Reading Time: 3 minutes SatanCon 0 was a historic event. In my vocation, it is exceedingly rare to be a party to such an occasion. Inside the hotel grounds and convention, everything was entirely pleasant and jovial. Many of the attendees were reuniting with good friends they hadn’t seen in almost a decade. Others had been online friends for […]
Ethics
Posted inEthics
An ethical maze: Designing babies for a greater good?
Reading Time: 16 minutes “At ten months old, we were told he would need a heart transplant. There was no cure for his condition, so we would have to go to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital at some point. If they had a bed. And a heart. And agreed to the procedure.” Great Ormond Street, the famous children’s hospital […]
Posted inEthics
An unequal tale of two liars: Smollett and Trump
Reading Time: 4 minutes Actor Jussie Smollett was convicted on December 9 of five counts of “disturbing the peace,” technically speaking, in a bizarre case in which the gay Black actor falsely claimed two Donald Trump-supporting men attacked him on a Chicago street while yelling homophobic and racial slurs in January 2019. What he was actually convicted of was […]
Posted inEthics
Beyond carrot-and-stick morality
Reading Time: 6 minutes BY JONATHAN MS PEARCE Sarah looks after vulnerable children on weekends at a children’s sheltered home. During the week, she trains to be a social worker. In her early thirties, she is still feeling her way, looking for fulfillment. She doesn’t believe in God. She did once, but now the idea doesn’t even register in […]
Posted inEthics
You’re a what!? Stripper and Atheist: Two very dirty words.
Reading Time: 3 minutes At eighteen, I became an adult entertainer. Fed up with my stuffy office cubicle and hopelessly unfashionable telephone headset, I wanted something a little more liberating. I found it as a stripper. Never one to be all that shy about nudity, and while maybe not outgoing per se, I was unapologetic about my choice. I […]
Posted inEthics
The first rule of Christian sex abuse
Reading Time: 4 minutes Christian leaders know that abuse allegations will open them up to a lot of uncomfortable questions and scrutiny. In demanding silence, they simply act to protect their livelihoods and reputations.
Posted inCulture
Evangelical reform: Who’s gonna force accountability on pastors?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Whenever things go hideously wrong in any evangelical group, evangelicals tend to think that The Big Problem Here was a lack of accountability. Had proper accountability existed in their group, nothing bad would have happened because nothing bad could have happened without someone noticing it and addressing it. Scandals, in particular, happen because whoever caused that scandal drifted away from their accountabilibuddies.
Posted inEthics
Buddhist Bhutan is better at sex ed than Christian America
Reading Time: 5 minutes The tiny Himalayan Buddhist nation of Bhutan in some important ways has, so to speak, outstripped majority-Christian United States in throwing off the dogmatic religious shackles that have traditionally constrained its sex ed policies. Despite the two nation’s very different religious traditions, the holy corruptions of sexuality have been much the same for both. The […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Living without free will: How does it affect my life?
Reading Time: 9 minutes It is true that a stopped clock is right twice a day. It is also true to say that some of my more, how do I say, problematic commenters say something worthwhile once…a year? Perhaps that is too generous. In this case, the interesting comment came in the form of a question. For Jonathan and […]
Posted inEthics
This Seventh-Day Adventist Pastor Told Us Who He Is
Reading Time: 6 minutes No way, no how did Burnett Robinson come by his opinion recently. No way, no how did he get any significant pushback for his views from anyone he counted as important — until now, at least. Instead, he was telling us exactly who he was, and exactly who he’s been for a long time. But he also told us a lot of other important stuff.