas and the final chapter instructing us as to how we could meet similar cases as we confront them. The book has no index, and the chapter titles, while catchy, are not always descriptive of the content.
