The Rector's Stand on Moral Issues

For the Christian, virtue comes from God's character, so moral rules and principles are those consistent with the outworking of God's virtue known in Holy Scripture.

TOPICS
 

ETHICS	HUMAN SANCTITY	JUSTICE	SECULAR ETHICS
PATRIOTISM	WORSHIP	RELIGION	ENVIRONMENT
WELFARE & FAMILY	LAW & JUSTICE	SEXUALITY	EDUCATION
MEDIA

ETHICS                    TOP

Definition: Ethics is a very broad subject and it refers to the principles that define behavior.
   Biblical ethics refers to the principles that define behavior that conforms to the will of God in Holy Scripture.
   Specifically, ethics is the branch of axiology – one of the four major branches of philosophy, alongside metaphysics, epistemology, and logic – which attempts to understand the nature of morality; to define that which is right from that which is wrong. The Western tradition of ethics is sometimes called moral philosophy.
   The terms 'ethics' and 'values' are not interchangeable. Ethics is concerned with 'how' a person, institution, etc. should behave, whereas values are the inner judgments that determine how that person, institution, etc. 'actually' behaves.
   Making decisions always involves ethics and ethics requires sensitivity to implications of choices - the ability to evaluate sometimes complex, ambiguous and incomplete facts, and the skill to implement ethical choices.
   It requires a framework of principles that are reliable and a procedure (model) for applying them to life. The study of ethics is a flexible discipline because it implies that a Christian is growing and therefore changing as one learns from life, history, theology, philosophy, and other disciplines.
Character: There are six pillars to character. They are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.
   The elements of trustworthiness are honesty, reliability, and loyalty.
   The elements of respect are civility, courtesy, decency, dignity, autonomy, tolerance, and acceptance.
   The elements of responsibility are accountability, pursuit of excellence, and self-restraint.
   The elements of fairness are being able and willing to process, impartiality, and equity.
   The elements of caring are empathy and benevolence.
   The elements of citizenship are civic virtues and duties.
   Please visit the Josephson Institute of Ethics or Character Counts.
 

HUMAN SANCTITY & MEDICINE                  TOP

Abortion: The following constitutes the Episcopal Church's position on abortion - (emphasis is mine)

Resolution Number: 1994-A054
Title: Reaffirm General Convention Statement on Childbirth and Abortion
Source: General Convention, Journal of the General Convention of...The Episcopal Church, Indianapolis, 1994 (New York: General Convention, 1995), pp. 323-25.

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That this 71st General Convention of the Episcopal Church reaffirms resolution C047 from the 69th General Convention, which states: All human life is sacred from its inception until death. The Church takes seriously its obligation to help form the consciences of its members concerning this sacredness. Human life, therefore, should be initiated only advisedly and in full accord with this understanding of the power to conceive and give birth which is bestowed by God. It is the responsibility of our congregations to assist their members in becoming informed concerning the spiritual and physiological aspects of sex and sexuality.

The Book of Common Prayer affirms that "the birth of a child is a joyous and solemn occasion in the life of a family. It is also an occasion for rejoicing in the Christian community" (p. 440). As Christians we also affirm responsible family planning.

We regard all abortion as having a tragic dimension, calling for the concern and compassion of all the Christian community.

While we acknowledge that in this country it is the legal right of every woman to have a medically safe abortion, as Christians we believe strongly that if this right is exercised, it should be used only in extreme situations. We emphatically oppose abortion as a means of birth control, family planning, sex selection, or any reason of mere convenience.

In those cases where an abortion is being considered, members of this Church are urged to seek the dictates of their conscience in prayer, to seek the advice and counsel of members of the Christian community and where appropriate, the sacramental life of this Church.

Whenever members of this Church are consulted with regard to a problem pregnancy, they are to explore, with grave seriousness, with the person or persons seeking advice and counsel, as alternatives to abortion, other positive courses of action, including, but not limited to, the following possibilities: the parents raising the child; another family member raising the child; making the child available for adoption.

It is the responsibility of members of this Church, especially the clergy, to become aware of local agencies and resources which will assist those faced with problem pregnancies.

We believe that legislation concerning abortions will not address the root of the problem. We therefore express our deep conviction that any proposed legislation on the part of national or state governments regarding abortions must take special care to see that the individual conscience is respected, and that the responsibility of individuals to reach informed decisions in this matter is acknowledged and honored as the position of this Church; and be it further
Resolved, That this 71st General Convention of the Episcopal Church express its unequivocal opposition to any legislative, executive or judicial action on the part of local, state or national governments that abridges the right of a woman to reach an informed decision about the termination of pregnancy or that would limit the access of a woman to safe means of acting on her decision.

This decision is now supplemented by a vote by the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church taken during the January 9-12, 2006 meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, in which they approved the Episcopal Church's membership in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC). This organization's literature states its "primary role is educating the public to make clear that abortion can be a moral, ethical, and religiously responsible decision." Source: The Living Church Foundation, 1/20/2006

The above national resolution (1994) and the recent decision (2006) of the Executive Council exacerbates division in the Episcopal Church. It is "double speak" and points to the relaxing of ethical values by legislating Anglican morality.

Natalie E Roche, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, wrote the following for eMedicine, September 28, 2004:

   “Termination of pregnancy has been practiced since ancient times and by all cultures. The indications and social context for termination of pregnancy vary with culture and time.
   The use of abortion to preserve the life of the mother has been widely accepted. Early Jewish scholars' interpretation of the Talmud required that the fetus be destroyed if it posed a threat to the mother during delivery. The ancient Greeks allowed abortion under certain circumstances. Ancient Romans did not consider a fetus a person until after birth, and abortion was practiced widely. Early Christians had varying practices regarding abortion. By 1869, the Catholic church declared abortion a sin punishable by excommunication.
   In the United States, legislation regarding abortion has varied with the times. Before 1800, no statutes addressed the subject of abortion. The first antiabortion legislation appeared in the 1820’s; the preservation of pregnant women's health was the motivating force. During this time, the mortality rate from abortion was high, while the mortality rate from childbirth was less than 3%. By 1900, abortion in the United States at any time during pregnancy was a crime, with the exception of therapeutic abortion performed to save the mother's life.
   During the 1950's, the practice of medicine came under increasing scrutiny, and guidelines were set to define the indications for therapeutic abortion. The guidelines allowed therapeutic abortion if (1) pregnancy would "gravely impair the physical and mental health of the mother," (2) the child born was likely to have "grave physical and mental defects," or (3) the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest (Mcfarlane, 1993). In the United States, the legalization of abortion by Roe v Wade in 1973 upheld the fundamental right of a woman to determine whether to continue her pregnancy.
   U.S. statistics indicate that the vast majority of abortions are elective. Therapeutic abortion is rare. The ability to define therapeutic abortion performed for maternal indications is difficult because of the subjective nature of decisions made about potential morbidity and mortality in pregnant women. A variety of medical conditions in pregnant women have the potential to affect health and cause complications that may be life threatening.
   Prenatal screening in the form of prenatal diagnostic screening continues to improve the antepartum diagnosis of fetal anomalies. The decision to continue or terminate a pregnancy complicated by fetal anomalies is a difficult decision. The most difficult decisions are associated with anomalies that are unpredictable or highly variable in their expression.
   The increase in the use of assisted reproductive technologies has been associated with an enormous increase in multifetal pregnancies. These pregnancies are complicated by increased fetal morbidity and mortality rates, which are largely caused by prematurity and growth retardation. Selective reduction has been introduced as a technology to improve perinatal outcomes in these pregnancies and has been successful in reducing preterm deliveries and associated morbidity and mortality.
   Patients in need of therapeutic termination of pregnancy can be identified at any gestational age; however, the consideration of therapeutic abortion is generally limited to pregnancies at 24 weeks' gestation or less. Many patients are in the second trimester of pregnancy because of the timing of fetal assessment tools (eg, amniocentesis, ultrasound).”

   There are no Christian justifications for taking the life of a baby in the womb of its mother for birth control, convenience (abortion on demand), or medical research.
   A medical abortion in a hospital may be appropriate if there is a substantial diagnosed risk that the mother might die during the pregnancy or delivery. A medical abortion may also be appropriate if the baby has a fatal condition that will not allow the child to live outside the womb of its mother.
   The decision should remain with the mother (who will be accountable to God) in accordance with her conscience and her perceived principles of Christian faith. She should have the guidance of her family, attorney, clergy, and doctors when making this decision.
Law and Right to Die - The term "right to die", also called dying with dignity, refers to various issues around the death of an individual when that person could continue to live with the aid of life support or in a diminished or enfeebled capacity.
   Most often, the idea of the right to die is related to a person's wish that caregivers allow death—for example, by not providing life support or vital medication— under certain conditions when recovery is highly unlikely or impossible. It may also refer to issues regarding physician-assisted suicide. It may be called passive euthanasia in cases where the patient is unable to make decisions about treatment. Living Wills and Do Not Resuscitate orders are legal instruments that make a patient's treatment decisions known ahead of time and allowing a patient to die based on such decisions is not considered to be euthanasia. Usually these patients have also made explicit their wish to receive only palliative care to reduce pain and suffering.
   Although specialized legal instruments differ from state to state, there is one document that is very important in this context. The Medical Durable Power of Attorney (or MDPOA) designates an agent to make decisions in case of incapacity, and can be used to give written guidance regarding end of life decision making. The MDPOA is generally considered to be the most powerful of all such instruments. All others may require interpretation on the part of health care providers or even court-appointed guardians. The MDPOA takes the job of interpretation out of the hands of strangers and gives it to a person selected and trusted by the individual.
Termination of Life Support - Life support can morally be withdrawn when a person is pronounced brain dead. Brain death is defined as a complete and irreversible cessation of brain activity. Absence of apparent brain function is not enough. Evidence of irreversibility is also required. Traditionally, death has been defined as the cessation of all body functions, including respiration and heartbeat. Since it became possible to revive some people after a period without respiration, heartbeat, or other visible signs of life, as well as to maintain respiration and blood flow artificially using life support treatments, an alternative definition for death was needed. In recent decades, the concept of "brain death" has emerged. By brain-death criteria, a person can be pronounced clinically dead even if the heart continues to beat due to life support measures.
   A brain-dead individual has no electrical activity and no clinical evidence of brain function on neurologic examination and no spontaneous respirations.
Medically Assisted Suicide - This is also called "Physician-Assisted Suicide", which is a media term. It is more accurately rendered "Doctor-Aided Dying" or "Compassionate Aid in Dying." Here the physician may actively serve as a casual agent in the patient's death by providing a medical means by which the patient can take his or her life. This is generally done through a prescription for a lethal dose of medication with the physician providing the instructions as to how much medication to ingest. It is quite uncommon and the AMA strongly opposes this. However, a poll conducted by Harris Interactive in April 2005 found that 70% of Americans believe it is moral. In 1982, just 53% agreed that it was moral. So, it is growing in popularity with the American public. In fact, 67% of Americans surveyed by the Harris poll said they would favor a law like Oregon's Death With Dignity Act in their state.
   The Oregon law, ratified by their voters in 1994 and again in 1997, requires that:
   a. Two doctors certify that the patient has no more than six months to live;
   b. Patients make three requests to the doctor for a lethal dose of medication - twice orally and once in writing.
   c. The prescription is filled only after a 15-day waiting period;
   d. Patients take the drug themselves - the prescribing doctor may not administer the drug.
   Suicide and the involvement of physicians in suicide is immoral for a Christian.
Extraordinary Medical Treatment - This area of ethics is broad because there are so many situations to which decisions are applied.
   EMT is often applied to those in PVS (Permanent Vegetative State). PVS are those who have lost all higher brain function and for whom the only part of the brain that continues to function is the brain stem, which controls the person's involuntary activities, such as breathing, heartbeat, and digestion. Life support can morally be withdrawn when a physician determines there is no hope for a person to breath on their own.
   EMT is also applied when a patient has been without oxygen for an extended amount of time and a physician determines there could a very significant amount of irreversible brain damage and the patient will never enjoy a reasonable quality of life. In such instances, EMT should not be applied. In some of these instances a member or members of the person's family will insist on EMT, receive it, and the patient will live. That person or the family will then have to be responsible for the care of the patient, which can be very difficult, if not impossible. In those cases, the patient cannot live without extremely expensive state care and extra-ordinary personal and/or family care.
Living Will & DNR Order - Having a Living Will is a very good moral decision. A Living Will, also called Will to Live, Advance Health Directive, or Advance Health Care Directive, is a specific type of power of attorney or health care proxy or advance directive. It is a legal instrument that usually is witnessed or notarized. These documents state:

• That the principal is appointing an individual to direct their health care decisions should the principal be unable to do so (e.g. called "Power of Attorney for Health Care"), or
• Specific directives as to the course of treatment that is to be taken by caregivers, or, in particular, in some cases forbidding treatment and sometimes also nutrition and water, should the principal be unable to give informed consent ("Individual Health Care Instruction") due to incapacity.

As the name suggests, the Will to Live tends to emphasize the wish to live as long as possible rather than refusing treatment in the case of serious conditions.
   A DNR, or Do Not Resuscitate Order is a written directive from a person, their doctor, or someone entitled to make decisions on their behalf, that they should not be revived if they suffer cardiac arrest. This is sometimes known as a no-code order. Instead, the person wishes to have a natural death without painful or invasive medical procedures. This is usually because the person suffers from an inevitably fatal illness, and does not wish to prolong the suffering. The DNR order came into being in the U.S. in the 1960s when defibrillation allowed the reversal of cardiac arrest, but this may prolong the life of the patient for only a short time. In the U.S., cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) should not be performed if a valid written "DNR" order is present. In any cases of doubt, emergency medical technicians, paramedics and other medical workers will perform as if a DNR order did not exist, as is required by law. For the DNR to be valid there may be rules such as the use of a special form and/or additional signatures of a doctor and/or witnesses, etc. The exact rules for obtaining and for emergency medical personnel accepting the validity of a DNR order vary widely according to jurisdiction.
Euthanasia - This is often referred to as "active euthanasia", meaning the patient's life is ended by the direct action of a physician.
   Euthanasia is immoral. One, this prerogative belongs exclusively to God. Two, administering euthanasia leaves no opportunity for a misdiagnosis. Three, euthanasia could move from voluntary to non-voluntary. This might lead to a patient having to justify their existence, if they could. Those with Powers of Attorney and relatives could become tired of a person living for any number of reasons - family pressure, bills, draining an estate, inability to enact wills, 'need to remarry issues', etc. Four, prohibition of euthanasia will keep the law out of the medical setting. Five, euthanasia will open the door to neglect of the elderly and terminally ill. Six, the elderly need a secure setting in which to deal with their medical choices at the end of their life. In particular, they do not need to consider those choices in an atmosphere of fear produced by the possibility of involuntary euthanasia.   
Genetic Technologies - Helpful advances are the use of genetic technologies in forensics and the prevention/cure of diseases.
   Unhelpful advances would be gene enhancement therapies to create designer embryos and genetically engineered children. Eugenics is also immoral. Eugenics is weeding out genetic undesirables in a society.
   Other ethical concerns in genetics are population testing (carrier testing), privacy of personal genetic data, genetic discrimination, genetic stigmatization, and psychological trauma caused by illegal sharing of genetic data - all based on one's genetic profile in genetic registries. It would be morally correct to determine who holds the registries and how the registries would be used. 
Stem Cell Research - Stem cell research is one key to finding cures to such diseases as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis or to treat paralysis. Using adult stem cells is justifiable, but using human embryonic stem cells is immoral because human life and personhood begin at conception.
Birth Control: Birth control is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, or medications followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of a woman giving birth or becoming pregnant. Methods and intentions termed birth control may be considered family planning. Mechanisms which are intended to reduce the likelihood of the fertilization may be referred to as contraception. Contraception prevents fertilization. Methods of birth control which prevent the implantation of an embryo if fertilization occurs are medically considered to be contraception but characterized by others as abortifacients.
   Birth control is controversial. There are those who oppose all forms of birth control short of sexual abstinence; those who oppose forms of birth control they deem "unnatural," while allowing natural family planning; and those who support most forms of birth control that prevent fertilization, but oppose any method of birth control which prevents a fertilized embryo from initiating a pregnancy.
   Prior to the 1900’s, contraception was generally condemned by all the major branches of Christianity. This unified front no longer exists. Among Christian denominations today there are a large variety of positions for contraception.
   Like pre-1930s Protestantism, the Roman Catholic Church has been morally opposed to contraception as far back as one can historically trace. Couples seeking marriage in the RCC are in most dioceses required to undergo counseling by a priest. In the past, priests led couples seeking to delay children to the rhythm method, but today they are instructed to point new couples toward the more effective methods of natural family planning.
   The condemnation of contraception was first relaxed by the Anglican Communion at the 1930 Lambeth Conference, and most Protestant groups followed suit over the course of the 20th century: "The Church of England does not regard contraception as a sin or a contravention of God's purpose." — Church of England, Science, Medicine, Technology and the Environment (2005).
   The Jewish view on birth control currently varies between the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform branches of Judaism. Among Orthodox Judaism, use of birth control has been considered only acceptable for use in limited circumstances. Conservatives, while generally encouraging its members to follow the traditional Jewish views on birth control, has been more willing to allow exceptions regarding its use to fit better within modern society. Reformed Judaism has generally been the most liberal with regard to birth control allowing individual followers to use their own judgment in what, if any, birth control methods they might wish to employ.
   The following constitutes the current position of the Episcopal Church on birth control (emphasis is mine) -

Resolution Number: 1994-D009
Title: Reaffirm Family Planning and Control of Global Population Growth
Source: General Convention, Journal of the General Convention of...The Episcopal Church, Indianapolis, 1994 (New York: General Convention, 1995), pp. 281-82.

