Thoughts on ethics, society, politics, religion, philosophy, theology, and everything in between
Christians are called to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:14-15). Although our citizenship has been transferred from the kingdoms of this world to being citizens of heaven, we still live within the kingdoms of this world. Although we have been sanctified and set apart from the world for God’s use, … Read more
Over thirty years ago, educator Neil Postman warned of the detrimental effects of television on society in his insightful book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.[1]Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (Viking Penguin, 1985). Postman convincingly argued that the medium of … Read more
What is the Church? This is one of the biggest issues dividing the Protestant and Catholic traditions. According to the Protestant tradition, the Church exists wherever a disciplined community of Jesus’s disciples gathers around the preaching of God’s word and the administration of the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper). According to the Catholic tradition, … Read more
The Gospel and Nonviolence “When people with power see things happen of which they disapprove, they drop bombs and send in tanks. When people without power see things of which they disapprove, they smash store windows, blow themselves up in crowded places, and fly planes into buildings. The fact that both methods have proved remarkably … Read more
Why Fast? Fasting is the deliberate abstaining from food, or at least certain types of food, for a fixed period of time. By extension, any deliberate abstaining from a particular created good (entertainment, luxury, comfort) for a fixed period of time can be considered “fasting.” Many modern Western Christians do not engage in fasting to … Read more
Most people would not consider prayer to be a moral or ethical responsibility. In fact, whenever there is a tragedy, and Christians say they are praying about it, there is inevitably an angry backlash of people telling them not to pray but to do something! (By which they mean increase the power of the nation … Read more
Transgenderism is the phenomenon of people choosing to identify as a gender other than their biological sex. Various controversies about how to respond to this phenomenon have caused transgenderism to become a hot button political, social, and moral issue in contemporary American culture. For example, if a person identifies as transgender, should they be allowed … Read more
Harris, Sam. Letter to a Christian Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. I originally wrote this commentary for a friend who told me that this book had inspired him to leave Christianity. The fact that someone could, over a decade after it was written, point to this book as a primary factor in their … Read more
The Necessity of Theological Ethics Theological ethics is the branch of Christian theology that engages in a reasoned analysis of ethical issues from the standpoint of Christian theology. Many Christians might question whether it is necessary to engage in such a task. Some would argue that our conscience and our intuitions are sufficient to tell … Read more