What does the word integrity mean? My dictionary says:
wholeness; soundness; uprightness; honesty.
Visual Thesaurus adds:
an unreduced or unbroken completeness or totality.
Today I heard an intriguing expansion of that last definition. In the context of a discussion about psychometric testing, integrity was described as outside behaviour matching inside values. Which meshes with the usual idea of integrity as moral or honest as long as one’s interior values are what is generally agreed to be moral or honest. But presumably if someone’s values are less than wholesome, their external behaviour should not try to cover that up.
So the greedy, uncaring yuppie kicking a homeless person may be behaving with more integrity than the churchgoing mother with a secret lover.
We’re all wounded and sinful people to some degree. Should our behaviour reflect that, or should we try by our external behaviour to change our internal truth? For example if we consistently bite back our impatience and listen to our children, will we actually become more patient and better listeners?
And if so, is integrity something that can work from the outside in, eventually bringing us to the wholeness we desire?
Is there good integrity and bad integrity (a bit like cholesterol!)?
Or maybe integrity just isn’t such a key concept as we think.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I used to think integrity was foundational. However, try as I might I can’t live with complete integrity – your statements/questions at the end (especially the last one) are important.
And if so, is integrity something that can work from the outside in, eventually bringing us to the wholeness we desire?
Is there good integrity and bad integrity (a bit like cholesterol!)?
Or maybe integrity just isn’t such a key concept as we think.
Thanks for making me think.