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SpM posted:But this is effectively saying that those who do not have faith are incapable of making moral distinctions
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I would draw the distinction between the ethical/moral realm of the soul, which needs and presupposes no theology or revelation [ as in HP] and the realm of the human spirit, which can receive revelations, have insights into theology and trnascend space and time and come back to try and relate what it has experienced.
A simpler way to put is that faith is a spiritual relationship [or lack thereof ] with God, not an intellectual concept and moral distinctions are [prinmarily] a relationship with other people or things, and on the soul level.
This is the immense difference between HP and LotR/Silm:
HP has no theology, no background from whence the ethics and morality spring, everyone does the best [or most self-serving] they can.
Dumbledore is as high as the heirarchy of Authority goes.
Gandalf on the other hand, is - as was just pointed out, vested w/ authority from Manwe and thus Eru/God.
LotR effectively has a deeper dimension beyond the ethical/moral that so far at least in HP simply is not there.
Again I am not saying that JKR was necessarily wrong to leave all this out, but it makes in my opinion a 2 fold work, as opposed to JRRT's 3 fold.