ETHIX  
Joe E. Trull

• The Past is Prologue
• The Future is Hope and Promise

"ETHIX" muttered the stranger on the parking lot. He was reading my license plate. "You work for an oil company", he asked? "No," I explained, "the word actually stands for Christian Ethics...
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• Activating Our Christian Prophethood
• Definitions Related to the Prophetic
• Biblical Roots of Prophethood
• The Need for the Prophethood of All Believers

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Would Jesus Dance Country-Western?
By Hal Haralson, Attorney in Austin, Texas

The “Broken Spoke” is a famous South-Austin landmark. It is one of the oldest continually operated country-western dance halls in Texas. This “honky-tonk” boasts a parking lot that isn’t paved, low ceilings and country music --- lots of it. James White, the owner of The Broken Spoke for years, has hosted such country-western notables as Willie Nelson.

What’s this got to do with Christian Ethics? Continued

Women and the Southern Baptist Convention
By William E. Hull
Research Professor, Samford University

This sermon was prompted by two converging emphases. First, media reports during the past week have focused on actions taken at the recent meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) declaring “the office of pastor is limited to men.” This follows a 1998 action directing the wife “to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.” Second, the observance of Father’s Day invites us to reflect on the role of men and women in relation to each other both in the family and in the church. Since the SBC has lifted the model of male headship and female subordination to the level of a core belief in its officially sanctioned statement of “The Baptist Faith and Message” (BFM), it behooves us to consider carefully what this development may mean for our congregation as a cooperating church. 
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• Biblical Truths
  • Creation
  • Redemption
  • Community
  • Family
• Application
  • Community
  • Family 

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By Grace Alone Through Faith Alone
By Ralph C. Wood,
University Professor at Baylor University

Ephesians 2:8-10, NRSV

“For by grace have you been saved through faith, and this in not your own doing, it is the gift of God---not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Eph. 2:8-10).

You and I as Christians probably owe our lives in Jesus to these two verses from the letter to the Ephesians. This claim---that we are saved by faith alone---was, in fact, the watchword of the Protestant Reformation. It was never far from the minds and the lips of Martin Luther and John Calvin. Nor did our Baptist ancestors in England and early America ever forget it. For them, also, this was the gospel in its purest essence. In relation to this fundamental declaration, everything else stood or fell. This was the sine qua non, that without which everything else is nothing.
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By Grace Alone Through Faith Alone
By Ralph C. Wood,
University Professor at Baylor University

Ephesians 2:8-10, NRSV

“For by grace have you been saved through faith, and this in not your own doing, it is the gift of God---not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Eph. 2:8-10).

You and I as Christians probably owe our lives in Jesus to these two verses from the letter to the Ephesians. This claim---that we are saved by faith alone---was, in fact, the watchword of the Protestant Reformation. It was never far from the minds and the lips of Martin Luther and John Calvin. Nor did our Baptist ancestors in England and early America ever forget it. For them, also, this was the gospel in its purest essence. In relation to this fundamental declaration, everything else stood or fell. This was the sine qua non, that without which everything else is nothing.
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Updated Saturday, July 28, 2001

Guns and the Ten Commandments
By Roger Lovette

Sometime ago I watched a Nightline  debate on television. The people in Jonesboro, Arkansas were talking to the citizens in Littleton, Colorado. It had been almost a year since the killings in the Jonesboro schools. The wounds and grief of Littleton were still fresh. Ted Koppel interviewed parents, school officials, and students about school violence and the grief and pain experienced in both those communities. Shortly after that program aired, violence broke out closer to my home in a high school in Conyers, Georgia. Since then the school systems across the nation have been trying to deal with the complicated problems of how to make schools safe for all those concerned.

Obviously, we ought to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.  For the first time in years the country is forcefully saying that the casual availability of guns by high school students is terribly wrong.  The politician's response to the outcry of the people? They have opted for religion, or at least for the “form of godliness,” saying “Let’s put the Ten Commandments on the walls of every public classroom in America.” 
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Thou Shalt Not Steal Exodus 20:16 
By James C. Denison

• What Is Stealing? 
• How To Keep the Eighth Commandment 
• Conclusion

For 28 years Bob Barker has hosted The Price Is Right, the longest-running game show on television. In fact, Mr. Barker has logged more hours on network television than any person in history...In America, apparently no price is too high for the things we want. Who would have dreamed we'd spend $5 for a cup of coffee, or $3 billion on bottled water? But we're drinking it...The most recent Motor Trend displays upcoming car models. Included is a "priced down" Hummer at only $58,000, and a new experimental car for $1.2 million. Someone will buy it.

Against all this materialism, we find the eighth commandment. Two words in Hebrew, four in English: "You shall not steal." 
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Prayer Breakfast Politics
By John M. Swomley
Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, St. Paul School of Theology

The Congress of the United States acted as if the United States has an official religion when it sponsored or sanctioned the fiftieth National Prayer Breakfast in Washington last February 3^rd.  That occasion is and has been a gross politicization of religion as it has assumed that certain forms of Christianity shall get major attention from members of Congress while others are ignored. While these meetings are officially non-sectarian, the participants consist largely of southern and midwestern members of Protestant denominations.

This year’s breakfast was attended not only by many members of Congress, but also by the President and his wife, the Cabinet, the judiciary, diplomats, state and local politicians, and various denominational leaders. Why would a group of elected and appointed public figures meet once a year...
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The Battle For God
By Karen Armstrong
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2000
A Book Review by Darold Morgan, Richardson,Texas

Not often does this reviewer state bluntly that a new volume must be read, but that is precisely the case with Karen Armstrong’s new book on religious fundamentalism. Concentrating on Protestant fundamentalism in the United States, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel, and Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt and Iran, she has crafted a book that is loaded with multiple insights about one of the most provocative and misunderstood movements in the world today. At first glance it appears you have in focus the rich tapestry of the three great monotheistic religions of the world. But the excellent research she has done in the historical backgrounds soon produces a surprising and almost shocking insight into the fundamentalist deviations so common in the religious scene today. Add to that conclusion, one soon senses writing skills which translate into a refreshing readability.
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Capital Punishment Commentary
By Alan Berlow

How many wrongful death sentences does it take to conclude that a state’s criminal justice system is fatally flawed?

For Illinois Gov. George Ryan, the answer is 13. That’s the number of people found to be innocent on his state’s death row since capital punishment was reinstated there in 1977. (The state executed 12 during that time.) Three weeks ago, Ryan declared an indefinite moratorium on executions, saying: “I cannot support a system, which, in its administration, has proven to be so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the state’s taking of innocent life.”

Illinois has no monopoly on wrongful convictions, so Ryan’s declaration has resonance in all 38 states with the death penalty. Nationwide, 85 innocent people have been freed from death rows since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, including seven in Texas. The call for a moratorium by Ryan, a moderate Republican and death penalty supporter, raises the issue of whether governors of the 37 other death-penalty states are tolerating systems that are as bad or worse.
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