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the 1994 General Convention of the Episcopal Church affirm that rapid global population growth adversely affects the prospects for peace and justice by exacerbating poverty, deprivation and suffering, and depleting environmental resources; and be it further
Resolved, That the Episcopal Church reaffirm the 1930 Lambeth Conference of the Anglican communion, which approved contraception for purposes of family planning; and be it further
Resolved, That the Episcopal Church, in order to improve the quality of life for all, commend to the several dioceses and agencies of the Episcopal Church as well as to the relative structures of the Anglican Communion programs and projects to provide information to all men and women on the full range of affordable, acceptable, safe, and non-coercive contraceptive and reproductive health care services, utilizing educational programs which start with parents and their children; and be it further
Resolved, That governments everywhere be encouraged to recognize, acknowledge and seek remedies to reverse the rapid global population growth that adversely affects the health, education and quality of life of women; the prospects for peace; and depletes environmental resources; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the 1994 General Convention be requested to send a copy of this resolution to the President of the United States, the Vice-President of the United States, the Undersecretary for Global Affairs of the Department of State, the chairman of the International Conference on Population and Development, the representative of the Anglican Consultative Council to the United Nations, the Secretary General of the United States Catholic Conference, the Administrator of USAID, and the Secretary General of the United Nations, together with a letter expressing the hope that the actions proposed above be carried out world-wide.

   There now seems to be three main moral issues in birth control. One, natural conception is an act of God, not a woman. Two, world populations are growing at such an alarming rate that poverty and disease (and resulting deaths) are growing exponentially. Three, sexually transmitted diseases are out of control - especially the world’s largest pandemic - AIDS.
   The study of the history of birth control goes back centuries. If interested, one may do an internet study beginning with WebMD, Epigee Women's Health, the Yale-New Haven Teacher's Institute History of Birth Control, and/or the Houghton Mifflin Online Study Center's History of Birth Control.
   My opinion is that life begins at conception and destroying life at conception or thereafter is morally wrong, except in the cases I have outlined under the topic of abortion. The case for over population, based on contemporary studies, does not seem accurate. The case for the pandemic of sexually transmitted diseases is accurate and I would hold that in those cases, birth control is justifiable. The case of the Anglican Communion justifying contraception as a means of birth control in 1930 needs additional examination because that decision may not be as simple as reported. The case for the education of families in the use of birth control methods by the Episcopal Church's decision in 1994 needs additional attention, as it seems much too broad and does not elevate abstinence as a biblical standard. Churches and parents need to be very careful what they teach children or children will view worldly standards of birth control as morally right and they are not. The sexual education of children by Christians should always begin with the Bible and God's opinion on the subject.
Reproductive Technologies - This is a term for all current and anticipated uses of technology in human and animal reproduction, including:

JUSTICE                  TOP

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th World - The terms First World, Second World and Third World can be used to divide the nations of Earth into three broad categories.
   After World War II, people began to speak of the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries as two major blocs. The two "worlds" were not numbered. It was eventually pointed out that there were many countries that fit into neither category, and in the 1950s this latter group came to be called the Third World. It then began to seem that there ought to be a "First World" and a "Second World."
   Eventually, it became common practice to refer to nations within the Western European and United States' sphere of influence (e.g. the NATO countries) as the First World. Besides North America (USA and Canada) and Western Europe, the First World also included other industrialized capitalist countries such as Japan and some of the former British colonies, particularly Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
   The term Second World has largely fallen out of use because of the circumstances to which it referred largely ended with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
   Third World is a term created by Jawaharlal Nehru (First Prime Minister of India), originally to distinguish nations that aligned with neither the West nor with the East during the Cold War. Today, the term is used to denote nations with a low UN Human Development Index (HDI), independent of their political status. Many "Third World" countries are located in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. They are often nations that were colonized by another nation in the past. Third World countries are generally very poor but with high populations and birth rates. In general, they are not as industrialized or technologically advanced as other countries.
   The majority of the countries in the world are Third World. These countries are also known as the Global South, developing countries, least developed countries and the Majority World in academic circles. Development workers also call them the Two-Thirds world (because two-thirds of the world is underdeveloped) and The South. Some dislike the term ‘developing countries’ as it may imply that economic development is the only way forward, while they believe it is not necessarily the most beneficial. The term Third World is also disliked as it may imply the false notion that those countries are not a part of the global economic system. Some claim that the underdevelopment of Africa, Asia and South America during the Cold War was influenced, or even caused by the Cold War economic, political, and military maneuverings of the most powerful nations of the time.
   The term Fourth World is used by some to describe the poorest Third World countries, those which lack industrial infrastructure and the means to build it. More commonly, however, the term is used to describe either indigenous peoples or other oppressed minority groups within any country.
Civil Rights - Civil rights are the protections and privileges of personal liberty given to all citizens by law. Civil rights can refer to the equal treatment of all citizens irrespective of race, gender, and class – or, it can refer to laws which invoke claims of positive liberty.
   Laws guaranteeing civil rights may be written, derived from custom, or implied. In the United States, civil rights laws are most often written. For example, laws protecting civil rights appear in the Constitution, in the amendments to the Constitution, in federal statues, in state constitutions and statues, and in the ordinances of counties and cities. States and local governments can expand civil rights beyond the U.S. Constitution, but they cannot diminish Constitutional rights.
   Examples of civil rights and liberties include the right to redress if injured by another, the right to privacy, the right of peaceful protest, the right to a fair investigation and trial if suspected of a crime, and more generally-based constitutional rights such as the right to vote, the right to personal freedom, the right to life, the right to freedom of movement and anti-discrimination laws.
   As the United States emerged from its foundations and formalized its principles of freedom through a written Constitution, important civil rights were granted to citizens. When those grants were later found inadequate, civil rights movements emerged as the vehicle for claiming more equal protection for all citizens and advocating new laws to limit the effect of current discriminations.
Class, Privilege, and Wealth - The present state of American culture reflects that social mobility is declining, there is a growing gap in income equality, and there is a crisis in equal opportunity in education. Without correction, a variety of permanent American underclasses will be created. This is immoral.
   In “The Promise of American Life”, Herbert Croly noted that “a democracy, not less than a monarchy or an aristocracy, must recognize political, economic, and social distinctions, but it must also withdraw its consent whenever these discriminations show any tendency to excessive endurance.” So far Americans have been fairly tolerant of economic distinctions. But that tolerance may not last long if the current trend towards “excessive endurance” in class, privilege, and wealth is not reversed. The middle class culture will become much smaller as underclass and upper class cultures become more distinct.
   The Economic Policy Institute found that social mobility has declined since the 1970s and most researchers agree that the dramatic increase in income inequality over the past two decades has not been accompanied by an equally dramatic increase in social mobility. Two economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston have analyzed family incomes over three decades. They found that 40% of families remained stuck in the same income bracket in the 1990s, compared with 37% of families in the 1980s and 36% in the 1970s.
   Merit has replaced the old system of inherited privilege. Merit is at least partly class-based. Parents with money, education and connections cultivate in their children the habits that today’s meritocracy rewards. This is particularly true of the markers of upscale Americans – college degrees, graduate degrees, career path, and the parents’ profession. When their children succeed, their success is seen as earned. The perception among the well-to-do that everyone could simply do likewise and achieve the same results is inaccurate. That we have confused the benefits conferred by wealth with merit says a lot about how far we are from doing something about the growing gap in American social mobility, wealth distribution, and educational opportunity.
   If one can remember that ultimately class, privilege and wealth (money) are passing illusions (because one cannot control or even possess them except for a very limited time) in the greater scheme of life, then one can balance their understanding of eternal matters and act responsibly and morally.
Immigration & Borders - The borders and ports of the US are particularly vulnerable, not only to illegal immigration, but also as a route for terrorists. Guarding them is very costly. For example, on the 1,951 mile border between Mexico and the US, it takes 10,000 federal agents to guard it. In 2004, they made 1.14 million arrests. That was a 24% increase from the previous year. Local communities along the border are being swamped with services they cannot afford and these local economies are faltering. Federal payments are far short of matching actual expenses.

Here are some 2005 U.S. Border Patrol statistics:
5,000 - Approximate miles of border with Canada
1,951 - Approximate miles of border with Mexico
95,000 - Approximate miles of U.S. shoreline
29,000 - Approximate number of Border Patrol agents & officers
317 - U.S. ports of entry
210 - Average number of fraudulent documents confiscated daily at U.S. borders
1 - Average number of travelers detained daily for terrorism or national security
135 - Average daily arrests at U.S. ports of entry
1,237 - Average number of non-citizens denied entry daily at U.S. ports of entry
2,313 - Pounds of narcotics seized daily at U.S. ports of entry

   For the preservation of a stable democracy, we have learned since 2001 that it is important and moral to strengthen the porous borders and security of the United States.
   Where people desire to become legal immigrants, they have a right to do so. Illegal immigration is not moral nor is it healthy for the American society. However, U.S. immigration laws are not equal under the law and need legislation.
   The idea of having immigrants who do not want to be citizens or who are unable to be citizens, be issued guest-worker permits, is a good alternative. Those whose intentions are to remain illegal, should be deported, because it will eventually destroy the infrastructure of the U.S. government and significantly increase the risk of terrorism.
Internet Pornography - For a Christian, any kind of pornography is immoral because it is a sexual perversion and it does not represent God's values of decency defined in the Bible.
   Parents have a responsibility to consider installing internet screening software on home computers and computers of children under adult age.
   Those with Christian businesses (as well as pastors with churches) have an equal responsibility to ensure office computers are not being used by employees for pornography. Software exists that will allow supervisors to quickly check a computer for pornographic use.
   The internet is a global information community, so legal precedents are just now 'beginning' to be established. Who decides - global, national, state, or local law? Because of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1973 in Miller vs. California, obscenity cases have been judged according to standards of local communities. The Supreme Court has not ruled on any case that would establish how to define "local standards", but the U.S. 6th District Court of Appeals has upheld a 'local' jury conviction of internet pornography.
Literacy - Greg Toppo reported in USA TODAY on December 15^th, 2005 that that according to a new federal survey, eleven million U.S. adults — about one in 20 — have such poor English skills that they can't read a newspaper, understand the directions on a bottle of pills or, in many cases, carry on a basic conversation.
   Recent immigrants with limited or no English skills account for most of the group, adult education advocates say, but the survey suggests that even the average adult has low skills.
   The first comprehensive look at adult literacy since a similar study in 1992, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, released in December 2005 in Washington, found that an estimated 30 million adults, or 14%, have "below basic" skills.
   The survey concluded that an estimated 11 million adults are "non-literate" in English, including 4 million who probably can't speak English and 7 million who can't answer basic written questions. "We remain concerned that the numbers are so high," said Leslie Burger, president-elect of the American Library Association. She and others said the high numbers of non-literate adults is a function of increased immigration in the past decade. Many new immigrants, advocates say, could benefit from adult education programs but worry that doing so could expose them to government scrutiny and even deportation. The non-literate population includes adults who may be able to read and write — even at high levels — in their native language.
   Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said in December 2005 that, “the federal government will coordinate adult education efforts through several federal agencies. One adult unable to read is one too many in America." Jose Velazquez, director of the National Center for Family Literacy's Hispanic Family Learning Institute, said education needs to focus more on adults. "This country right now is focused on No Child Left Behind, but we can clearly see from this data that many adults are being left behind."
   Christians have a moral responsibility to help those who are illiterate become literate. This would be a tremendous outreach opportunity for most Christian churches.
Poverty - There is no ethical issue larger or more important than poverty. Poor people describe poverty as the lack of food, medical help, and assets as well as the powerlessness that stems from dependency on others, and the helplessness to protect themselves from exploitation and abuse because of their dependence.
   Poverty facts include, but are not limited to:
   Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
   20% of the population in developed nations consume 86% of the world’s goods.
   In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the wealthiest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much.
   An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about:

• 3 to 1 in 1820
• 11 to 1 in 1913
• 35 to 1 in 1950
• 44 to 1 in 1973
• 72 to 1 in 1992

   The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants.
   Of all human rights failures today, those in economic and social areas affect by far the larger number and are the most widespread across the world’s nations.
   Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.
   According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. They die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death. That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year.
   Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on less than two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.
   The richest 50 million people in Europe and North America have the same income as 2.7 billion poor people.
   A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.
   About 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s assets in 2004.
   10,000 women in developing countries die each year giving birth.
   200,000 children in developing countries under age five die of disease each year.
   2,000,000 people will die of AIDS this year in Africa alone.
   As many as 115,000,000 children in developing countries are not in school.
   Poverty has many faces and it is a global challenge that is growing exponentially. Peace with stable political and economic justice systems have to prevail for systems to develop to support the poor. Peace provides a way to build a climate for investment, jobs, and sustainable growth. There is a vital relationship between long-term economic growth and human development, yet without human development, economic growth cannot be sustained. Making institutions of government more accountable to poor people and strengthening the participation of poor people in political processes and local decision-making discourages poverty. In addition, reducing poor people's vulnerability to ill health, crop failures, natural disasters, economic shocks and violence is an important aid in the relief of the poor.
   As more and more poor move to cities, another kind of poverty is urban poverty. The urban poor live with many deprivations. Their daily challenges include: 

• limited access to employment opportunities and income,
• inadequate and insecure housing and services,
• violent and unhealthy environments,
• little or no social protection mechanisms, and
• limited access to adequate health and education opportunities.

   Urban poverty is not just a collection of characteristics, it is a dynamic condition of vulnerability or susceptibility to risks that includes cities and towns of all sizes.
   Poverty is associated with the poor, but the growth of poverty in a global environment still grappling with unstable governments, military and trade wars, and uncompromising world and religious views makes all people poor. Every person on the face of earth is paying for poverty and the cost increases annually.
Victimization - Christians have an explicit responsibility to minister to the needs of real victims with heartfelt empathy - discerning victim from opportunist. An opportunist is a person willing to take immediate advantage, often unethically, of any circumstance of possible benefit. 
   Today, there is a bewildering assortment of victims, a cacophony of angry opportunists vying with one another for victim status, shouting for redress. Instead of being personally responsible for a solution to their situation, they project their victimhood upon others. A Nation of Victims (Charles J. Sykes, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1992) is an excellent primer to understand this movement.
   A legitimate victim is someone who, through no fault of their own, has suffered significant loss of some essential part of their life. With or without help, a real victim finds a responsible way to manage life. However, many in today's society seem to increasingly believe that when one experiences hardship or pain, blame should be attached somewhere and redress achieved by enshrining irresponsible behavior as a handicap to achieve legal protection and economic gain. By virtue of assuming victim status, the perpetrator is excused and even lionized for taking affirmative action to free himself or herself from his or her ‘oppressors’. In this social movement, personal irresponsibility is evolving into a civil right. 
   It is a Christian duty to promote moral concepts for being personally accountable. Christians also have an explicit responsibility to minister to the needs of true victims, but Christians should minister with their eyes open to the additional responsibility of discerning true victim from victimological opportunist. 
Native American Rights - The civil, human, and religious rights for those indigenous to the Americas prior to European colonization, and their descendants in modern times is an important moral subject. This term encompasses a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of them still enduring as political communities.
   Federally recognized tribes are considered domestic dependent nations, with their rights to tribal sovereignty preserved. Tribal sovereignty refers to tribes' right to govern themselves, define their own membership, manage tribal property, and regulate tribal business and domestic relations; it further recognizes the existence of a government-to-government relationship between such tribes and the federal government. The federal government has special trust obligations to protect tribal lands and resources, protect tribal rights to self-government, and provide services necessary for tribal survival and advancement.
   It is morally correct to preserve the tribal sovereignty and treaty rights of First Americans.
Racial Profiling - One need not consider race to the exclusion of all other factors to be engaged in racial profiling. Rather, a "profile" will often contain a variety of factors: If one or more of them is race, then it is a racial profile. Profiling involves giving prominent consideration in security searches to characteristics that have no direct connection with wrongdoing.
   The costs of racial profiling can be great.

• There is an element of inherent unfairness in singling a person out for suspicion because of a trait that is generally harmless.
• Such treatment can create a stigma for members of particular groups.
• Such a stigma can exacerbate any tendency that a group exhibits to be involved in a particular kind of wrongdoing. It may reinforce a stereotype that a certain type of person is "expected" to be a criminal, a drug user, a terrorist, etc.
• Accepting profiling where its use can be legitimated may open the door to institutionalized discrimination and the erosion of civil liberties.

   It seems unreasonable to visit disproportionate burdens upon one segment of the population, defined by its racial characteristics. In part, this is because race is immutable and therefore cannot be altered to avoid unwanted disparate treatment.
   No state law enforcement agency or official should stop, detain, or search any person when such action is solely motivated by consideration of race, color, or ethnicity, and the action would constitute a violation of the civil rights of the person.
Separation of Church and State - In the United States separation of church and state is governed by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution and by legal precedents interpreting that clause. The term, "separation of church and state", does not appear in the Constitution.
   The view that religious and state institutions should be separate is a wide spectrum, ranging between, but not including, the extremes which secularize or destroy the church, and theocracy which absorbs the state into the function of the church. A government that does not make direct appeal to a specific institution of religion for the justification of its powers is a secular government. Some secularists assert that the state should be kept entirely separate from religion, and that the institutions of religion should be entirely free from state interference. Some secular governments establish quasi-religious justifications for their powers, constructed for ceremonial and rhetorical purposes, but designed for the general welfare and the benefit of the state, without necessarily favoring any specific religious group, or conforming to any doctrine other than its own - an arrangement called civil religion. Other secularists assert that the state ought to encourage religion by providing exemptions from taxation, or providing funds for education and charities, including those that are "faith based", but ought not establish one religion as the state religion, require religious observance, or legislate dogma.
   The legal concept of the union of freedom of belief and freedom of worship, with the absence of any state-sponsored religion, originated in the United States. Consequently the US has become a nation of many religious institutions which flourish under the freedom of legal protection. The US government, however, does not allow total unrestricted freedom of religious practice. Federal, state, and local laws take precedence over the free exercise of religious beliefs, which means that laws against any crime committed by a religious institution can be enforced even if such practices are part of a group's religious beliefs.
Violence Against Women - Violence against women (and children) is highly immoral. The places were violence against women are most noticeable in our culture are in the media, domestic relationships, dating, sexual assault and abuse, elder abuse, stalking, and abuse of mentally ill women. One third of women in the United States are abused each year, a major reason being the commercial exploitation of women by the media which conditions society to treat women as a commodity (an object of personal gratification).
   It is often hard and confusing for a woman to admit that she is in an abusive relationship, or to find a way out. There are clear signs to help you know if you are being abused. If the person you love or live with does any of these things to you, it’s time to get help:

• monitors what you’re doing all the time
• criticizes you for little things
• constantly accuses you of being unfaithful
• prevents or discourages you from seeing friends or family, or going to work or school
• gets angry when drinking alcohol or using drugs
• controls how you spend your money
• controls your use of needed medicines
• humiliates you in front of others
• destroys your property or things that you care about
• threatens to hurt you, the children, or pets, or does cause hurt (by hitting, beating, pushing, shoving, punching, slapping, kicking, or biting)
• uses or threatens to use a weapon against you
• forces you to have sex against your will
• blames you for his or her violent outbursts

   To get immediate help and support call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.

