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IMO, morality is **always** relative. For instance, many social conservatives (those in the Christian/New Right) complain about abortion and call themselves "pro-life." However, for the most part, they have no problem with the execution of capital offenders or with the killing of "enemies" during times of war.





What is *not* relative, in my view, are virtues. Virtues are qualities of the soul. They are the image and likeness of God reflected in the innermost reality of the individual. However, virtues are a spiritual substance. They are not directly observable.





Morals, on the other hand, are values and social norms (behavioral rules) which may or may not be virtuous. Even if morality, a social (not spiritual) phenomenon, reflects spiritual virtues, such virtues are socially contextualized. In other words, morality, in this particular case, would synthesize virtuousness with existing social conditions.

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