Who's right?

I feel bombarded.  Some days I feel like I know who I am and what I stand for, but then I hear something that makes me second guess myself.  I think I’m a good person until someone comes and tells me that all of my good deeds and actions have been artificial.  That I have half-assed my way through my life and faith.  Who’s right?  Do I believe the one telling me that my actions have been insincere and full of ignorance? Or do I continue believing myself and stick to what I’ve been doing, to what I believe has been right?  I struggle because I know that sometimes I become blinded and don’t see the truth when it’s right in front of my face.  In those cases I rely on friends to slap me out of it by stating the hard facts and getting me to check back into reality.  They help get me thinking clearly so that I can make appropriate decisions.  But this time it wasn’t a friend telling me to take a good look at my actions, my life.  It was a higher authority figure.  A man admired and idolized by many. 

When do you listen to another, and when do you stick to your guns?  When do you stand up and say, “No.  I am right, and you are wrong,” when the other person is saying the exact same thing about their own viewpoint?

It’s an extremely tough issue because the media and society influences our beliefs.  Our upbringing, our schooling, our friends, and our faith (or lack thereof) have all shaped us into the person we are today.  The problems arise when one group’s ideas (our friends’), conflict with the ideas or teachings of another’s (our faith, or our parents’).  It’s not fair to say that one is right and one is wrong. It’s how you look at the situation or idea. 

I wonder if the media and our culture has caused us to become desensitized to certain ideas and beliefs within society.  Are we getting away with more than we used to; are our actions becoming more and more acceptable today than they were in the past? Cheating, lying, sex before marriage, and divorce are just a few from the long list of behaviors that stick out in my mind.  Have these become more of the norm in our society?  Are they acceptable?  Can we pick and choose what we believe if that is what will make us happy?

It’s too much for me.  I don’t know the answer.  I don’t know who to go to for answer, or if there even IS a correct answer!  I guess I’ll never really know. So, for now I’m going to stick with my guns.