SECULAR & CHRISTIAN ETHICS                  TOP

Business Ethics - Business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines ethical rules and principles within a commercial context; the various moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business setting; and any special duties or obligations that apply to persons who are engaged in commerce. Generally speaking, business ethics is a normative discipline, whereby particular ethical standards are assumed in corporate policy and business professionalism - and then applied. In business, ethics is a moving target as individuals and business cultures are very different in their perception of values.
   Business ethics aren't identical to the philosophy of business, the branch of philosophy that deals with the philosophical, political, and ethical underpinnings of business and economics.
   Business ethics makes specific judgments about what is right or wrong, which is to say, it makes claims about what ought to be done or what ought not to be done. While there are some exceptions, business ethicists are usually less concerned with justifying ethical principles, and are more concerned with practical problems and applications, and any specific duties that might apply to business relationships.
   Contemporary ethical issues in business are accounting and financial standards, advertising deception, black market sales, bribery, kickbacks, business intelligence, corporate espionage, political contributions, corporate governance, corporate crime, price discrimination, competitive disinformation, discrimination, affirmative action, sexual harassment, employee issues, professional conduct, environment, labor, marketing, sales, negotiation techniques, patent and copyright infringement, planned obsolescence, product liability and product defects.
   Because of the insatiable demand by the American public for low cost products in the 21st century, two of the fastest growing domestic business ethics concerns are 1) manufacturing outsourcing, which affects a wide range of ethical sub-systems; and 2) the building of large corporate stores in rural towns, which changes generational small businesses and the character of those towns. In both cases, thousands of people have lost their vocations, business, and retirement. Both concerns have a moral and immoral side and both are "fueled" by the American appetite of consumerism and wealth accumulation.
Christian Humanism - Christian humanism is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles. It has been traced back to at least the 12th century, and its proponents claim it to be grounded in the mystery of God present in history as a human being, Jesus, and secondly, on "several" teachings of Jesus, as found in the New Testament. It does not elevate ordinary human beings to the status of deities, nor does it deny the primacy of God, but rather it seeks to celebrate humanity and place the 'serving' of one's fellow human beings as one of the highest Christian duties.
   Christian humanism carries within it a potential for reaching across the metaphysical divide separating two sides of American culture, in which one side places moral authority in something transcending the individual, and the other places moral authority in personal human experience.
   Christian humanism is first of all a movement for widened learning that emerged out of the Renaissance and was brought by devoted Christians to the study of the philological sources of the Greek New Testament. This project was undertaken at the time of the Reformation in the work of Erasmus (Roman Catholic), Martin Luther (Augustinian priest who led the Evangelical Reformation), and John Calvin (of the Reformed tradition who believed in studying the Bible in the original languages).
   The broader tradition extends the usage of the term "Christian humanism” to describe the vocations of Christians active in the discipline of Humane Letters and who serve on Humanities faculties of colleges and universities. Many authors of novels and poems (T.S. Eliot), writing in the Twentieth and Twenty First centuries can be described as "Christian humanists". Many teachers of literary criticism also call themselves "Christian humanists," and understand literary values as including those of gentility, morality, and faith-perspective. Novelists of the preceding generation identified in this manner were Dorothy Sayers (Anglican), Charles Williams (Anglican), C. S. Lewis (Anglican), J. R. R. Tolkien (Roman Catholic), and Flannery O'Connor (Roman Catholic).
   Some Christian humanists value culture but confess that mankind is fully developed only as it comes into a right relationship with Christ.
Pelagianism - Pelagianism is very much a part of the 21st century Christian scene. It is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature, and that mortal will is capable of choosing good or evil without Divine aid. Thus, Adam's sin was "to set a bad example" for his progeny, but his actions did not have the other consequences imputed to original sin.
   Pelagianism views the role of Jesus as "setting a good example" for the rest of us, thus counteracting Adam's bad example. In short, a person has full control of his or her life, and thus full responsibility for his or her own salvation in addition to full responsibility for every sin.
   Pelagianism was condemned by Christianity as a heresy in 431 A.D.
Civil Religion - The term "civil religion" was coined by Jean Jacques Rousseau in his treatise, "On the Social Contract" (1762), which was widely influential among America's founders. Rousseau frowned on the model of monarchies, in which the head of state was the head of the church; and he took a negative view of Christianity itself, because he believed it divided citizens' loyalties between their civic and spiritual obligations. His solution was to create a "purely civil profession of faith" that would be promoted by a nation's leaders.
   After the revolutionary period in America, civil religion went without much examination or commentary until University of California, Berkeley professor Robert Bellah revived the subject in his 1967 essay, "Civil Religion in America."
   "In American political theory, sovereignty rests, of course, with the people; but implicitly, and often explicitly, the ultimate sovereignty has been attributed to God," Bellah wrote. "This is the meaning of the motto, 'In God We Trust,' and the inclusion of the phrase 'under God' in the pledge to the flag."
   John Winthrop is the formal beginning of American civil religion. Winthrop, a devout Puritan and leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, delivered his famous sermon on board the Arabella en route to Massachusetts. In it, he said, "Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with Him for this work. We have taken out a commission. ... For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us." - John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity," 1630.
   Winthrop's Puritan followers looked upon him as a Moses-like figure, leading them to the promised land. The crossing of the Atlantic became a metaphor for crossing the Red Sea and the Jordan River, and Massachusetts would be the new Israel.
   This idea has carried forward from colonial times, through the Revolution, the Civil War and right up to the present. Civil religion applies the themes spelled out by Winthrop.
Civil religion contains the following elements:

Myths: Sacred stories, parables and legendary acts of heroism, such as George Washington’s feats of heroism in the Revolutionary War and Abraham Lincoln’s sacrifices to preserve the union.
Rituals: Ceremonies and actions that define communities and cross denominational lines, such as the honoring of the dead, memorializing people who died in battle, and saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
Ethics: Codes of moral conduct, what the Puritans called “cutting covenants with the Lord,” and enacting covenants with one another.
Art, Music, and Architecture – Such as public buildings and courthouses built in classical style, and other structures and art forms infused with elements of Americana.
Doctrines: The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.
Social Formations: Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Daughters of the American Revolution, etc.

Themes of civil religion are:

Chosen-ness: The idea that the nation and its citizens have been chosen by God for a higher purpose.
Freedom and Liberty: Universal ideas that no one can oppose.
Individualism: A strong emphasis on individual freedom and responsibility, which also places a heavy obligation on individuals to live up to the covenant.
The American Dream: Going from “rags to riches,” or making one’s fortune and the idea that wealth must be given back to the community in the form of philanthropy or social services.
Fundamentalism - Christian fundamentalism, which has no single founder, is a Christian orientation that originally started in reaction to biblical scholasticism. In particular, fundamentalists reject the documentary hypothesis—the theory held by higher biblical criticism that the first five books of the Bible were composed and shaped by many people over centuries. For instance, the term ‘fundamentalist’ derives from a series of twelve volumes of 94 essays entitled The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth, 27 of them objecting to higher criticism of the Bible. The essays were written by 64 British and American conservative Protestant theologians between 1910 and 1915.
   The original formulation of American fundamentalist beliefs can be traced to the Niagara Bible Conference (1878-1897) and in 1910, to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which distilled several beliefs into what became known as the "five fundamentals": inerrancy of the Scriptures, the virgin birth and the deity of Jesus, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement through God's grace and human faith, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the authenticity of Christ's miracles (or, alternatively, his premillenial second coming).  
   A number of evangelicals in the 1800’s prepared the way for the movement. American evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) and British preacher and father of dispensionalism John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) among others propounded ideas and themes carried into fundamentalist Christianity.
   As the movement developed, premillennialism, dispensationalism, and separatism began to overwhelmingly characterize the leaders, which also had a negative effect on the way that evangelicals as a whole were perceived by outside observers. The non-scholastic (literal) approach to the Scriptures was increasingly seen as a main protection against the gradual degradation to theological modernism. However, the increasing radicalism of Christian fundamentalists caused evangelicals to distance themselves from it. Today, a Christian evangelical and a Christian fundamentalist are two very different Christian orientations, although most people do not know the difference. Fundamentalists criticize evangelicals for a lack of concern for doctrinal purity and for a lack of discernment in ecumenical endeavors in working co-operatively with other Christians of differing doctrinal views. The original 20th century Fundamentalist Movement broke up along very definable lines within conservative Evangelical Protestantism as issues progressed.
   Fundamentalists differ from Pentecostals in their strong insistence upon "correct" doctrine and often advocate separatism (which often also divides fundamentalists from each other) as opposed to the experiential and emotive emphasis of Pentecostals.
   Today's fundamentalists look to the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy for its identity and as its primary historical point of reference. Because its worldview is in the past, it is in decline and becoming more extreme. Fundamentalists in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, despite their doctrinal and practical differences, are united by a common worldview which anchors all of life in the authority of the sacred and a shared ethos that expresses itself through outrage at the pace and extent of modern secularization.
   Extremism, whether religious or not, that harms others is immoral. This would include emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual harm that goes beyond the right of responsible opinion.
Humanism - This entails a commitment to the search for truth and morality through human means in support of human interests. In focusing on our capacity for self-determination, it rejects a dependence on supernatural entities, sacred texts, local traditions or religious creeds. It endorses a recognition of a universal morality based on the commonality of human nature, suggesting that the long-term solutions to our problems cannot be parochial.
   What defines humanism is not a disbelief in the supernatural but a rejection of the importance of the supernatural in human affairs. In this way, humanism does not necessarily rule out some forms of theism or deism. Therefore, there are many humanists who consider themselves quite religious - some of whom are members of (typically, liberal) religious organizations. What humanism clearly rejects is blind deference to supernatural beliefs in resolving human affairs, not necessarily the beliefs themselves.
   According to humanism, it us up to an individual to find the truth, not wait for it to be handed to a person through revelation, mysticism, tradition, or anything else that is incompatible with the application of logic to the evidence. In demanding that we avoid blindly accepting unsupported beliefs, it supports scientific skepticism and the scientific method, rejecting authoritarianism and extreme skepticism, and rendering faith an unacceptable basis for action. Likewise, humanism asserts that knowledge of right and wrong is based on our best understanding of our individual and joint interests, rather than stemming from a transcendental or arbitrarily local source.
   For the Christian who looks to the Bible as the source of God’s revelation and authority, humanism is immoral.
Judicial Activism - In law, judicial activism (judicial social/cultural engineering) refers to judicial decisions which do not follow precedent or which otherwise exceed, or are perceived to exceed, the scope of established law. The term may be used pejoratively to describe rulings or decisions which are perceived to endorse or implement a particular social or political agenda.
   The extent to which a judge should interpret the law is a matter of great debate. Whether a decision is characterized as judicial activism is a matter of degree. In practice, any decision which is beyond expectations may be labeled as an instance of judicial activism, and judges are accused of judicial activism irrespective of their political alignment or judicial philosophy.
   Critics of judicial activism consider that when judges create new law, they are not performing their duty as an interpreter of the law, but may instead be ruling entirely on the basis of personal ethics, or some other inappropriate ground. Others consider that the term itself is loaded, as it contains an unstated premise that the appropriate function of the judiciary is not to extend the law, or does not admit that interpreting the law may to some extent involve the creation of new law.
Postmodernism - Postmodern ideology matured in the late 20^th century and it is a dominant spirit of the early 21^st century in urban, affluent, technological, and educated cultures satiated with choice.
   Postmodernism is an ideological mutation that has consumed advanced cultures, but its birth and evolution began in the late 1700’s. It became a cultural ideology in the anti-establishment movement in the 1960’s and a theoretical discipline in the 1970’s by viewing itself as a critical theory of the times - among academics as “the contemporary intellectual fashion”. It manifests itself in philosophy, theology, art, architecture, film, broadcasting, music, theatre, sociology, fashion, technology, literature, and communications. It matured in these disciplines with its on language.
   Postmodern roots spring from the turbulence of the 1700’s and early 1800’s, out of which came Romanticism and its focus on the individual, liberty, the subjective, the supremacy of nature, revolutionary and radical expressions, “positivism” (the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge), and “cultural norms” - the beginning of modern cultural relativism. Christianity could not, at this time, answer many new questions generated by scientific inventions and study. For instance, Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published in 1859 and had a tremendous effect on the popular mindset. 
   During the 1800’s, the Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish empires began to crumble and the Holy Roman and Persian empires ceased. Following the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire became the world's leading power, controlling one quarter of the world's population and one third of the land area. It enforced a Pax Britannica and encouraged trade. Slavery was greatly reduced around the world and finally abolished in the British Empire, Russia, America, and Brazil. Electricity, steel, and petroleum fueled a Second Industrial Revolution which enabled Germany, Japan, and the United States to become world powers that raced to create empires of their own. However, Russia and China failed to keep pace with the other world powers, which led to massive social unrest in both of those nations.
   The word “modernism” in postmodernism is a word that came about in western France about 1855. It was believed that tradition was outdated and that it was essential to sweep it aside and reinvent culture. Everything was re-examined to aid progress. What was new became that which was good and beautiful. The norms of Christianity and science supported this movement and the view that both history and civilization were progressive was called into question. Christianity had not been stable for some time, so it was trying to find, as it were, its place (its cultural apologetic) in the evolution of the modern mind. It was at this time that the Christianity of advanced societies began to formally institutionalize, if not enshrine, cultural values.
   The benefits of industrialization (the avant-garde of Modernism) became the leading view. From 1890-1910, writers, thinkers, and artists began to assert that it was necessary to push aside previous norms, instead of revise them. This was the beginning of a cultural evolution from conservatism to liberalism and the beginning of postmodern language. Postmodern language took approximately one century (1855-1965) to evolve.
   Beginning in the late 1890’s and extending into the early 1900’s, four thinkers quickened the evolution of the postmodern mindset. They were Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, neurologist and father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, and French philosopher Henri Bergson. Freud and Jung determined that people’s impulses towards breaking social norms were essential to the nature of human beings. The tendency was natural. Concretizing this line of thinking was Nietzsche’s “process philosophy”. “Process” meant “will to power” (processes and forces) was more important than facts or things. Bergson championed, along with the aforementioned, a vital “life force” over static conceptions of reality and a genuine societal interest in legitimizing the occult. This was the verbalized and formal beginning of “me” over “fact” (cultural relativism) or subjective over objective. Subjective reality was based on drives and instincts rather than objective reality (or special revelation). These men championed irrational thought processes through the lens of rationality and holism – which had been accepted as “normal” thought processes. Holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system (biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, linguistic, etc.) cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its component parts alone. What this did was add an acceptable (legitimate) nature to the development of postmodernism language. It also made secularism and postmodernism one and the same, where previously it had not been the same.
   Between 1910 and 1930 there was increased tension in the social order and radicality broke through in various disciplines – politics, art, music, etc. Tradition still hindered progress, so it was thought. Overthrowing tradition began to replace enlightenment. Rationalization became disruption, a hallmark of postmodernism. WWI made people think that “things were not alright as they once were”. New methods were needed to produce new and better results. People began to see the world changing and the notion of a “world view” was established. Continued advancements in science and technology were embraced. Old science and old technology were no longer adequate. These advances required people to change. By 1930, this had become the way of life. New modernism rebelled against old modernism – which seemed mannered, irrational, and emotional. A movement in Switzerland added an important dimension to the development of the postmodern mindset. Peaking from 1916 to 1920 was Dadaism. This movement focused primarily on nihilism, deliberate irrationality, disillusionment, cynicism, chance, randomness, and the rejection of prevailing standards.
   Between 1930 and 1945 there was increasing urbanization and the idea that popular (pop) culture, derived from mass production ideology (consumerism), was more important than high culture. These ideas were used increasingly in mass communication. Fascism, the Great Depression, and WWII radicalized this perception that a break from the past was still necessary. New science and production of conveniences meant new manners, a new social life, and new morals. Disruption of values and speed of communication started becoming a way of life. Social reorganization meant “inquiries” into sexuality and the basic bonding of nuclear, rather than the extended, families. People had fewer children and tensions raising them increased. “What could be” became the practical and popular.
   1945 to 1970 was a time called High Modernism because many traditional forms and lifestyles continued to be swept away in a vast need of rebuilding – everything had to be made new. Advanced industrialization increased, labor poured into the cities (urbanization), and there were vast building programs. The ideology of the marginalized began to grow - many were oppressed and dominated by traditional patterns of society. Traditional institutional power and influence were critiqued. The thinking that there were systems of domination surfaced – in politics, economy, culture, and religion. Domination started to be questioned “offstage”. This line of thinking surfaced on campuses in demonstrations, in a civil rights movement, and in resistance to “wars that were not wars” – Korea and Viet Nam. There was a collision between media driven pop culture and elitist ideas. There was the beginning of a revolution of consciousness that was apolitical, a new form of subjectivism. Tradition continued to be rejected as the new pop culture tried to define itself. Freedom of expression, experimentation, radicalism, and primitivism (spiritualism, overt sexuality, shock, the bizarre, the unpredictable, and extreme dissonance) became popular. “Contemporary culture” was given birth from this bond of consumerism and radicality that continued its rejection of traditional cultural forms. As contemporary culture became the tradition, it lost its revolutionary nature. It was time for the birth of postmodernism, the advanced contemporary culture.
   From 1970 to the present, postmodernism has become the established “spirit of the age”.  Jean-Francois Lyotard (1924-1998), a French philosopher and literary theorist, defined this “spirit” as incredulity. Incredulity is doubt about the truth of something, an unwillingness to believe, disbelief, as in “religious disbelief”. By that, he meant a “spirit” of skepticism and unbelief toward the grand stories that explain meaning and order for all or portions of a society or societies. The formal word for these stories is metanarratives – the Bible being an example.
   The postmodern institution or person has some, but not necessarily all of the following characteristics:

.Discomfort with value judgments
.Discomfort with customary expectations
.Denial of the “objective” existence of God & the supernatural - often anti-Christian
.Seeks to undermine the values of God (especially if they conflict with self interests)
.Believes the material universe is all there is (materialistic)
.Views objective truth as oppressive (subjective truth is good)
.Espouses minimalism toward beauty
.Identity is found in the mass media
.Criticizes to redeem what is perceived as right (quickly defensive)
.Dislikes history as the establishment of truth
.Rejects stable verbal meaning
.Rejects universally valid definitions
.Reinterprets (often critical of) knowledge, even if highly educated
.Culturally relative (the culture determines the highest good)
.Self-absorbed (me focused, what I need, what I want, what I require)

   Postmodernism’s vocabulary includes words and phrases such as – variety, process, new, experiential, oppression, dominate, domination, creating space, collaboration, teamwork, inclusion, sharing rather than conquering, community-centered, emerging, decentralization, individualism, differences, re-analyze, creativity, re-examination, journey, metanarrative, feminism, equality, rights, multicultural, gender, deconstruct, politically correct, information explosion, organized knowledge, world communications, mass communications, instant communications, and cybernetics.

