Our Own Moral Compass

Contrary to what remains of its Catholic identity, Georgetown gave the bully pulpit to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius this week, who addressed the graduates of the University’s Public Policy Institute with vapid remarks about how they, like she, might find their way through difficult public policy debates. At one point, Ms. Sebelius invoked the ghost of President John F. Kennedy for the misstated proposition that “the separation of church and state [is] a fundamental principle of our democracy.” Others have questioned her reliance on Kennedy’s statement.

What is more interesting--and disturbing--is her proposition that one’s individual “moral compass” directed to the “common good” serves to direct sound public policy. Two quotes from her speech:

So my first hope for you today is that you always hold on to your commitment to work for the common good. If you let that focus guide you, you will never go off course.
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Contributing to these [public policy] debates will require more than just the quantitative skills you have learned at Georgetown. It will also require the ethical skills you have honed – the ability to weigh different views, see issues from other points of view, and in the end, follow your own moral compass.

Of course, a compass of any worth must be set to the objective truth of true north. The “common good” is not found by resort to our “own moral compass.” Achieving the consensus of our “own moral compass” leads to public policy based on a tyranny of the majority. Seeking the “common good” requires moving beyond the limited sense of “our own moral compass.”

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ full remarks to Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute