Moral Courage

I heard Bill Tammeus speak this past Sunday at Resurrection. He is working on a book about Jews who survived the Holocaust in Poland with the help of non-Jewish persons. You can read more about this subject at the following post - The Holocaust Book Project. I found one of the more interesting parts of subject matter was the topic of moral courage, with a main example being the actions of non-Jews to come to the aid of Jews.

I had not particularly thought of pairing those two words together before - moral and courage. However, I do think that they make sense together. I would interpret moral courage as the courage that is necessary to act in a particular situation that in which morals or ethics has a role - basically the courage to stand up for what is right. I believe that moral courage has a role in the life of the church today. I think that as Christians we are all called to act with moral courage - both as individuals and as communities. I also think that a pastor has a distinct role in leading others in acts of moral courage.

What do you think? How would you define moral courage? Does it have a role in the life of the church?