 What could this mean for the Christian church in the United States?

.Deconstructing, decentralizing, and reconstructing denominations & congregations
.Diversity in thought, word, and deed in denominations & congregations
.Toleration will be a hallmark
.New & highly creative approaches to worship and spirituality
.Church as community will replace entrepreneurial Christianity
.Flexible theology & a new Christian apologetic will develop
.More engagement with society and societies
.Another re-analysis of the Bible
.The line between clergy and lay church leadership will become less obvious
.Authoritarian leadership will evolve into collaborative leadership and teamwork
.Faith will be taught as a journey in life, rather than emotional events
.Traditional values as the “norm” will become shared diverse values
.Less doctrine and more mission of Christ
.Integration will become more important than duplication
.Learning will become more important than achieving
.The individual will become important in community
.Focusing on what draws people together
.Sharing will become more important than conquering or overcoming
.Acting responsibly will become more important than unrestricted consumerism
.Movement from being building–centered to community-centered

Religious Identification - According to a 2001 study by the National Survey of Religious Identification (NSRI) by sociology professors at the City University of New York, Christianity was the largest religion (76.5%) in the United States and it had grown by 5% since 1990. What was the next largest group? - the secular/non-religious. They had grown 110% in that same time frame.
   What other religions had grown in the United States by at least 100%: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Native American Religion, Baha'i, New Age, Sikhism, and Deism.
   Which religious category grew the least? Agnosticism shrunk by 16%. Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the truth values of certain claims—particularly theological claims regarding the existence of God, gods, or deities—are unknown, inherently unknowable, or incoherent, and therefore, (some agnostics may go as far to say) irrelevant to life.
   Which religious category grew the most? Deism grew by 717% in just 10 years. Deism is defined by the view that reason, rather than revelation or tradition, should be the basis of belief in God. Deists reject both organized and revealed religion (the church) and maintain that reason (rather than Jesus Christ) is the essential element in all knowledge. For a "rational basis for religion" they refer to natural religion. Natural religion is theology based on reason and ordinary experience. Thus, it is distinguished from revealed theology (or revealed religion) which is based on scripture and religious experiences.
   Deists hold different views on the nature of God, particularly on whether God intervenes in the world. The classical view is that the universe was created by 'a' God who then makes no further intervention in its affairs. In this view, the reason God does not intervene in the world (via miracles) is not that God does not care, but rather that the best of all possible worlds has already been created and any intervention could not improve it. Historically, many deists adhered to this view; others hold a more pantheist or pandeist view that in creating the world, God became the world and does not exist as a separate entity from it; while some hold that God intervenes only as a subtle and persuasive force in the universe.
   The classical view of an impersonal and abstract God has caused many to claim that deism is "cold" and amounts to atheism. Deists maintain that the opposite is true and that their view leads to a feeling of awe and reverence based on the fact that personal growth and a constant search for knowledge is required. This knowledge can be acquired from many sources including historical and modern interpretations found in the many varied fields of science (biology, physics, etc.) and philosophy. Deism, like many religions, seeks to reconcile and unify with science and "modern views" - like evolution.
Liberals and Conservatives - Liberalism has many definitions. There is classical liberalism, American liberalism, neoliberalism, ordoliberalism, paleoliberalism, and liberal radicalism – even liberal conservatism. There is also political, cultural, social, and economic, and religious liberalism.
   In the US, liberalism is usually contrasted with conservatism, and American liberals support broader tolerance and more readily embrace multiculturalism and affirmative action.
   The term "liberal" (known as the ‘left’) derived from generally the 1700’s and 1800’s – although the term has a very long philosophical history. Liberalism is an ideology which strives to maximize liberty. Liberalism seeks a society characterized by freedom of thought for individuals, limitations on the power of government and various kinds of religious orthodoxy, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a free market economy that supports private enterprise, a system of government that is transparent, and a democracy with open and fair elections - where all citizens have by law equal rights and equal opportunity. Liberalism rejected many foundational assumptions which dominated most earlier theories of government, such as the divine right of kings, hereditary status, and established religion. Classical liberals do not believe in wealth transfers, tariffs, or other trade barriers such as quotas, regulated markets, capital controls, wage and price controls.
   Modern liberalism (American liberalism) tends to deviate from the original definition of the term "liberal" in that it espouses the use of the power of government to achieve a variety of desirable goals, ranging from social justice to economic equality. American liberalism is, therefore, a political current that claims descent from classical liberalism in terms of devotion to individual liberty.
   The U.S. brand of liberalism emphasizes mutual collaboration and consensus-building to solve political problems. A liberal in the United States is likely to favor institutions and political procedures that protect and empower the weak against perceived aggression by the strong and guarantee individual freedom from restrictive social norms. Liberals encourage progressive taxation, minimum wages laws, anti-discrimination laws, and social programs. Liberals tend to see themselves in the context of their fellow man and woman and assume their rights are no greater and their privileges no greater than anyone else's, regardless of wealth or position. Key liberal values are empathy, compassion, trust, and cooperation. Liberalism is a philosophy that attempts to make changes that will improve life even if those changes run contrary to previously accepted positions. So, liberalism is open to change and receptive to empiricism and it is incompatible with racism.
   The following views are associated with American liberalism, though many people who consider themselves liberal would accept some of these views and reject others:
a. Support for government social programs such as welfare, medical care, unemployment benefits, and retirement programs.
b. Support for increased funding for public education.
c. Support for trade unions, teachers' unions, and government protections for organized labor.
d. Regulation of business - OSHA, against child labor, monopolistic practices, etc.
e. Support for civil rights -  1) Support laws against discrimination based on gender, race, age, religion, sexual orientation, or disability; 2) Support laws guaranteeing rights of women and minorities, particularly racial and religious minorities, the disabled, and those with unorthodox sexual orientations;  3) Support for such programs as affirmative action and transitional multi-lingual educational programs for children whose first language is not English; 4) Support broad voting rights; 5) Support for reproductive rights; 6) Support for strong environmental regulations; 7) Support for public transportation; 8) Support for minimum wage requirements; 9)  Support for government funding to alternative energy research; 10) Opposition to the death penalty; 11) Support for animal rights; 12) Support for gun control; and 13) Support for a progressive tax system.
   Because conservatives (known as the ‘right’) have so heavily used "liberal" as a pejorative, many American liberals have moved to progressivism, which is largely the contemporary state of Christian liberal activism in the United States. This should not be confused with the Progressive Era from 1890-1920, in which time U.S. contemporary social activism was born.
   Progressivism refers to two political phenomena: populist political progressivism (populism) and ideological or modern left progressivism. Modern left progressivism is a cluster of political, activist, and media organizations ranging from left-liberal to democratic socialism. In this category are many leaders in the women's movement, labor movement, anti-globalization movement, civil rights movement, environmental movement, immigrant rights movement, and sexual rights movement.
   This activist movement of Modern Left Progressivism has emerged with Christian Progressivism – which has a long history in American politics. Christian Progressivism focuses on the biblical injunctions that God's people live correctly, that they promote social justice and act to fight poverty, racism, and other forms of injustice. Progressive Christians see themselves acting in the public sphere.
   A priority of justice and care for the down-trodden were present before Christianity. These concerns were carried into the early church, the monastic movement, the ministry of healing, the Catholic and Protestant churches, the Progressive Movement of the 1800’s in the United States,  and in the Social Gospel movement.
   Since the 1900’s, Progressive Christianity was influential in determining what constitutes the values by which a good society is run. It stressed fairness, justice, responsibility, and compassion, and condemns the forms of governance that wage unjust war, rely on corruption for continued power, deprive the poor, or exclude particular racial or sexual groups from fair participation in national liberties.
   Contemporary Progressive Christianity organizes itself under CrossLeft. CrossLeft is the first nationwide campaign for Progressive Christianity in the United States. CrossLeft seeks to organize Christians interested in social and political change for social justice. It works to introduce them to each other's events. CrossLeft maintains a shared calendar and an aggregated RSS feed that joins headlines from hundreds of progressive Christian bloggers, news sources, and columnists. CrossLeft joined with Via Media and Reclaim the Blessing in October 2005 to stage a major conference, Path to Action, at the Episcopal National Cathedral in Washington, DC.
   Examples of statements of contemporary Progressive Christian beliefs come from The Center for Progressive Christianity (TCPC, Cambridge, MA) and Crosswalk America (Phoenix, AZ). TCPC has given out the Eight Points - a statement of agreement about Christianity as a basis for tolerance and human rights. CrossWalk's Phoenix Affirmations - include twelve points defining Christian love of God, Christian love of neighbor, and Christian love of self.
   The Center for Progressive Christianity (TCPC) was founded in 1996 by a retired Episcopal priest, James Adams, in Cambridge, MA. It currently represents the most liberal established Christian group within Christianity. It is not a religious denomination. Rather it is a network of affiliated congregations, informal groups, and individuals.
   The mission of The Center for Progressive Christianity is: 1) To reach out to those for whom organized religion has proved ineffectual, irrelevant, or repressive, as well as to those who have given up on or are unacquainted with it; 2) To uphold evangelism as an agent of justice and peace; 3) To give a strong voice both in the churches and the public arena to the advocates of progressive Christianity; and 4) To support those who embrace the search, not certainty.
   The following are a series of ideas that describe the TCPC's approach to Christianity. It is not a statement of faith or creed. It is more a description of how Progressive Christians approach life. They are paraphrased for brevity and to avoid copyright conflicts:
Focus: The teachings and life of Jesus provide them with a path to God.
Pluralism: Others follow their own paths to God, which are equally true for them.
Communion: They view the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus' name to represent "an ancient vision of God's feast for all peoples."
Inclusivity: All are welcome to become involved; persons of all genders, sexual orientations, traditions, races, etc.
Reciprocity: How we treat others is the "fullest expression" of our beliefs.
Search: They find more grace in searching for truth than in accepting certainty.
Community: They form communities to support each other in their quest for peace, justice, a restored environment, and to provide hope.
Cost: Following Jesus involves a personal investment in "selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege."
   The antithesis of Modern Left Progressivism is orthodoxy. The differences between the two represent a cultural war in the United States and this cultural war manifests itself in the politics of American mainline Christian denominations. The result is unrest and division.
   The expression “cultural war” gained wide use with the 1991 publication of Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America by James Davison Hunter. In that book, Hunter described what he saw as a dramatic re-alignment and polarization that had transformed American politics and culture. In short, in the Culture Wars, public morality was to be a defining issue. This found its way into the legislation of mainline Christian denominations.
   He argued that on an increasing number of "hot-button" defining issues—abortion, gun control, separation of church and state, privacy, sexual orientation, censorship—there had come to be two definable cultural polarities. Furthermore, it was not just that there were a number of divisive issues, but that society had divided along essentially the same lines on each of these issues, so as to constitute two opposing groups, primarily defined not by nominal religion, ethnicity, social class or even political affiliation, but rather by ideological world views.
   From the point of view of American academia, the 'culture wars' and their alignments were nothing new — rather they were perceived as an extrapolation of some conflicts that had been simmering in university life since the 1960’s. Positions were taken on a number of issues: feminism, sexuality as a topic in the humanities, and postmodernism – among others. It has become very clear that this movement made its way solidly into Christian seminaries. With seminary ideology gradually changing and seminary graduates taking their places in Christian denominations, the leadership and legislative landscape changed as the 21^st century opened into a “new morning.”
   Current debates and controversy over "hot button" culture wars issues of the 1980’s and 1990’s seem more polarized than ever since 911. Commentators and others were surprised by the outcome of the exit polls on November 2, 2004, in which many voters responded that their primary concern in that election year was "moral values."
   In the years ahead, cultural and Christian moral values will be set by the next generations. They are the Baby Boomers (1946-1964), who will be entering elderhood, fully assuming the role of spiritual elder stewards of society. Generation X (1961-1981) will be in midlife, applying survival skills learned in childhood to new problems. Generation Y (1977- 1994), also known as Generation Why?, Echo Boom, Byte Block, iPod Generation, Internet Generation, the Babies On Board, MySpace Generation, and Millennial Generation, will be in rising adulthood. Generation Z (1997-2025), the Digital Generation, will be reaching adulthood. Values will ebb and flow as these people are shaped by their experiences and world views. How Christian denominations will fit into this evolution is a question of leadership.
   Conservativism seek to conserve the existing social order or to reinstate a social order from the past. Conservatism as a philosophy is much older than the left-right division, and it can include adherents from both.  
   Conservatives wish to conserve heritage and they advocate the current social climate. To a conservative, any existing value or institution has undergone the correcting influence of past experience and ought to be respected. Conservatives do not reject change, but they insist that further change be organic, rather than revolutionary. Strangely enough, in the present American cultural climate little change for conservatives has been seen as organic.
   Conservatives value tradition. Tradition does not mean simply custom, habit or nostalgia for the past, though custom does inform tradition and sustain it. For a conservative, tradition is composed of standards and institutions that have proven to promote the good, and therefore they find authority in tradition and apply it in politics. This authority, be it a person, the church, literature or a way of life, is rooted in the past, and thus cannot easily change. To keep tradition alive, conservatives pass it down from generation to generation.
   Conservatives accept traditional values as authoritative, and judge the world around them by the standards they have come to trust. Many conservatives believe in God, and believe that God is not only the creator of the universe, but also the author of the values they espouse. Since conservatives believe tradition is more important than the political process, the laws and constitutions of liberal democracies or movements that permit behavior that conflict with traditional values causes friction.
   Different forms of cultural conservatism emphasize different values, many of them overlapping. For example:
Order over risk or chaos
Heritage over innovation
Maintenance of the status quo
Orientation toward the past
The rural (local) over the urban (national)
Unity over discord
Homogeneity over fragmentation
The natural over an artificial and/or technological order
Existence (the sure) over possibility (the emerging)
Incremental peaceful change over ‘utopian’ revolutionary change
Hierarchy over egalitarianism
Acceptance of inequality over redistribution (wealthy & poor/wealth distribution)
   Religious conservatism, rather than considering local sources of tradition, prefers the organization of the church, which delivers special knowledge received long ago. This means religious conservatism does not use the word tradition quite like other conservatives. Church tradition by definition cannot evolve because it derives from unchanging divine acts (revelation), i.e. the Bible, evolution of church structure, etc. This does not mean that church tradition never adapts, but that any "changes" enacted after revelation are refinements rather than discontinuities. St. Paul illustrates this use of tradition in First Corinthians: "I have received from the Lord that which also I delivered unto you." The Latin word for delivered here is traditio.
   While some conservatives may be wary of government intervention into the private lives of citizens, even when that intervention is in support of traditional values, Christian conservatives in general tend to support such causes. Classical liberalism (which can have a conservative side) would not support the intervention of government into the private lives of citizens through laws because of its pure focus on liberty, but American liberalism advocates cultural change through legislation in government and the Christian church. Some say they see two Americas now, the red and the blue (as in coloring states in elections). In fact, there are two world views, perhaps more, in the U.S. and it permeates the government and the Christian church.
   Nationalism has an inherent conservative tendency, since the nation itself is usually defined as a centuries-old community. Conversely, any centuries-old community is by definition attractive to conservatives. Nationalism, and more generally patriotism, is therefore a typical feature of modern conservatism. Present-day nationalism is not, however, confined to self-identified conservatives, or to the right. The perception persists that nationalism is a remote or provincial ideology, but it is by definition the basis of every nation-state. Liberals are just as patriotic as conservatives, but the difference in world view causes both to view patriotism differently.
   In the U.S., conservatism and liberalism are sometimes seen as polar opposites, yet reality is more complex. A major area of difference in America is between social liberalism and social conservatism. Social liberals advocate policies promoting equality and tolerance, while social conservatives support established traditions of American society, or norms of their previous generations. The media widely covers, and very often exacerbates, the differences in opinion in issues such as same-sex marriage, sex education, and the separation of church and state - among others.
   Theological conservatism does not necessarily equate to political conservatism and the Christian Right. Some evangelicals are politically and theologically liberal. Similarly, in many theologically conservative African-American churches, leaders and congregants have tended to support political liberalism, emphasizing civil rights or economic issues.
   The ‘Christian Right’ is a term collectively referring to a spectrum of conservative Christian political and social movements and organizations characterized by their support of social values they deem traditional in the United States and other western countries.
   The term ‘Christian Right’ is often used in a derogatory sense, to describe people and political movements associated with ‘extreme’ conservatism. Some critics use phrases such as theocrat, religious extremist or Christian fundamentalist to refer to the Christian Right. This does not represent informed study. It is opinion.
   In a more accurate sense, ‘Christian Right’ describes a more benign association of individuals from a wide variety of theological beliefs, ranging from moderately traditional movements to theologically more conservative movements such as Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, and Fundamentalist Christianity. Fundamentalist Christianity and Fundamentalism are two different things.
   Positions labeled Christian Right, but sometimes held by only a minority of those commonly considered Christian Right include: the Pro-Life movement, opposition to euthanasia, opposition to same-sex marriage, regulation and restriction of some applications of biotechnology, support for the presence of Christianity in the public sphere, opposition to the presence of other religions in the public sphere, reducing restrictions on government funding for religious charities and schools, promotion of conservative Christian moral values, regulation and restriction of the publication and public exhibition of explicitly sexual content and pornography, opposition to sex education classes in public schools, support for home and private schooling (generally as an alternative to secular education), promotion of the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in public schools as alternatives, or along with, the theory of evolution, and opposition to judicial activism.
   The conservative world view refers to the framework through which conservative individuals or conservative organizations interpret the world and interact in it. Liberals have their own world view. When both increasingly take definitive positions, then major cultural differences begin to exist. If they are exacerbated in organizations, such as the government and/or in the Christian church, then the condition of ‘cultural war’ exists in the history of that culture. This condition is historical in the sense that intense differences in cultural values have existed and have been recorded for centuries. It is one of the ways history becomes history.
Moral Relativism - This is the position that moral propositions do not reflect absolute truths but instead are relative to social, cultural, historical or personal references, and that there is no single standard by which to assess an ethical truth.
   Relativistic positions often see moral values as applicable only within certain cultural boundaries or the context of individual preferences.  
   Moral relativism contends that opposing moral positions have no truth value, and that there is no preferred standard of reference by which to judge them.
Pluralism - There is a good side and a bad side to pluralism. The good side is when pluralism is a fact of life. The bad side is when pluralism is an ideology.
   Good pluralism is a key factor of progress in science, society and economic development. In the social sciences, pluralism is a framework of interaction in which groups show sufficient respect and tolerance of each other, that they fruitfully coexist and interact without conflict or assimilation. In an authoritarian society, power is concentrated and decisions are made by few members. By contrast, in a pluralistic society, power and decision-making are more diffused. This results in more widespread participation and a greater feeling of commitment from society members, and therefore better outcomes.
   Religious pluralism implies freedom and the right of individuals and religions to determine universal truths for themselves. Religious pluralism is also the peaceful coexistence of different religions or denominations without one of them having a position of domination over the other religions or denominations.
   The existence of religious pluralism depends on the existence of freedom of (not from) religion. Freedom of religion exists when different religions possess the same rights of worship and public expression. Freedom of religion is restrained or prohibited in some countries where the public practice of certain religions is forbidden.
   Pluralism as an ideology is when there can no longer be a generally approved pattern of belief or conduct within a social or religious institution. This bad pluralism is pluralism as domination and fear. Pluralism as domination and fear in Christianity is seen in forced toleration of a wide range of values that do not represent the Christian religion. Common practices of pluralism as domination and fear affecting Christianity are syncretism (blending values) and forced inclusion of conflicting values. The casualties of pluralism (Peter C. Moore, 2003) in Christianity are: 1) when Biblical truth becomes relative; 2) when cultural values replace Biblical moral codes; 3) when faith and reason become mutually exclusive; 4) when choice becomes the only absolute; 5) when the highest virtue is choice; and 5) when the Great Commission is seen as imperialism.
   Pluralistic ideology has brought conflict into Christianity and misrepresents the good intent of pluralism itself. Pluralistic ideology is, therefore, a historical misrepresentation seen in contemporary moral relativism, narcissistic hedonism, scientific reductionism, and autonomous individualism.
Secular Humanism - Secular humanism is that branch of late philosophy that advocates the use of reason, compassion, scientific inquiry, ethics, justice and equality in addressing issues of a worldview centered upon human beings. The term was originally coined in the 1900’s to make a clear distinction from Christian humanism.
   Secular humanism is distinguished from the broader category of humanism in that the secular humanist prefers free inquiry over dogmatic wisdom—upholding the scientific method for inquiry, while rejecting revealed knowledge and theistic morality, though not necessarily faith. Secular humanism has appeal to atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, rationalists, skeptics, and materialists.
   Its basic tenets may be simplified as: 1) humans have value and can solve human problems; 2) science, free speech, rational thought, democracy, and freedom in the arts go together; and 3) there is nothing supernatural.
Secularism - The word "secular" is derived from the Latin word saeculum (age), and originally meant "happening once in an age." Secular in its most common meaning, means "outside of religion" and can have the connotation of a dismissive conviction regarding religious matters. In current respectable political and philosophical discourse, it refers to a government obeying civil laws independently from any religion, and not favoring any particular religion. Secularism also includes the priority of the civil laws over any religious legislation. All major religions accept this, except for schools of religious fundamentalists (mostly Christian and Muslim), which promote just the opposite.
   Antagonism between secular and Christian activists is an invention of British citizenry and a creation of the 19^th and 20^th centuries.
   Robert Owen (May 14, 1771 – November 17, 1858) was a Welsh social reformer. He is considered the "Father" of the cooperative movement – the earliest form of the modern secularism. He went out of his way at a large meeting in London to declare his hostility to all the received forms of religion because religion was doing nothing to improve the social ills of society. The chief points in his philosophy were that man's character is made not by him but for him; that it has been formed by circumstances over which he had no control; that he is not a proper subject either of praise or blame - these principles leading up to the practical conclusion that the great secret in the right formation of man's character is to place him under the proper influences - physical, moral and social - from his earliest years.
  George Jacob Holyoake (April 13, 1817 - 1906), born in Birmingham, England, became an Owenite and invented the inoffensive term secularism as descriptive of social reform opinions. Because he was jailed by Christians for his outspokenness, this became the beginning of modern secular and Christian antagonism. Holyoake held that secularism should take no interest at all in religious questions (as they were irrelevant), and was thus to be distinguished from militant free thought and atheism. In this he disagreed with Charles Bradlaugh, and the disagreement split the secularist movement between those who argued that anti-religious propaganda and activism was not necessary or desirable and those who argued that it was.
  It became more intense when Charles Bradlaugh (26 September 1833 - 30 January 1891) of London became a political activist and one of the most famous English atheists of the 19th century. He is the actual father of secular activism as it relates to ‘rights’ rather than social reform. He was a reforming (and infamous) member of the British House of Parliament in the late 1800’s. This is, therefore, the root of present day antagonism and the actual beginning of the ‘rights movement’, so prevalent today.
   It should be remembered that originally there was no antagonism between the philosophy of secularism and the theology of Christians. Present day antagonism between the two is caused, stirred, and allowed to continue – even promoted - by liberal activists and conservative activists. Extreme philosophy and extreme Christianity are both unreasonable and not helpful to the healthy development of any institution.
   Because secularism is the social ideology (worldview) in which religion and supernatural beliefs are not seen as the key to understanding the world and are instead segregated from matters of governance, the ontology (origins) of secularism was a reaction to the deplorable social, political, and religious conditions of earlier centuries and the resulting freedom, called the Enlightenment.
   Since the Enlightenment, in many, but not all, societies are recognized as secular if there is a freedom of (not from) religion, a religion does not dictate political decisions, religious influence is minimized in the public square, and religion becomes increasingly humanist.
   In history, theocracy did not work and still does not work because of excesses in greed and the need for control. From this, one can see the rise of political/religious terrorism and sadly, the lack of civility among Christians and religions in the creative development of post-modern social issues.
Secularism and Contemporary Theology - The late Dr. Langdon Gilkey (2004), former professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School reflected in his writings that in the last half of the 20^th century that the peculiar character of the current theological situation lies in the fact that it is dominated by a massive influence of secularism. Here secularism means an attitude that emphasizes the here and now, the tangible, the manipulatable, the sensible, the relative and the this-worldly - a viewpoint synonymous with the contemporary mind. This ‘mind’ has been expressed with progressive radicality in a wide variety of philosophies evolving since the late 1700’s in empiricism, Kantian criticism, Hegelianism, evolutionism, process thought, pragmatic naturalism, and most recently – existentialism and positivism. The new radical secularity has thus appeared with no sense of ultimate order or meaning.
   This translates into a concentration solely on immediate knowledge or value and asserts either the meaninglessness of ultimate metaphysical or religious questions (positivism), or the complete absence or irrelevance of ultimate answers (existentialism). Man is alone and alien in the flux of reality and quite autonomous with regard to meaning and value. Value becomes any value.
   This mood brought with it an emphasis on religion as of value for this life only and on ethics as having relevance only for one’s concern for his neighbor’s welfare (an inversion of the Great Commandment). In the 1800’s this mentality formed the secularization (or de-sacralizing) of traditional theology (metaphysical ultimacy). The resulting evolution of Christian theology became a Neo-orthodoxy contenting itself with existential analysis of man and a relativized Holy Scripture of experienced “word-events”. The effects of God’s activity could be spoken of (in history, documents, and experience), but not the activity itself.
   At this point, a “religionless Christianity” appeared powerfully as a religion that seeks to understand itself in some terms other than mankind’s dependence upon God, and to realize itself totally in the “secular”, in the service to the neighbor (Christian humanism) in the world.
   The divine became elusive and people began to wonder if what was traditional referred more to hope than experienced reality – a challenge for any pulpit today! Questioning the authority of the Bible as the actual and revealed Word of God (rather than just a historical document) is becoming a philosophical/political pastime in Christian activism.
   Preachers and Christian teachers alike will have to wrestle with the climate of the Word being heard simply as a “word event” or as a life changing experience over against secular consciousness. Practical preaching and teaching must reach into the natural, temporal, and communal mind of contemporary society to be effective. This ‘reach’ will itself change that which is secular into that which is divine and reveal the meaningless of secular language to explain reality. This is not only the 21^st century challenge to the development of Christianity, it has been since Christ gave the Great Commission. It is nothing new, except mankind trying once again to explain ultimate matters with new philosophical languages. 
Secularization - Secularization is a contentious term because the concept can be confused with secularism. Most people understand that this is a reference both to the cultural shifts in society following the emergence of rationality and the development of science as a substitute for religion. This has reduced the authority of Christian denominational hierarchy as custodians of revealed knowledge, and, as the responsibility for education has moved from the family and community to the state, two consequences have arisen: 1) the collective (community) conscience has been diminished and the individual conscience has been elevated and; 2) through the fragmentation of communal activities, religion has become more a matter of individual choice rather than observed/participatory social obligation. In the 21^st century, this is seen when a person sees himself or herself as a Christian, but has no particular need or loyalty to a local church (as a church family), pastor, or denomination – except in passing.
   The secularization of the West was a response to intra-Christian tensions (wars) between Catholicism and Protestantism. Some have therefore argued that Western secularization is radically different because it deals with autonomy from religious regulation and control. This is a mistake. Both considerations of tolerance and autonomy are relevant to any secular state, though perhaps not always in the same proportions.
   Liberal theorists consider traditional religious values to be obstacles to modernization. However, the very idea of ‘secularization’ would not exist except for the place Christianity holds in the transformative and evolutionary processes that led to modernity and relativism. In this, Christianity (and other religions) may legitimize modernization by adaptation or polarize by engaging in fundamentalism.
   This will be a challenge to Christianity in the 21^st century. In many ways Christianity must realize what it did in the Middle Ages to help create secularization by subjugating the populace, spending its time building a treasury, burning people at the stake, and making war with those who disagreed. Christianity has the ability to rise to a higher rationality in this new century and, for it to be credible, it has to do so. Otherwise, its future will be to wallow in a morass of defensive apologetics, self-analysis, and self-absorption.
   Here are some ways to understand secularization (Sommerville, 1989):
a. When discussing macro social structures, secularization refers to differentiation: a process in which the various aspects of society (economics, politics, law, and morality) become increasingly discrete in relation to each other.
b. When discussing individual institutions, secularization refers to the transformation of a religious into a secular institution. An example would be the evolution of Harvard University from a predominantly religious institution into a secular institution (with a divinity school now housing the religious element illustrating differentiation).
c. When discussing activities, secularization refers to the transfer of activities from religious to secular institutions. In most Western countries, government, the not-for-profit sector and the private sector have taken over the provision of social welfare functions. This is a result of the failure of the church in the pre-Enlightenment era as society filled the vacuum.
d. When discussing mentalities, secularization refers to the transition from ultimate (cosmological) concerns to proximate (immediate/practical) concerns.
e. When discussing populations, secularization refers to broad patterns of societal decline in levels of religiosity as opposed to the individual-level (mentalities) secularization. A way to understand is that the religion of the community and become the religion of the individual.
f. When discussing religion, secularization is used unambiguously to refer to religion in a generic sense. For example, a reference to Christianity is not clear unless one specifies exactly which denomination of Christianity is being discussed.
Situation Ethics - This refers to a particular view of ethics from the 1960's (Joseph Fletcher) that states that the morality of an act is a function of the state of the system at the time it is performed. This is frequently confused with moral relativism, which states that there is no universal moral truth, that there are only beliefs and perspectives, none more valid than another. Situational ethics by itself does not say whether there are universal truths or not; it only says that the state of the system at the time of an act must be included in consideration of the act.
   The term 'situational ethics' has been broadened in the late 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century to include numerous situations in which a code of ethics is 'designed' to suit the needs of the situation.
Substituting Evil For Good - This is very old immorality and it goes back to the times of the great prophets of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah. It has become a defensive mechanism by those involved in it when offering their own 'apologetic' for being Christian and, at the same time, participating in calling evil good. This is done by giving attractive names to practices the Bible calls evil. Examples are:
Affair (fornication, adultery, illicit sex)
Alternate lifestyle (immoral sexuality)
Abortion (taking the life of an unborn baby)
Becoming a Man/Woman (giving away one's virginity)
Sexually Active (promiscuous, sexually immoral)
Pro-choice (pro-abortion)
Adult Entertainment (pornography, strip joints)
Adult Videos (pornographic videos)
New Age (Eastern philosophies)
Old Fashioned (adhering to Biblical standards of morality)
Rigid, Inflexible, Intolerant (sticking to one's opinion, especially on Biblical moral issues)
   Justifying sin that God plainly calls abhorrent is immoral. To be a professing and practicing  Christian and justify evil behavior by calling it good, is highly immoral.
The Biblical Model of Ethics - The Bible gives an ethics model consisting of three moral codes. They are the Ten Commandments (given by Moses) in the Old Testament, the Beatitudes (given by Jesus) in the New Testament, and the moral teachings of St. Paul - also given in the New Testament.
   There are three elements to the moral code of St. Paul's theology: 1) freedom in Christ means the freedom to be moral; 2) standards of Christian morality are introduced by the power of the Holy Spirit working in the believer; and 3) Christian life should be lived by trusting Jesus.

