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Ode to an Alzheimer Parent
By Kenneth Chafin
Written in his wife Barbara's voice in memory of her mother, Thelma Burke, this poem was penned by Dr. Chafin to help her process the most painful experience of her whole life. It is shared here with readers of Christian Ethics Today because all of us are hurting or fixing to hurt. Or, as Thomas Carlyle somewhat more elegantly put it (unless my memory has once against miserably failed me), the same leaky bottom in these wild waters bears us all.
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A Paean for Place
By Foy Valentine
Paean: A song of praise or exultation.
Place: A portion of space; a definite location; a spot devoted to a specified purpose; an area.
A body is blessed who has a strong sense of place. Knowing the place where we are helps us to know the persons who we are. Also, if we are clear about the place where we have come from , we can better understand the place where we are now, and we can better see the place where we need to be.
Geography's demise is humanity's loss.
In all the history of humanity, there has probably never before been a time when there is as much voluntary migration as there is in the world today. The resulting loss of familiar place tends to bring about disorientation and alienation.
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This Noble Land
by James Michener
Book Review By Darold H. Morgan
This is a "must-read" book! Written by James
Michener, one of America's most popular and prolific authors, it addresses his "Vision for America." One may be initially aware that Michener is now in his nineties, but this remarkable fact quickly falls by the wayside in the reading of this upbeat, beautifully written, intensely prophetic, wisely predictive volume.
Drawn from his dramatically stated appreciation for the United States of America, the author realistically speaks to some of the major ethical and cultural challenges the nation currently faces. These concerns are presented calmly and factually with an honest realism all too seldom seen in print. His style, well-known to five decades of readers, is as penchant, direct, and persuasive as
ever ... The autobiographical vignettes, the timely quotations from many sources, and the basic optimism he exudes all combine admirably to make this book deserving of wide circulation. These are not the fulminations of an elderly and waning mind. Rather it is a beautiful confirmation of why wise people through the years have respected their elders. This elder statesman is truly worthy of respect.
Michener deals forthrightly with nine of the major ethical and social issues needing urgent attention in the USA today. These are:
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They Say Christians Are Trying to Impose Their Values
By John T Galloway, Jr
Having been in the Presbyterian ministry for 30 years, I have had to proclaim the Christian faith in the face of society's criticism of religion in general and my faith community in particular. Along the way, I have tried to sort out what the criticisms mean, and to discern how one might best respond. I premise today's remarks on three assumptions I have come to accept over these three decades.
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To Clone or Not to Clone
By Paul D. Simmons
With apologies to Shakespeare, the question of the day seems related to cloning. "Hamlet" posed the issue strongly in terms of what it means to be as a human being. The moral question begins in the meaning(s) associated with being human. Whether to clone people or not to clone them is a question pertaining to our being human.
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The Great Key Caper and Other Escapades
By Hal Wingo
It's very nice to be back in Gonzales. No, it's much more than that. It's wonderful, it's exciting, and it's inspiring to be here on such an historic weekend.
Ever since Thomas Wolfe penned what may be his most famous line, declaring that "you can't go home again," people have been arguing about what he really meant and if it were even true or not. I'll leave it to others to continue that argument, but I know I speak for both my sisters tonight when I tell you that we feel very at home in Gonzales.
This place is the first home I was ever aware of; and everything I first learned about life, family, the world, and human nature was shaped right here on this block. It is no exaggeration for me to suggest that this well-known "church square"-as it was designated in the original plans for the development of Gonzales-represents the ground zero of my existence.
The first book I remember reading as a child with which I felt any personal identity was a little autobiographical volume called "Papa was a Preacher."
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Life is Not a Sport - Ethical Considerations of the Modern Sports Phenomenon
By Blake W. Burleson
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A Laboratory of Moral Development
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The Limitations of Sports
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Endnotes
For many Americans, sports serve as a major arena for learning and practicing cultural values. The virtues of discipline, fair play, team work, excellence, commitment, loyalty, and aesthetics are given expression and illustrated on the baseball diamond, the basketball court, and the football field. These virtues seem to be built into the very structure of sports so that in order to play well one must play virtuously. There are exceptions to this. The gifted athlete who does not practice hard sometimes succeeds, even spectacularly at times. The egotistic, selfish player may sometimes help the team to win. Yet the maxims which are often repeated by coaches, parents, and commentators generally stand the test of time: "Practice makes perfect," "Nothing works like teamwork," or "it is not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." Such nuggets of cultural wisdom are also heard from the pulpits of churches alongside the sayings of Jesus. The apostle Paul often illustrated spiritual truths with allusions from athletics. Similarities between sports and spirituality have been noted by "theologians of play" like Harvey Cox, David Miller, Sam Keen, and Jurgen
Moltmann.
Yet even the casual observer is aware that the sports industry today seems to have lost its moral
bearings...
