Are Ethical and Moral not synonyms? Like this novel distinction?

Question

I often see the words "ethics and morality" used almost as synonyms. SAT-in-a-Box, by Kaplan, says "ethical" means conforming to accepted standards. It says the synonyms are: honorable, moral. This is ambiguous and can be exploited.

What do you think about the following novel distinction? Ethics regards a wide range of relationships; Morality regards one's own emotional/spiritual health; they are different, but very interdependent. Ethics is like the relationship of the planets to each other and the sun, whereas Morality is equivalent to each planet revolving on its own axis. A popular character education expert said, “Sometimes ‘ethical’ is used as a synonym for ‘moral,’ as in, ‘He is a very ethical (moral) person.’ For some people, ‘moral’ has religious connotations that "ethical" does not. The relevant field of psychology, however, has been called "moral development" ... no religious connotation there... “

Semantical? ?distinction? OK, but is it helpful...and why?

Answer 1

The ethical person knows the right thing to do and understands the consequences, both good and bad. The moral person actually does it regardless of the consequences.

Morality includes the concepts of moral authority and moral obligation. For example, if I get a feeling (I'll call this feeling "conscience") and act on the feeling, then a feeling is the moral authority behind my action. But a feeling is a very poor authority and has no power to obligate me to action. Perhaps I will act because of desire for some kind of reward. Then that desire becomes my moral authority. Again, a poor authority and with no power to obligate me to action.

Actually only God has the power to obligate us to act. Without God, all moral actions are optional based upon how we feel about it.