PATRIOTISM                  TOP

War - War is immoral. We have, however, a responsibility to protect this country and its democracy - perhaps selfishly to enjoy freedom of (not from) religion.
   It is plainly repugnant and immoral to 1) make war without a just reason; 2) make war to dominate others; 3) manipulate the public by making an excuse for war to protect or improve business interests in the name of freedom; and 4) maintain a war by borrowing money from others nations to pay for the war, thereby making them a moral contributor to violence and death.
Just War - Participation in war can be morally 'acceptable' under certain conditions. This is called the 'just war theory'. War is justifiable when it is undertaken in self-defense and when one has been the target of aggression, like terrorism when the enemy had no country. War is sometimes regrettably necessary to maintain security and justice within one's borders.
   War is justifiable under seven conditions. One, the war must be prompted by a just cause, defined as a defensive war. Unprovoked aggression is immoral. Two, the war must have a just intention, which is to secure a fair peace for all parties involved. Wars of national revenge, economic exploitation, and ethnic cleansing are immoral. Three, the war must be a last resort and diplomatic efforts must be exhausted. Four, the war must be initiated with a formal declaration by the highest authorities in the government. Five, the war must be characterized by limited objectives. The purpose of war is the restoration of peace, not total annihilation, unconditional surrender, or wholesale destruction of a nation's infrastructure and ability to rebuild following war. That is immoral. Six, the amount of force used in the war must be proportionate to the threat. Total destruction is immoral. Seven, the war must respect noncombatant immunity. It is immoral to purposefully target/disrespect non-hostile civilians, wounded soldiers, and prisoners of war.
Nationalism & Patriotism - Nationalism is the sense of loyalty and devotion one has for a nation. It is a devotion to the ideals and principles upon which the nation was founded and it is a devotion to holding one's nation accountable to the standards created by those ideals. Devotion to one's nation should go only so far as that nation embodies those ideals, otherwise the good becomes extremism. For instance, sovereignty should aim at being a just and open society, respecting the rights of minorities, anticipating peace with other nations, and not being identified as the highest good. God is the highest good. A nation should not exist merely to preserve a culture but it should exist also for justice, equality, and human rights. The danger to a healthy nationalism is to treat it as an intermediate and passing phase on the way to cosmopolitan universalism and dispassionate civic responsibility.
   Patriotism denotes positive attitudes by a person to their nation - its culture, its members, and to its interests. There are three forms of patriotism. One is personal patriotism, which is emotional and voluntary. The patriot in this sense adheres to certain patriotic values, such as respect for the flag and those who have given their lives for the country's values. When the entire population of a nation shares adherence to such worthy values, it is called ideological patriotism. The third is official patriotism, which is the promotion of a nation by its leaders, which is highly symbolic and ceremonial in content, and derives its legitimacy from being the expression of the nation - which may or may not be accurate at any given time in the nation's history.
Presidential Ethics - The President of the United States should be a model of high moral behavior.

