How should Christian believers respond to the spread of coronavirus? Here are four simple things to do (or not do).
Tag: morality
How Should We Understand Old Testament Human Sacrifice?
Making sense of one of the most horrific scenes of the Old Testament: Jephthah’s sacrificial murder of his own daughter.
God & Hell: Our Infinite Hunger
Traditionally, the four Sundays of Advent were preached on the “Four Last Things” (death, judgment, heaven, and hell), so it’s a good time to ask: Is the idea of hell – an eternity of suffering apart from God – compatible with the idea of an all-good and loving God? I think that this is one of the strongest arguments against traditional Christian doctrine. I would argue that it is, but that to see this we need to see something about ourselves, and about God in relation to us, before we can see why. That’s what I’ll be exploring over the next four days. I’ll be making four major points:
1. We have an infinite craving for the good. Everything we do is in pursuit of the good;
2. Because no earthly goods are capable of satisfying our hearts, life is cruel… unless there is a good capable of satisfying the infinite longings of our hearts.
3. God, as infinite and perfect good, is the only one who can fill our hearts.
4. Eternity without God would necessarily be hellacious.
Let’s start with the first of these points…
Why is Sin Such Damned Fun?
We’re about to enter into Good Friday, the day on which Jesus died for our sins. So what’s the deal with sin? It’s very easy to think of sin as fun, and virtue as sort of missing out on the fun for the sake of some future reward: a sort of Mardi Gras v. Lent contrast. Why IS such (literally) damned fun? And how do we respond to the charge that we’re just anti-fun?
Thanks for the Blessings We Don’t Deserve
This Thanksgiving, let’s be mindful of the fact that we don’t deserve all of the good things that God has given us (individually, and as a nation)…. but that He gives us His gifts nevertheless.
Beware of Telescopic Charity
There’s a spiritual malady afflicting our homes, our workplaces, our political conversations, and how we speak to (and of) one another, both on- and offline. A major part of the cure is learning to recognize that those who are hardest to stand are often the ones closest to us, and that the call to charity is often in the little things of daily life.
Getting Morality Wrong
Frequently, morality is spoken of as something akin to the offside rule in soccer: an arbitrary rule imposed by a higher authority that keeps up from getting to do what would make us happy. But this gets morality wrong in every way.
Do You Need God to Know That Abortion is Wrong?
The New Republic’s latest “contribution” to the abortion debate is remarkable, in that, despite getting virtually everything it says factually wrong, it still raises an interesting problem for pro-choicers and atheists. Here’s the Twitter teaser to the piece that started it all: How the anti-choice platform is fighting to stay alive: http://t.co/m8kuGANs2Q pic.twitter.com/fxTeRyj444 — The New… Continue reading Do You Need God to Know That Abortion is Wrong?
Moral Relativism, Conscience, and G.E.M. Anscombe
What should we make of the idea that there’s no such thing as objective morality: that morals are just determined by cultures, or by individuals? That’s at the heart of a question that I address in the essay below. It’s taken from a draft of a midterm that I wrote dealing with moral relativism — more… Continue reading Moral Relativism, Conscience, and G.E.M. Anscombe
What Both Sides of the Abortion Debate Can Learn from “My Body, My Choice”
One of the most common slogans in defense of abortion is “My Body, My Choice.” It’s an appeal to bodily autonomy, and it’s not all wrong. In fact, I think that there’s a lot that both sides can learn from it. I. What “My Body, My Choice” Gets Right Although it’s just a slogan, “My Body,… Continue reading What Both Sides of the Abortion Debate Can Learn from “My Body, My Choice”