Moral Injury deals with the issues of right and wrong, and it’s complex.

Here’s the issue…

Right and wrong often seem very clear when you’re young.

We initially reduce Moral Injury to the following:

❌ Don’t do the wrong thing (which results in a “sin of commission”), and

✅ Do the right thing (a “sin of omission”).

James speaks to the “sins of omission” in James 4:17—

… to the one who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, it is— to them— sin.

It gets more complex as we get older and begin seeing reality on its own terms…

Right and wrong are often more nuanced and “grey” than they are black and white. Life doesn’t usually happen in “black and white.”

In other words, it doesn’t quite look like this…

Though the two causes listed above are certainly valid, they are far more simplistic than “real life” experience.

Many dilemmas we encounter— especially in complex situations— exist in varying shades of grey.

Though not intended to provide an exhaustive list, the following illustrates ten ways Moral Injury can occur.

Let’s walk through them. Note: several have links to other videos on this site.

1. You neglect doing something “good” or something you feel you should have done.

 Example: Soldier who receives “safer” assignment watches friends go to the front lines

See the video here.

2. You do the right thing but it’s a “wrong” in another environment.

Example: Police officer discharges weapon and “takes out” a violent perpetrator before others are injured

3. You do something good but a bad outcome happens.

Example: Pilot overwhelmed as his plane crashes due to mechanical failure, losing civilians during a routine military extraction

See the video here.

4. You don't do something wrong and don’t recognize the signs of something bad about to occur.

Example: Marine didn’t see his friend’s suicide coming, even after spending his last “alive” hours with him

5. You survived something, yet someone else was injured or killed.

Example: Marine gets transferred from bunker just days before terrorist attack— man in former bunk dies in the blast

See the video here.

6. You’re the victim— something happens to you, yet you still feel guilt & shame.

Example: Victim of military sexual trauma (rape) blames herself and keeps second-guessing what she could have done differently

7. You try to help but you don’t succeed.

Example: Training exercise goes bad, nearby warriors try to rescue their comrades, totally unsuccessful

Example: Fireman enters burning house to save a man, but goes wrong way… man dies from smoke inhalation

8. You think you could have helped, but were ordered to stand down.

Example: Paramedic forced to wait until LEO clears the scene of a domestic, watching baby die in the process

See the video here.

9. You see something that defies all moral & ethical sensibility.

Example: Mother attacks daughter with machete, leaving EMT bewildered and wondering…

See the video here.

Example: LEO called to scene of a suicide and notices how grisly the death is yet how ordered the notebooks with farewell letters and passwords are

10. You are betrayed by someone whom you trusted…

Example: Special forces ordered to kill local leaders they had been training

Example: Supervisor attempts to sabotage former subordinate’s next assignment

Again, Moral Injury is far more complex than just “don’t do the wrong thing” and “be sure you do the right thing.” It’s not like the cartoons of the old days when an angel nudged you one way and a devil nudged the other.