WORSHIP                  TOP

Historical Changes in the BCP - There has always been consternation among Episcopalians when one BCP replaces another BCP. That goes on to this day. At present, there is planning to remove some masculine language from the BCP - liturgies, psalms, and lectionary.
   Studies began a few years ago to make available the Revised Common Lectionary readings for Sundays and Holy Days, in addition to the traditional (Book of Common Prayer) lections. The General Convention which authorized the trial use of the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) actually modified the RCL (which is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible) slightly to conform to Episcopal worship needs. Currently, individual churches, under the guidance of the rector, and with the permission of their bishop, may use the trial Revised Common Lectionary in place of the Book of Common Prayer lections. You may wish to visit the site of the Office of Liturgy and Music of the Episcopal Church to learn more. The asset of the RCL is the greater use of the Old Testament.
   The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music did a major survey of congregational liturgical usage in the year 2000. 1145 congregations responded to the questionnaire, which asked, among other things, what lectionaries are in use on Sunday. 83% reported always using the Prayer Book Lectionary. 17% reported always using the RCL. 22% reported often using the RCL and 30% report occasional use of the RCL.
   Immorality is possible in two ways. One, if the changes in the Psalms do not conform to the original texts, then the changes are not scholarly (accurate). In that case, the changes would be political and immoral because 1) they would be a misrepresentation and 2) Biblical commandments plainly state the Word should not be changed and 3) there is a consequence for those who do change it. Two, the NRSV (1990) is a politicized translation of the Bible that lies somewhere between the RSV and the NIV in accuracy. It is not 'fully' accurate, when held up to scholarly biblical criticism. With the RCL using that translation, Episcopalians are not being offered the most exacting standards in the use of the Bible in public worship.
   In the Episcopal Church an overwhelming majority of the people do not know anything about these changes. Therefore, these changes will eventually become permanent, as cultural language evolutionizes the language of Episcopal worship practices.
Inclusive Language - With the publication of the Revised Standard Version (1952) of the Bible, there is very little need to change anything in the text involving gender issues of language. It clarified most gender issues, although it did not make many traditional biblical students happy.
   The NRSV (1990) is another story. It has taken gender to a new level. It modernizes and simplifies the language of the RSV even more in the interest of "gender-inclusiveness." In general, the translation is less literal than the RSV, but more literal than the New International Version. The NRSV is a 'politicized' Bible, that is, quite frankly, not that easy to publically read (lectoring). The inclusive language alterations in the NRSV are very thorough, involving thousands of alterations designed to erase many of the Bible's generic masculine pronouns and other usages offensive to feminists.
   The NRSV was quickly adopted as a replacement of the RSV in the liberal denominations associated with the National Council of Churches. It has also been favored by liberal university professors, for use as a text in "religion" courses. Two study editions have appeared: The New Oxford Annotated Bible (1991), edited by Bruce Metzger and Roland Murphy; and the Harper Collins Study Bible (1993) edited by Wayne Meeks and others. In both of these editions, the introductions and annotations are decidedly liberal.
   Obviously, there is little chance of the NRSV becoming popular outside of the shrinking "mainline" churches for whom it was executed. Indeed, it may be wondered whether any considerable attention will given to it even within these churches, in which the exegetical study of the Bible has practically ceased.
   Christian scholars should continue textual research of the Bible in order to produce an increasingly accurate and helpful text for worship and study needs. Where textual variances are discovered, they should be compared and contrasted for original accuracy.
   It has never been the purpose of God's Word, which has evolved for over thousands of years, to have personal or political self interest (especially by Christian denominations) change it. That is immoral, but that seems to be what is happening as 'cultural' Bibles are produced.
Same Sex Liturgies - There are several Christian denominations ‘debating’ the development of same-sex church liturgies (rituals). Same-sex rituals (in one form or another) have been ‘tolerated’ in societies since the thirteenth century, but they have not been tolerated in Western society.
   Within the last two decades, there are several Christian denominations in Western society which are positioning their constituency to condone and create these rituals. What will ultimately happen will depend on the ethical positions of clergy and laity meeting in legislative sessions and what advanced planning that has (or has not) been done for or against same-sex rituals by each denomination. 
   The Christian Bible is the main source of authority for Christians and such rituals, services, and liturgies developed and practiced by any Christian denomination would break the commandments. The development and practice of same-sex rituals, services, liturgies in the Christian religion is, therefore, disobedience to God and a clear challenge to God as an issue of moral authority (ethics).
   In the New Testament, Jesus affirms Biblical authority by saying:

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15.10)

“By this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments.” (I John 2.3)

“All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.” (I John 3.24)

“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments…” (I John 5.3)

   God’s commandments, however, are not the guiding authority of state government and activists within several Christian denominations are following court decisions in the development of same-sex rituals.
   Same-sex unions unfold historically in 1) the pre-modern antecedents of Western (European) culture; 2) Native American, African, and Asian cultures prior to Westernization; and 3) the modern period, in which Western culture has dominated the world. In the modern period, same-sex marriage has been suppressed, but it has recently emerged in the West in legal challenges and decisions.
   In the early 1970s, same-sex couples applied for marriage licenses, asked courts to allow one partner to adopt the other, and took other steps to legally cement their relationships. Many of these efforts failed. By the mid 1980s, same-sex couples were seeking domestic partnership recognition from cities and private companies. This effort continued with increasing strength in the 1990s and on into the early 21st century. In recent years, same-sex couples have made enormous strides toward equal (rights) recognition of their ‘families’.
   In response to a Supreme Court mandate, the Vermont legislature passed the Vermont Civil Union law, which went into effect on July 1, 2000. While this law doesn't legalize same-sex marriages, it does provide gay and lesbian couples with many of the same advantages, including:

• rights under family laws such as annulment, divorce, child custody, child support, alimony, domestic violence, adoption, and property division
• rights to sue for wrongful death, loss of consortium, and under any other tort or law concerning spousal relationships
• medical rights such as hospital visitation, notification, and durable power of attorney
• family leave benefits
• joint state tax filing, and
• property inheritance when one partner dies without a will.

These rights apply only to couples living in Vermont. But even for Vermont residents this new civil union law does not give same-sex couples the rights and benefits federal law provides to male-female married couples. Same-sex couples are not eligible for Social Security benefits, immigration privileges, or the marriage exemption to federal estate tax. Vermont also permits reciprocal beneficiaries relationships, which provide the same health care decision-making rights available to spouses and couples in civil unions.
   In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court held that the state law barring same-sex marriage was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts constitution and ordered the legislature to remedy the discrimination within six months (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health). In February 2004, the court ruled that offering civil unions instead of civil marriage would not meet the requirements set forth in Goodridge. As a result, same-sex couples in Massachusetts can enter into civil marriages, and a few thousand of them have done so already. The Massachusetts legislature has been considering an amendment to the state constitution to forbid marriage between same-sex couples, but the soonest such an amendment could take effect is 2006.
   On February 12, 2004 the San Francisco mayor ordered city clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Since then numerous other U.S. cities have followed this lead, and the entire country's attention has been drawn to the debate. The California Supreme Court eventually voided all of the marriages performed in 2004; court cases in Oregon had the same result. But lawsuits in San Francisco and elsewhere, challenging restrictions on same-sex marriage, are making their way through the courts.
   In April 2005, the Connecticut legislature passed a civil union law giving couples who enter into civil unions all of the same rights and responsibilities as spouses under state law. Hawaii's Reciprocal Beneficiaries law provides some marriage-like benefits. Maine recently enacted a domestic partnership law offering some limited benefits to registered partners. New Jersey's new domestic partner law, passed in January 2004, applies to same-sex couples and to opposite-sex couples in which one partner is 62 or older. In California, the updated domestic partner law gives broad new rights and places extensive new responsibilities on registered partners. As of January 1, 2005, registered domestic partners in California have many of the same rights and obligations as legally married spouses under state law, including community property rights and the right to receive support from one's partner after a separation.  Superior courts will have jurisdiction over termination of domestic partnerships, unless the relationship was of short duration and there are no children and no jointly owned property. There has been significant backlash against the new law, but all challenges to it have failed so far.
   Although the U.S. Constitution requires each state to give “full faith and credit” to the laws of other states, the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), passed in 1996, expressly undercuts the full faith and credit requirement in the case of same-sex marriages. Many states have also passed DOMA laws, specifically barring same-sex marriages in that state. Because of the apparent conflict between the federal DOMA and the U.S. Constitution, as well as all the other uncertainties in this area, equal rights advocates - and their opponents - are eager to have the U.S. Supreme Court decide the issue of same-sex marriage.
   Since same-sex marriages are illegal in most states in the United States, they are also obviously illegal for Christians in those states. A clear moral issue for Christian denominations considering development of same-sex liturgies would be to do so knowing that same-sex marriages are illegal in most states. Therefore, the development by Christian denominational leaders of such liturgies in those situations is misleading their constituency because such liturgical development is immoral on more than religious grounds.
   Interestingly, the resolutions to develop same-sex liturgies in some Christian denominations does not mention homosexuality, gay or lesbian, or sex. The resolutions call for liturgies to support all couples living in life-long committed relationships of mutuality and fidelity outside the relationship of marriage. This, in itself, represents the legitimization of promiscuity which also violates Biblical commandments.
   Liberal activists in support of same-sex liturgies often view any opposition as cruel and homophobic. Conservatives activists, in turn, often view the actions of liberal activists as heterophobic, ethically uninformed (using identity ‘rights’ for sex agenda), and acting contrary to the commandments of God.  
   Same-sex liturgical planning has been going on since the mid 1970’s by hard working liberal revisionists, also known as neo-isolationists. The same-sex liturgical movement has steady momentum and it is scoring progressive victories against conservatives in several Christian denominations. Where same-sex liturgies become standard in traditionally liturgical (catholic) denominations, those denominations will become smaller denominations of congregationalists. Congregationalism is church government placing final authority in the assembly of the local congregation. The evolution of congregationalism in global denominations will first come through division and then separatism, creating nationalistic denominations with secular agenda.
   Same-sex rituals in Christian denominations are immoral for more reasons than breaking the commandments and creating assemblies of congregationalists. The rituals will also destroy long standing ecumenical relationships and divide Christians – locally and globally. Christian denominations that have seen themselves as ‘one, holy, catholic, and apostolic’ in their creedal statements will no longer be able to claim this theological posture. Because of division, they will no longer be one and catholic in their unity (theology and fellowship). Because same-sex rituals are contrary to the commandments, they will not be considered by the ecumenical councils of the church as holy and because of congregationalism, they will cease being apostolic. There could be a permanent and severe loss of Christian heritage. Those who legislate should think long and hard about what they are doing in this matter.
Worship As Enterprise - Richard Halverson, former U.S. Senate Chaplain, once said, "Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship; then it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; from there it went to Rome and became an institution; after that it went to Europe and became a government. Finally, it came to America where it has been made into an enterprise." This is clear in Christian worship in many parts of the world where Christian worship is more closely identified with performing arts centers, secular marketing, and real estate ventures. Christian community in worship, the vision of the New Testament, has in an increasing number of Christian denominations become entrepreneurial capitalism. This is immoral.

RELIGION                  TOP

Biblical Interpretation - In the words of Brian Knowles, God chose three languages in which to preserve his revelation to mankind: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. To understand the meaning of the Bible, it is necessary that someone knows intimately the languages of Scripture and is able to interpret them for the rest of us. The process of interpreting Scripture – that is, drawing out of the text its meaning – is called exegesis.
   Languages have rules. When one violates the rules of language, the end product is gibberish and confusion. Much Bible interpretation today is subjective and intuitive, agenda driven, and otherwise politicized. Because the text as it stands does not naturally yield a meaning that serves the interests of certain groups, theologians representing these groups often perform eisogesis (reading into the text what one wants it to mean) rather than exegesis. Doing editorial violence to the text of Scripture denigrates the Bible’s authority. If the writing down of those thoughts that eventually became Scripture was an inspired process, then robbing them of their intended meaning and imposing upon them a false meaning is an act of defiance against the God that inspired them. This is to be expected of a natural, unconverted mind. It should not be expected of the mind yielded to God.
   Before one can determine what a given text might mean, one must establish what it meant for its original audience. The process of exegesis has standard rules. Generally, they are:
Rule 1: Establish the text
Rule 2: Confirm the text limits
Rule 3: Become acquainted with the text
Rule 4: Survey the historical context 
Rule 5:  Analyze sentence structures
Rule 6: Analyze the grammar
Rule 7: Analyze significant words
Rule 8: Survey the cultural context
Rule 9. Consider the biblical/theological contexts Rule 10: Consult secondary literature
Rule 11: Make an interpretation
   The goal of an exegete of Scripture should be to allow the passage being examined to yield its intended meaning, not to impose meaning upon it. Imposing truth upon interpretation of the Bible that is uninformed personal opinion is immoral.
   Recommended Reading: New Testament Exegesis by Gordon D. Fee, Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, Revised edition, 1993.
Biblical Literacy - Originally, the oral tradition of passing along the acts of God was translated and written in Syriac, Old Latin, and Coptic (Egyptian). From these languages the Bible was later written in Hebrew (including some Aramaic) and Hellenistic Greek (the common language). Then the Bible was later translated into other languages. The word ‘Bible’ comes from ‘biblia’ (papyrus rolls), which means ‘the books’ – which became ‘the Books’, and then ‘the Book’. The Bible began as God acted in human history and it was ‘remembered’ from one generation to another in oral stories. 
   These oral stories were put on the earliest writing mediums - clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, stone (Ten Commandments), leather, parchment, wood and wax, and metal – which were all common from 700-900 B.C. As papyrus (rough animal skins) turned into parchment (smooth animal skins) and parchment into paper, the production of modern Bibles as books became common. Paper was invented in China in 105 A.D. and it did not make it to Europe until the 1100's.
   The Old Testament was ‘together’ by 400 B.C. and the New Testament was written between 50 - 100 A.D. The Septuagint of 200 B.C. was a Hebrew text translated into Greek and it was the only Bible of the early Christian church. All of the original autographs of the NT perished, so we have only handmade copies from some 5300 Greek manuscripts, the best copies dating from 200 – 400 A.D.
   In 384 A.D. Jerome translated the Gospels and the OT from Hebrew and Old Latin into Latin. This was the Latin Vulgate, the bible of Western Europe for 1000 years and the first official bible of the Roman Catholic Church. Other languages translated from the Latin Vulgate.
   Although the NT manuscripts had traditional titles and many more chapters for each book, it was not until the 1200’s that the Bible was first set into chapters as we know them today by Parisian theologian Stephen Langston. It was not until 1551 that the bible was set into verses, although Caedmon had set some stories into verse by 600 A.D. In 1881 the NT in original Greek was published by Westcott and Hort. Interestingly, it was not until 1896-1897 that the oldest known manuscripts of the NT were discovered. Westcott and Hort, however, state that only a thousandth part of the Greek NT represents substantial variation, and even here not a single principle of faith or divine command is involved.
   The books of the Bible were authoritative long before there were Councils of the church, so the Bible owes its authority to no individual or group, no matter how scholarly. No Christian denomination controls the canon, because the canon controls the Christian Church. For instance, by the time of Jesus, the OT canon was fixed and called “Scripture.”
   The first English version from the Latin was printed by John Wycliffe in 1382. In 1525 William Tyndale created an English NT from a translation of the original Greek. In 1530, he completed the Penteteuch. He was burned at the stake for this in 1536. In 1539 the Great Bible was printed and this was the first time English bibles were authorized to be read in churches and copies were allowed in churches. In 1611 the Authorized Version (KJV) was printed and its revision was printed in 1885 as the English Revised Version. In 1952 the Revised Standard Version was printed, taking into allowance new manuscript discoveries and correction of textual variations to the AV and the ERV. In 1990 the New Revised Standard Version was printed altering paragraph structure, reducing additional archaisms, and eliminating masculine language when references were made to both men and women. The RSV of 1952, however, remains the most accurate translation of the Bible.
   The final authority of Christian beliefs is the Bible, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. The Bible was uniquely, verbally, and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, without variance in the faith stories in the original manuscripts. There is a huge difference in saying there are no errors in the faith stories and saying there are no errors in the text of the original languages, because they are periodically discovered by archeologists and corrected by biblical language scholars in modern translations. Therefore, the error argument is not "either/or", which is a common misconceived debate in contemporary society. The Bible has always been literally true by faith.
Church Growth - According to Dr. Thom S. Rainer of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, there are presently seven characteristics of growing churches. They are:
1. A clear message and a conviction of doctrine.
2. Preaching is primary.
3. Evangelism is intentional: bringing the un-churched and unconverted to Christ.
4. Prayer is pervasive.
5. Membership expectations are high.
6. Emphasis on small groups.
7. Receptivity to change: meeting the needs of the Kingdom rather than personal needs and preferences.
Creation/Evolution/Intelligent Design - The Christian west held authoritative sway over interpretation of creation for centuries because scientific instruments and methodologies were not developed. With the growth of scientific observation and experimentation, there began to appear from about the middle of the 16th century glimpses of the theory of evolution that emerged in the mid 19th century.
   The transition from the medieval to the modern world was foreshadowed by economic expansion, political centralization, and secularization. A money economy weakened serfdom and an inquiring spirit stimulated the age of science. Banking, the bourgeois class, and secular ideals flourished in the growing towns and lent support to the expanding monarchies. The church was weakened by internal conflicts as well as by quarrels between church and state. As feudal strength was sapped, there emerged in France and England the modern nation state. A forerunner of intellectual modernity was the new humanism of the Renaissance.
   Finally, the great medieval unity of Christianity was shattered by the religious theories that culminated in the Protestant Reformation. The long and short of it is that the church became its own worst enemy, the scientific world emerged under pluralism and humanism, and the church was left behind in dialogue between religion and science. So, any 'dialogue' would be recent and healthy. Science and Christianity should fit together like a hand and glove, but as of late they do not because of the continuing divisive nature of philosophers, theologians, and empiricists who cannot agree about the commonality of their disciplines. They have effectively divided the public into political dialogue, whose bottom line has essentially become greed and a hard uncivil nature.
   Some today believe in Biblical creation, others believe in Intelligent Design, others believe in evolution - and many believe in nothing. It would, and hopefully will, be helpful for similar but divergent disciplines to support one another in the creation dialogue. The reason they cannot do that is intolerance of differing world views.
   The Biblical story of creation is a theological means of describing a scientific event and the marriage of the two is reasonable. It is the human condition to be empirical because that condition is limited. What theology can explain, empiricism cannot. For instance, in the universe there are between 120-150 billion galaxies and empiricism cannot account for the existence of even one. Galaxies revolve around black holes with singularity. This is beyond empiricism. The universe is 13.7 billion years old, according to the 2003 data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. Empiricism cannot explain that or what is beyond the beginning of it. The nearest galaxy is 50 million light years away. Empirically, we can't even figure out how to live on our own moon and we've only set foot on it several times. We seek to go to Mars and the human body cannot survive even that "small" trip. Our own galaxy would take 100,000 years to cross at light speed (299,792,458 meters per second).
   Empiricism needs to learn that it will never ultimately be able to explain what the Bible (God's Word) explained long before empiricism existed. As Stanford University physicist Leonard Susskind said in 2006, "We, and all we can see, are at most a tiny dot in an unimaginably large sea of space and time." Empirically, we would think we are masters of our space and time. However, sin creates such pride and no one knows we are even here except God - who created and put us here for His loving purpose.
Spiritual Development - The spiritual development of an individual begins with God and continues with their socialization.
   For a Christian, development is influenced by reason (the development of the heart and mind by Holy Scripture and tradition), Holy Scripture (the Word of God), and tradition (worship) and it is 'dynamic' throughout life.
   It begins with experienced faith and then may move through affiliative, searching, and owned faith. The conversion process, therefore, takes place as faith given, faith questioned, and faith rooted. An individual's faith is unique to that person and different from all other people because of the unique influences upon that person's life.
   It is a Christian tradition not to be judgmental about a person's faith because they are 'who they are' and 'where they are' in their walk with God. The only one who has a patent on whether or not a person was saved, is saved, or will be saved is God and we are not called to be God.
Spiritual Syncretism - The creation of a new religion or denomination by blending the values of culture into the values of a religion or denomination, thereby creating a new 'ethic' in that religion or denomination.
   The Old Testament is almost entirely written showing God's tremendous displeasure with what continues to be a contemporary practice.
   In Christian church history, this has been a major source of division, death, religious war, hatred, and prejudice. Legislatively, it is a major source of  present day division in Christian denominations.
Church Politics - This is not only a human side of the life of the church, it a normal and theological side. It means we are 'sometimes' in conversation with one another. It is the working out of the democratic process in the life and affairs of the church and it is very important to our stability, progress, and growth. It is best to claim it, even if at times it is not lived to one's satisfaction.
Occult/Cults - Christians consider them unorthodox. Most are extreme in nature and dangerous for human development.
Ecumenical Discussions- We are called to work in harmony and love with our brothers and sisters in different denominations. It is immoral to compete with other Christian denominations.