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Updated
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
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The Peter Principle
By Hal Haralson
I'm trying to quit "cussin'."
That's French for everything from barnyard slang to "taking God's name in vain" which is rumored to be the unpardonable sin.
Don't laugh. It's not easy to break a 50 year old bad habit.
The first time I cussed, I was about ten years old.
My chore after school was to go bring the milk cow in from the pasture. She always went to the
back side (about 1/2 mile) when she saw me coming. Poppa gave me strict instructions not to make her run because if she did she would sling all her milk out by the time she got to the barn.
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Thou Shalt Not Bear False
Witness-The Lies We Tell Ourselves About America
By Frosty Troy
A lie is half way around the world before the truth can get its boots on. Surely the most abused Commandment in America has to be that one about bearing false witness.
The chronic dissembling about religion, taxes, education and other social issues emanates as often from those calling themselves "religious" as from the pagans among us.
From Pat Robertson and D. James Kennedy to James Dobson and Rush Limbaugh, the litany is the same-America is on the low road to hell. Check the facts. Do a little homework. Be amazed at what a good country this is, warts and all.
Fiction: Americans hate their government. You hear it constantly on talk radio, you read about it in newspapers and news weeklies, you are bombarded by negative TV reports. But is it true?
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The Ethics of Assurance
By William L. Hendricks
A major purpose of Christian faith communities is to announce the good news of the gospel. Closely related to this purpose is to provide instruction and guidance in living the Christian life. An essential part of Christian instruction is to lay out guidelines for Christian living and to provide assurance of God's acceptance to the believer. In various times and in different ways Christian communities have answered the matter of assurance giving. I would like to explore four of the ways and some variations Christian communities have sought to assure believers of their salvation. Then, it will be helpful to ask about the ethical implications of these answers to the problem of Christian assurance.
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Piety and Politics - A Baptist Perspective
By Foy Valentine
This article was prepared at the request of Dr. Ronald Sider for a special issue of the publication Transformation, entitled "Towards an Evangelical Political Philosophy and Agenda." Specifically, it was one part of a section on "Different Political Philosophies: Several Major Traditions," including Catholic, Reformed Thought, Lutheran, Anabaptist, and Baptist.
My perspective regarding a Baptist political philosophy and agenda is significantly affected, if not actually shaped, by my particular time and by my particular place. I grew up, and I have lived practically all of my life, in the American South where Baptists are either the majority faith group or think and act as if we were. About half of all the Baptists in the world live here. Thus affected, my view of the subject at hand is not exactly the same view as that of Baptists in Great Britain or Brazil; and it is even less likely to be the same as that of Baptists in Russia or Canada or Burma or Indonesia or Nigeria. There are majority mind-sets and minority mind-sets. A marginalized minority, like the early Christians in Jerusalem and later in the Roman Empire, relates to the principalities and powers in ways significantly different from those who, like myself with a majoritarian heritage, tend to develop in their relationship to the state more confidence, more of a willingness to use power, more of a sense of responsibility if not actual ownership, and, in short, more of an established church outlook and approach.
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Human Rights in China
By By Ralph Lynn
Dr. Ralph Lynn, retired history professor at Baylor University, is a regular contributor to Christian Ethics Today.
Our current policy with respect to China may need revision. We are demanding, as the price of admission on an equal basis with our Western industrialized trading partners, that the Chinese begin adhering to our current standards in the area of human rights.
We seem to be forgetting two crucial considerations. First, our current concept of human rights has a long history of development; it is not today what it was even thirty-five years ago. Second, to implement our current human rights policies demands a level of affluence beyond the reach of the Chinese just now. In short, human rights is, to an inescapable degree, a function of economics.
What are some of the facts upon which these statements rest?
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Confession and Defense
By Carlyle Marney
I don't know when Carlyle Marney first made this prayer. I think he may have first uttered it publicly in the late 1960s at a Christian Life Commission meeting which I invited him to address in our building at 460 James Robertson Parkway in Nashville, Tennessee. Being both smart and normal, he was afraid to fly. He had driven over the mountains from his Interpreter's House at Lake Junaluska in North Carolina. And he preached "with the tongues of men and of angels" as he did for us, and to us, many times in those days. He used this prayer often after that, including it in his last published sermon which he preached at Chapel at Duke University. It was read at his funeral. I am indebted to my friend, Bruce McIver, for calling it again to my attention. And I am indebted to Marney who though "being dead yet speaketh."
If...I should enter God's great assize hall tomorrow, called to account for myself, I should offer this confession and defense If, indeed, I could do more than fall down. But if able to give vocal response at all, I should say this:
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To Clone or Not to Clone
By Paul D. Simmons
With apologies to Shakespeare, the question of the day seems related to cloning. "Hamlet" posed the issue strongly in terms of what it means to be as a human being. The moral question begins in the meaning(s) associated with being human. Whether to clone people or not to clone them is a question pertaining to our being human.
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