ENVIRONMENT                  TOP

Global Warming - Global warming describes an increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans. The terms global warming or anthropogenic global warming are also used to describe the theory that increasing temperatures are the result of a strengthening greenhouse effect caused primarily by man-made increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
   The United States is the leading global contributor of heat-trapping greenhouse gases (16%) and has ruled out joining any U.N.-led talks in coming years on ways to rein in rising temperatures.
   The scientific opinion on climate change, as expressed by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is that the average global temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 °C since the late 1800’s, and that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities", mostly the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. A small minority of qualified scientists contest the view that humanity's actions have played a significant role in increasing recent temperatures. Uncertainties do exist regarding how much climate change should be expected in the future, and a hotly contested political and public debate exists over what actions, if any, should be taken in light of global warming.
   Based on the climate models referenced by the IPCC, temperatures may increase by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees (C) between 1990 and 2100. This is expected to result in other climate changes including rises in sea level and changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation. Such changes may increase extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, change agricultural yields, or contribute to biological extinctions. Although warming is expected to affect the frequency and magnitude of these events, it is very difficult to connect any particular event to global warming.
Pollution - Pollution is the release of harmful contaminants into the environment. Generally, the process results from human activity to be regarded as pollution. Pollution can take two major forms - local pollution and global pollution. Awareness of both kinds of pollution has led to the environmental movement, which seeks to limit the human impact on the environment.
   Traditional forms of pollution include air pollution, water pollution, and radioactive contamination while a broader interpretation of the word has led to the idea of many other types of pollution.
   We all have a responsibility to be environmentally friendly to protect God’s creation, which he has entrusted to us. A good learning resource is the Environmental Protection Agency.

WELFARE & THE FAMILY                  TOP

Adoption - Adoption is the legal act of permanently placing a child with a parent or parents other than the birth parents. Adoption results in the severing of the parental responsibilities and rights of the biological parents and the placing of those responsibilities and rights with the adoptive parents. After the finalization of an adoption, there is little or no legal difference between biological and adopted children.
   Different jurisdictions have varying laws on adoption and post-adoption. Some practice confidential or closed adoption, preventing further contact between the adopted person and the biological parents, while others have varying degrees of open adoption, which may allow such contact. An underreported fact is that open adoptions are not legally enforceable agreements in many jurisdictions.
   Adoptions occur for many reasons. Many children are placed for adoption as a result of the biological parents' decision that they are unable to adequately care for a child. In some countries, where single motherhood may be considered scandalous and unacceptable, some women in this situation make an adoption plan for their infants. In some cases, they abandon their children at or near an orphanage, so that they can be adopted.
   Some biological parents involuntarily lose their parental rights. This usually occurs when the children are placed in foster care because they were abused, neglected or abandoned. Eventually, if the parents cannot resolve the problems that caused or contributed to the harm caused to their children (such as alcohol or drug abuse), a court may terminate their parental rights and the children may then be adopted.
   Only a small percentage of adopted children are those orphaned because of the death of their biological parents.
   The main reason for adopting varies from one country to the next, depending largely on social and legal structures. The inability to reproduce biologically is a common reason. The most prevalent obstacle to producing a biological child is infertility. Another obstacle is the lack of a partner of the opposite sex or a lack of desire to use a surrogate or sperm donor. Single people and same-sex couples often adopt for this reason. In many Western countries, step-parent adoption is the most common form of adoption as people choose to cement a new family following divorce or death of one parent.
   Some couples or individuals adopt children even though they are fertile. Some may choose to do this in order to avoid contributing to perceived overpopulation, or out of the belief that it is more responsible to care for otherwise parent-less children than to reproduce. Others may do so to avoid passing on diseases or out of health concerns relating to pregnancy and childbirth. Others believe that it is an equally valid form of family building, neither better than nor worse than biology.
   A 2004 report from the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care has shown that the number of children waiting in foster care to be adopted doubled since the 1980s and now remains steady at about a half-million a year.
   Obviously, there are many good reasons to adopt a child.
Civil Unions & Partnerships - A civil union is one of several terms for a civil status similar to marriage, typically created for the purposes of allowing same-sex couples access to the benefits enjoyed by married opposite-sex couples. It can also be used by opposite-sex couples who do not prefer to enter into the legal institution of marriage but who would rather be in a union more similar to a common-law marriage. Jurisdictions that have passed civil unions include Vermont (2000) and Connecticut (2005).
   Many different types of civil unions exist. Some are identical to marriage in nearly every respect except name; some have many but not all of the rights accorded to married couples (sometimes called registered partnerships); some are simple registries (also called domestic partnerships.)
   A registered partnership is one of several terms for a civil status similar to marriage, typically created for the purposes of allowing same-sex couples access to the legal and social benefits of traditional marriage. Many countries have enacted a Registered Partnership Act to allow for registered partnership.
   A domestic partner or domestic partnership identifies the personal relationship between individuals who are living together and sharing a common domestic life together but are not joined in any type of legal partnership, marriage or civil union. Some legal jurisdictions recognize that individuals who live together after a long period of time, while not entitled to common-law marriage status may be entitled to some protection under the legal concept of domestic partnership. In some places parties that live together enter into domestic partnership agreements in order to contractually agree to certain issues between them in relation to joint property ownership, support obligations and similar issues to that found in marriage. Some jurisdictions have instituted domestic partnerships as a way to recognize same-sex unions.
   On September 4, 2003 the California legislature passed an expanded domestic partnership bill, extending nearly all the legal rights of married couples to people in same-sex partnerships. This effectively transformed California domestic partnerships into civil unions. Potentially serious legal issues arise from the conflict between state domestic partnership and same-sex-marriage laws, and the structure of U.S. Federal law, which, under the Defense of Marriage Act, explicitly does not extend Federal law recognition to those unions. This means that, for example, though they may essentially be "married" under the law of some states, partners would not be entitled to spousal "collateral" rights to Social Security and will not be treated as "spouses" for purposes of any Federal tax law.
   The church recognizes only the marriage between a man and woman. The church also recognizes the civil union between a man and a woman by blessing that union, provided the couple is living a lifestyle in accordance with Holy Scripture. Cohabitation is not seen by the church as moral.
Divorce - Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the ending of a marriage before the death of either spouse. In many developed countries, divorce rates have increased markedly during the twentieth century. Among the states in which divorce has become commonplace are the United States, Korea and members of the European Union. In U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and some other developed Commonwealth countries, this boom in divorce developed in the last half of the twentieth century. In addition, acceptance of the single-parent family has resulted in many women deciding to have children outside marriage as there is little remaining social stigma attached to unwed mothers due to the cultural liberalization of moral values. The price has been staggering for the American culture.
   A divorce is through a court of law, as a legal action is needed to dissolve the prior legal act of marriage. The terms of the divorce are also determined by the court, though they may take into account prenuptial agreements, or simply ratify terms that the spouses have agreed on privately. Often, however, the spouses disagree about the terms of the divorce, which can lead to stressful and expensive litigation. A less adversarial approach to divorce settlements has also emerged in recent years, known as family mediation, an attempt to negotiate mutually acceptable resolution to conflicts.
   In the United States, in 2003 there were 7.5 marriages per 1000 people and 3.8 divorces per 1000 according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In other words, there were half as many divorces as marriages that year. Statistics like these are frequently interpreted to mean that half of all marriages end in divorce. That conclusion, strictly speaking, does not follow from those data, but other government surveys of marriages over time have found similar percentages of marriages ultimately ending in divorce. A study [Bramlett 2001] based on a 1995 survey, found that 43 percent of first marriages ended in separation or divorce within 15 years, with 1 in 3 ending within 10 years and 1 in 5 ending within 5 years.
   According to [Brinig 2000], women currently file slightly more than two-thirds of divorce cases in the US. There is some variation among states, and the numbers have also varied over time, with about 60% of filings by women in most of the 19th century, and over 70% by women in some states just after no-fault divorce was introduced, according to the paper.
   Is divorce costly? States in the US handle billions of dollars in alimony and child support arrangements, which commonly result from divorces. According to a 2003 U.S. census report, 43.7 percent of custodial mothers and 56.2 percent of custodial fathers, are divorced or separated. A 2005 Census Bureau Report found that in 2002, $40 billion had been paid in support arrangements by 7.8 million payers, 84% of whom were men. States also collected federal incentives to collect support payments, with a potential incentive pool of up to $454 million in fiscal 2004. The National Child Support Enforcement Association, a child support advocacy group, claims that 60,000 professionals work to administer and enforce child support arrangements.
   Divorce is very costly - physically, financially, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. The scars last a lifetime and it often takes years to heal – and some never heal. The best place a marriage can start or re-start is in the church and doing things God’s way. By staying in the church and close to God, couples can maintain the stability they need for a strong and loving relationship throughout their life.
Orphans - An orphan is a child who has lost one (child who had a single surviving spouse) or both parents. Today, in the First World, most orphaned children are placed in foster care and then adopted by a permanent family as soon as possible.
   In the past and in much of the Third World, orphans often lived homeless as "street urchins", or received care in almshouses, orphanages, or occasionally monasteries. Orphans living in almshouses often shared space with the adult homeless and the (sometimes dangerously) mentally ill in an age when many mental illnesses were incurable.
   In some nations, faced with war and AIDS, a significant proportion of the young population is orphaned, which is a major humanitarian crisis. In China, infant daughters are often abandoned due to the one child policy, which also creates a significant number of orphans.
   Orphans typically suffer from adjustment problems related to identity, according to studies.
   SOS Children’s Villages are the world's largest non-governmental, non-denominational child welfare organizations providing stable homes and loving families for orphaned or abandoned children around the world since 1949. The largest existing orphanage in the United States is the Bethesda Home For Boys, founded in 1740 by George Whitefield. Another famous American orphanage is Girls and Boys Town, located outside Omaha, Nebraska. The term "orphanage" has been largely replaced by "group home" in the 21^st century. Many orphanages are run by religious organizations.
Pre-Nuptial Agreements - A prenuptial agreement or ante-nuptial agreement, commonly abbreviated to pre-nup, is a contract entered into by two people prior to marriage or civil union. The content of a prenuptial agreement can vary widely, but commonly includes provisions for the division of property should the couple divorce and any rights to spousal support during or after the dissolution of marriage. There are two types of pre-nups – a marriage contract for people who are married or about to be married and cohabitation agreements for unmarried couples.
   Cohabitation is not a Christian witness, but it does not mean a couple is sexually (physically) active. Elderly retired, for instance, sometimes live together so each can survive and have a quality of life that is not at the poverty level. In those cases, a pre-nup is very warranted.
   This can be a good thing and it can be something that is not good. For the majority of young couple’s without substantial assets, it is not necessary. For a person with substantial assets it is wise – regardless of age. Assets often cause many to depend less on each other or God for the maturing of a marriage and many have had their assets ruined by an immature or greedy spouse. This is especially true among the elderly, retired, and among the young who have, or stand to have, a substantial inheritance.
   Many widows and widowers have been financially ruined because a pre-nup was not in place prior to a marriage. This is because of improper management of wills.
   Pre-nuptial agreements are good for some and not helpful for others. Following a divorce or death of a spouse and remarriage, where there are assets that need protection, they are essential for personal health, family stability, and financial safety.
Workfare & Welfare - Workfare is an alternative model to conventional social welfare systems. Traditional welfare benefits are available with little required of the recipient, save their continued search for employment. Under workfare, recipients commonly have to attend special training programs or are simply forced into the work force.
   What are the arguments supporting workfare programs?

1. Reduced government spending due to the removal of people from the welfare rolls.

2. Moving welfare recipients into the workforce, even in entry level positions, has the potential to lead to future mobility. Collecting welfare, however, only prepares the recipient to continue to collect welfare.

3. There is evidence that workfare is a more effective means of alleviating poverty than traditional welfare.

4. In some communities, particularly in rural areas, living on public assistance becomes a way of life with little opportunity for improvement.

   What are the arguments supporting welfare programs?

1. Often, the skills employers are looking for include literacy and familiarity with modern information technology that recipients do not have. Workfare training programs offer little (or no) literacy or skills training.

2. Since many systems of workfare continue to pay only welfare benefits and not a decent hourly wage/salary during the first several months of employment, the workfare programs are often characterized as implementing a modern-day equivalent of slave labor - since the jobs are often menial or labor-intensive.

3. Workfare programs are viewed by the recipient as demeaning and add to the stigma that welfare recipients are lazy, unmotivated, and would do nothing unless the government intervened.

4. If there are simply no jobs available (such as in a recession), the extra expense of administering workfare programs is not offset by the reduced costs of 'removing' people from the welfare rolls.

5. Work requirements for welfare funds can put a strain on families with young children, especially when the families are headed by single mothers. Some, however, have countered this argument by positing that there is a benefit to children of having a parental role model who is working, even when left at home alone for most of their free time.

   What is needed is a balance between both of these arguments, instead of partisan bickering. The wealthy have time for debate. The poor only have time to survive.

LAW & CRIMINAL JUSTICE                  TOP

Capital Punishment - There are six reasons why capital punishment is immoral. One, the death penalty undermines the dignity of persons made in the image of God and cheapens human life. Two, mistakes in criminal justice for a person wrongly convicted are irreversible. Three, reform becomes impossible. Four, death sentences are usually accompanied by long and expensive appeals. Five, the way the death penalty is applied has inequities for minorities (particularly blacks) and the poor. Rarely do middle to upper class whites or the wealthy receive the death penalty. Six, the demand for justice is inconsistent with Jesus' ethic of forgiveness and redemption. Life imprisonment without parole is more reasonable than willfully killing another human being.
Gambling - Gambling (or betting) is any behavior involving risking money or property (making a wager or placing a stake) on the outcome of a game, contest, or other event in which the outcome of that activity depends partially or totally upon chance or upon one's ability to win.
   In extended usage, gambling may also refer to engaging in any high-risk behavior in which decisions occur based upon incomplete knowledge - for example, high-risk stock investments, difficult and potentially costly business or non-business ventures, or even personal relationships. Because of the negative connotations of the word "gambling", casinos and race tracks often use the euphemism "gaming" to describe the recreational gambling activities they offer.
   Gambling games predate recorded history, with examples recorded in virtually all ancient civilizations. Though many participate in gambling as a form of recreation or even as a means to gain an income, gambling can become a psychologically addictive and harmful behavior in some people.
   Gamblers Anonymous states that if a person answers “yes” to seven (7) of the following questions, they are addicted to gambling:

1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling?
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did gambling affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone?
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12. Were you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures?
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family?
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling?
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling?
20. Have you ever considered self destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling?

   Gambling can be as innocent as investing in the stock or real estate market, a home card game, or a recreational visit to a casino type entertainment center. When it becomes addictive, a person hurts themselves and those around them. In particular, it hurts their relationship with God, who does not desire for a person to suffer from the loss of business, family, and friends. When gambling becomes an addictive behavior, it is immoral. A word to the wise is stay away from anything that 'might' be addictive.
Human Trafficking - Trafficking in human beings is very common and it includes recruiting, harboring, obtaining, and transporting persons by use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjecting them to involuntary acts, such as commercial sexual exploitation (including prostitution) or involuntary labor, i.e., enslaving them.
   Human trafficking is the trade of human beings and their use by criminals to make money. This often means forcing or tricking people into prostitution, begging, or labor in sweatshops, domestic servitude and manual labor. Children are often forced to be child soldiers by transporting narcotics. Women and children are sold on the international market for forms of slavery - marriage, adoption, and ultra-low wage factory and agricultural work. In most cases both are subjected to degradation and servitude for the remainder of their lives.
   Traffickers use coercive tactics including deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, threat and use of physical force, debt bondage or even force-feeding with drugs of abuse to control their victims. Women are typically recruited with promises of good jobs in other countries or provinces, and, lacking better options at home, agree to migrate. Through agents and brokers who arrange the travel and job placements, women are escorted to their destinations and delivered to the employers. Upon reaching their destinations, some women learn that they have been deceived about the nature of the work they will do; most have been lied to about the financial arrangements and conditions of their employment; and all find themselves in coercive and abusive situations from which escape is both difficult and dangerous. Men are also at risk of being trafficked for unskilled work predominantly involving hard labor.
   A US Government report published in 2003, estimates that 800,000-900,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year. This figure does not include those who are trafficked internally. Up to 20,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year.
   Between 80% and 90% of victims trafficked across international borders are female and the majority of those are women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced into prostitution. The 1996 report of the United Nations Special Report on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography estimates that about one million children in Asia alone are victims of the sex trade. Human trafficking is so common now that it is the third most profitable criminal activity in the world after illegal drugs and arms trafficking. Globally, forced labor - which includes sexual exploitation - generates $31 billion, half of it in the industrialized world, and a tenth in transition countries. (International Labor Organization, 11 May 2005).
   Unlike drugs or arms, women and children can be "sold" several times. The trafficking in human beings is not new. But it is a rapidly growing problem. A number of factors have led to its expansion, such as the easy profits made from exploitation; growing deprivation and marginalization of the poor; discrimination against women; restrictive migration laws; a lack of information about the realities and dangers of trafficking and insufficient penalties against traffickers.
   The United States has taken a firm stance against human trafficking both within its borders and beyond. Domestically, human trafficking is prosecuted through the Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section of the United States Department of Justice. Older statutes used to protect 13th Amendment Rights within United States Borders are Title 18 U.S.C., Sections 1581 and 1584. Section 1584 makes it a crime to force a person to work against his or her will. This compulsion can be effected by use of force, threat of force, threat of legal coercion or by "a climate of fear", that is, an environment where an individual believes they may be harmed by leaving or refusing to work. Section 1581 similarly makes it illegal to force a person to work through "debt servitude". New laws were passed under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. See Human Trafficking.Org, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, or Amnesty USA.
Legislated Morality - An oxymoron is a concept that is made of contradictory or incongruous elements. "Legislated morality" is an oxymoron. In a democracy, moral behavior deemed right or wrong in/by that society is made law for all citizens by legislation.
   We live in a society of pluralism, which means there are a wide variety of moral beliefs/intents and worldviews competing for influence. Pluralism and tolerance are two hands on the same body of thought, so with the idea of 'making' certain morals law, one has to remember that there are many points of view and toleration is the mantra.
   Today, pluralism has changed. It has evolved into an acceptance of all world views as equally valid. Moving from toleration of world views formerly viewed as mistaken to acceptance of them as valid is a significant shift in the United States. Our state of affairs is that the founding fathers would never have imagined an American society in which the state would be neutral or hostile toward religion in general - "freedom of religion" is evolving into "freedom from religion" as pluralism increasingly becomes the tolerated "voice of America." This is the reason "legislated morality" should and has to be important to a Christian. If the Christian voice is not part of the answer to balancing pluralism in determining what is legally right and wrong, then it will become part of the problem to an overwhelming pluralistic local/state/national voice.
   Pluralism seems to be increasingly uncivil and hostile to Christians. This is due to the general apathy and laziness of Christians in the arena of "law making" over decades. Unwittingly, Christians have assumed things were 'okay' like they were in the "good old days" while many moral laws once deemed unacceptable by society have changed in front of them in the almost imperceptible drone of toleration in the name of justice, fairness, and equality - everything is just, everything is fair, and everything is equal. In pluralism, if it is not, then one is a victim. This evolution is a post-modern revolution.
   There are remedies. One, legislating morality should be actively pursued by Christians for all people, not just Christians. Two, legislating morality should continue to be embraced as an acceptable means of regulating behavior. Three, Christian churches should live by the morals they espouse. Today's society knows that it is common place for Christian churches to 'wink' at many sins, which are acceptable behaviors among pluralists - a clear double standard creating lost credibility. Four, Christians should become dedicated to the democratic process by voting in elections. This means knowing the moral positions of candidates, promoting those who hold reasonable Biblical views, and then actually voting for them. Five, Christians who hold the pluralistic moral view and want Biblical moral views to prevail in this society will be disappointed unless they embrace the Biblical view of morality. Six, Christian denominational leaders will fail their constituency and denigrate Christianity itself without representing the Biblical view of morality. A denomination that adopts all world views will become a denomination of world values and cease being Christian. Seven, churches should clarify on what basis some forms of immorality should be made illegal and others should not. Eight, Christians should get over their fear of being responsible about Biblical morals.
Nine, the church should be distinct, not only in its message, but also in the manner and style with which it attempts to influence American society.
Minorities - It is important for Christians to make a place for its minority members.
Racism - Christians should have no place for racism. It stands against everything God in Christ represents.
   Racial prejudice was the cause of more than half of the 7,649 hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2004. The number of race-based incidents rose to 4,042 from 3,844, a 5% increase. The FBI reports that prejudice against blacks made up 2,731 of those hate crimes.

SEXUALITY                  TOP

Sexual Victimization - Sexual victimization and intimidation (abuse) are sexual relations and behaviors between two or more parties which are considered criminally and/or morally offensive. Different types of sexual abuse involve: 1) non-consensual, forced physical sexual behavior such as rape or sexual assault; 2) psychological forms of abuse, such as verbal sexual behavior or stalking.
   Spousal abuse is the term applied to the specific form of domestic violence, where physical or sexual abuse is perpetuated by one spouse upon another. This is typically perpetuated by a male upon a female in a heterosexual relationship, although those of the same gender also inflict sexual abuse. 
   Students are sometimes victims of sexual exploitation by teachers and professors. Even if the sexual contact is consented to (or even initiated) by the student, it may be considered a form of abuse on the presumption that the teacher or professor is apt to exploit his or her position of authority in a subtle form of psychological coercion.
   Patients of psychotherapists are another common category of sexual exploitation.
   Sadly, the same is true of laity and clergy in various religions. Abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, for instance, has been at crisis proportions. Therapists, church laity, and clergy who sexually victimize others should be immediately removed from their positions and legally prosecuted.
   Sex between a minor child/prepubescent teen and an adult is child sexual abuse. Sex between a minor adolescent/teen/youth and an adult is statutory rape. Sex between two people who are married, but not to each other, is adultery. Sex between two adults of the same gender is sodomy.
   According to some state laws in the U.S., if two or more minors under the age of consent engage in sex with each other, they may both be classified as victims of sexual abuse. Cases in which both participants are minors have historically not been prosecuted, although a shift in the direction of prosecuting minors for consensual sex with other minors seems to have occurred in the last several decades.
   Sexually victimizing another person, whether physically, emotionally, and/or mentally is highly immoral.
Positive Sexuality - This includes sexual lifestyles that are condoned by God in Holy Scripture. They are condoned because they are helpful in one's relationship with God. They include purity, faithfulness in marriage, modesty, and self control.
Negative Sexuality - This includes sexual lifestyles that are prohibited by God in Holy Scripture. They are prohibited because they are detrimental in one's relationship with God. They include adultery, sodomy, consensual sexual intercourse between two persons not married to each other, impurity, indulgence in sensuality, orgies, lust, polygamy, lewdness, and filthiness. 
Sexual Offenders - In 1990, Washington State in the United States became the first state to require the registration and community notification of the release of sex offenders from incarceration. Later, in 1994, a federal statute based on a set of New Jersey Laws called "Megan's Laws" were enacted requiring notification and registration across the United States. Many jurisdictions have passed laws requiring sex offenders, especially child sex offenders, to register with the police. They report where they live when they leave prison or become convicted of a crime. This requirement is often in addition to the offender's legal sentence (punishment) and other restrictions, such as not allowing contact with children and not living within certain distances from schools or parks. The exact provisions vary with each locality. The purpose of such registration and restrictions are to encourage the protection of children and society by increasing the awareness of the community about the recidivism risk that some offenders may present on release. Policy makers and the public who support this intervention also hope that community awareness will assist in preventing future sex offenses.
   Child molesters are often notorious for recidivism, although broad recidivism rates for sex offenders are lower than most other types of crimes. In some localities, the lists of sex offenders are made available to the public: for example, through the internet. However, in other localities, the lists are not available to the general public but are known to the police. In the United States offenders are often classified in three categories: Level 1 offenders which are at low risk to re-offend; Level II offenders which are at moderate risk to re-offend; and Level III offenders which are at high risk to re-offend. Information is usually accessible related to that risk. There are penalties for failure to register as required.
   The vast majority of sex offenders registered are men. The vast majority of offenders also victimize individuals who are known, related or intimate to the victim - contrary to media depictions of stranger assaults or child molesters who kidnap children unknown to them.
   There are also laws - usually called mandated reporting laws - requiring in many cases certain professionals responsible for child care (teachers, school counselors, etc.) to report suspected child abuse, which in some cases may be sexual abuse, to the authorities.
   For State of Florida sexual offenders and predators, see Florida Department of Law Enforcement. As of December 2005, FDLE listed 988 sexual offenders in Polk County and among those were 59 sexual predators. In the City of Lakeland, there were 375 sexual offenders and 23 sexual predators.
Teenage Pregnancy - In 2004 in American society, 1.5 million babies (36% of all babies born) were born to unwed mothers. Most of the mothers were in their twenties and 24% of these births were to teenage girls, the majority being economically disadvantaged. Rates of teenage childbearing in the U.S. are the highest in the developed world. America is in the middle of a single-mom baby boom and fewer children are being raised by a mother and a father. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancies found federal data that shows two-thirds of girls ages 15-19 agree it is morally right for an unwed woman to have a child.
   An extensive review of marriage research in 2005 by the Brookings Institution and Princeton found that children fare best when raised by their married, biological parents. Still, more couples are cohabiting. Some recent good news is that fewer teenage mothers choose to place their children up for adoption and teenage abortion rates are declining.
   For the Christian, it is morally wrong to have promiscuous sexual intercourse. Therefore, one should ask questions, such as - Where and how do children learn that promiscuity is morally right?; where do children learn that promiscuity is morally wrong?; and what will the generational impact be on American culture as it continues to embrace promiscuity?"
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) -Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) affect men and women of all backgrounds and economic levels. Despite the fact that a great deal of progress has been made in STD prevention over the past four decades, the United States has the highest rates of STDs in the industrialized world. The rates of STDs are 50-100 times higher in the US than in other industrial nations. In the United States alone, an estimated 15.3 million new cases of STDs are reported each year.
   Despite the fact that STDs are extremely widespread and add billions of dollars to the nation's healthcare costs each year, most people in the United States remain unaware of the risk and consequences of all but the most prominent STD—HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
   Many other STDs affect millions of men and women each year. Many of these STDs initially cause no symptoms, especially in women. Symptoms, when they do develop, may be confused with those of other diseases that are not transmitted through sexual contact. STDs can still be transmitted person to person even if they do not show symptoms. Also, health problems caused by STDs tend to be more severe for women than for men.
   Sexually transmitted diseases/conditions include, but are not limited to, AIDS, Chancroid ("SHAN-kroid"), Chlamydial ("kla-MID-ee-uhl"), Genital Herpes/HSV, Genital Warts/HPV, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Viral Hepatitis, Trichomoniasis, Bacterial Vaginosis, Cytomegalovirus Infections, Scabies, and Pubic Lice.
   STDs affect men and women of all backgrounds and economic levels. However, STDs disproportionately affect women, infants, young people, and minorities. STDs are most prevalent among teens and young adults with nearly two-thirds of all STDs occurring in people under age 25. Some contributing factors in the rise of STDs include the facts that young people have become sexually active earlier, divorce is more common, and sexually active people are more likely to have multiple sex partners.
   STDs can result in irreparable lifetime damage, including blindness, bone deformities, mental retardation, and death for infants infected by their mothers during gestation or birth. In women, STDs can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), infertility, potentially fatal ectopic pregnancies, and cancer of the reproductive tract.
   Prevention—biomedical, behavioral, and moral—is the best hope for reducing STDs. They will never be eliminated.
HIV/AIDS - AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, a transmissible disorder of the immune system that is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hastened by ignorance, prejudice, denial, negligent political leadership, and the freedoms of the sexual revolution. HIV attacks the body's defense against disease, eventually leaving the infected individual vulnerable to malignancies and infections which cause death. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection, during which time these diseases arise.   
   The first cases in the US of AIDS were among five young actively homosexual men identified in June 5,1981 in Los Angeles, CA. By December 1996, there had been more than 8,000,000 cases of AIDS worldwide, resulting in 6,000,000 deaths. By 2005 (only nine years later) 25,000,000 people had died of AIDS (in 26 years). There are now 40,000,000 people world-wide infected with the HIV virus.
   More than 90 percent of HIV infections occur in developing countries.  Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for more than 60 percent of all infections by 1996, in some areas almost one-third of the inhabitants were infected. More than 8,000 people die every day from AIDS-related conditions and 2,000,000 people will die of AIDS this year in Africa alone. In 2005, there were 26,000,000 cases of AIDS and 12,000,000 AIDS orphans in Africa. In many parts of Africa, the life expectancy is only 30 years. AIDS could also kill 31 million people in India and 18 million people in China.
   HIV is contracted mainly through exposure to blood, semen and other genital secretions, and breast milk.  Although it is a transmittable virus, it is not contagious and it cannot be spread through coughing, sneezing, or casual physical contact.  The major mode of transmission worldwide - which accounts for 70 percent of all HIV infections - is sexual intercourse.  Many individuals, including a number of hemophiliacs, were infected from contaminated blood and blood products before screening procedures were introduced in the late 1980's.
   AIDS is the worst human pandemic in the history of the world and it clearly has the potential in the years ahead to collapse governments, make wastelands out of  continents, and cause pandemonium in the world - not to mention the exponential loss of life in the tens of millions.
   It is very important to respond to this global crisis now, while there is time, resources, and enough peace to do it.
    
EDUCATION                  TOP

Religion & Schooling - Religious education teaches the doctrines of a religion and its usual purpose is to teach children the basics of a particular religion. A less common purpose is to teach new adherents of a religion.
   Some people oppose religious education in public schools on various grounds. One is that it constitutes a state sponsorship or establishment of whatever religious beliefs are taught. Others argue that if a particular religion is taught in school, children who do not belong to that religion will either feel pressure to conform or be excluded from their peers. Proponents argue that religious beliefs have historically socialized people's behavior and morality. They feel that teaching religion in school is necessary to encourage children to be responsible, spiritually sound adults.
   A parochial school is a type of school which engages in religious education in addition to conventional education. Parochial schools are typically grammar schools or high schools run by churches or parishes. In the U.S. this is a type of private school. Private schools, or independent schools, are schools not administered by local or national government, which retain the right to select their student body and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students tuition rather than with public funds.
   Religion, as a subject, may be taught in public schools as part of an overall understanding of religions in general, but it is unlikely one particular religion will be taught in public education because of laws prohibiting it. If parents desire for their children to learn a particular religion as part of their conventional education, they should enroll them in a parochial school that supports that particular religion.
   Parochial schools that claim to be Christian are not necessarily Christian. This is true when a parochial school 1) has no minority students, including the economically disadvantaged; 2) when there are no specific classes on Christianity; 3) when Christ is not taught as the Messiah; 4) when classes on Christianity are seen as minor courses not required for graduation or passing; 5) when there are no students guidelines for Christian behavior; 6) when there are no requirements for minority members being on the governing Board; 7) when there is no required Christian worship; and 8) where there are no classes on the Bible. It is very easy to claim to be a Christian school and not be one - all in the name of unspoken exclusivity. Because of such immorality, by many supposedly Christian schools, and the desire not to have children socialized in public schools, many parents turn to home schooling and raising their children in church.  
   In the United States, home schooling is the focus of a substantial movement among parents who wish to provide their children with a custom or more complete education, which they feel is unattainable in most private/parochial schools or the public schools. While millions of families in the U.S. are educating their children at home, tens of millions of families still prefer public schools for their children.
Sex Education in Schools - In public schools, there has been - and still is - debate about sex education. Should it be taught? What should be taught? Should an abstinence only program be taught? There is little likelihood that secular values and Christian values on this subject will find common ground in the public arena, since the differences in values are so different.      
   For the Christian, sex education should not break down pre-existing notions of modesty and encourage acceptance of practices that are immoral. It is for that reason that parents need to decide on public schooling, private schooling, parochial schooling, or home schooling.
   Home schooling allows a parent complete control of what is taught, but for the vast number of working parents that is not an option. If a parent decides on a public, private, or parochial school for their child or children, they should be very concerned and inquisitive about any sex education that is taught - or being considered.
   The goal of Christian sex education should be abstinence-based and it should include human development, peer and group relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture – all based as nearly as possible on God’s commandments in the Bible.
School Prayer - Public schools should allow children a moment of silent prayer to emphasize the importance this country holds for religion in personal development. Schools having a Christian affiliation should have Christian prayer as a hallmark of the school's daily life. If a school is a Christian school, then its spiritual life should revolve around Jesus Christ and the Bible.

MEDIA                  TOP

Electronic Colonialism - This may may or may not be a moral issue, but with media plainly shaping values, it is worth noting.
   Wikipedia features an article on electronic colonialism, a form of cultural imperialism and empire building by the media conglomerates.
   Electronic colonialism theory was created by Tom McPhail, a Canadian. McPhail wrote a book entitled Electronic Colonialism in the early 1980s. The theory concern is the impact on the mind of repeated mass media messages, including commercials, on audiences.
   Multimedia corporations seek to capture the mind of viewers, readers, and listeners. Disney, MTV, Blockbuster, Hollywood, CNN, BBC, FOX, Google, the Internet, and others - all seek to influence the public by packaging media to attract large audiences.
   The theory is that media conglomerates will impact more people and small media businesses to become more 'similar', as indigenous media become marginalized (less effective and less influential) by high quality, mass produced, and instantly communicated media message systems. In other words, fewer people will shape audience values.
   Thus, a new global empire will be media conglomerates who will collectively influence the minds, attitudes, values, and languages of nations - becoming single sources of moral formation. EC is an electronic mass media revolution, expanding the moral frontiers of the multi-national communication firms.
   An example of electronic colonialism is the new initiative of Google to digitalize the works of major libraries. Google will help define the future of knowledge with its vast network and its global platform. The wealth of other libraries will be marginalized, thus Google will represent a major (and only one) challenge to the academic, cultural, and linguistic life of nations and institutions. People and students will no longer use library stacks and cubicles. They'll stay home or in their dorm room and get what they want. With electronic globalization, dusty library shelves will become relics of history as servers in remote locations replace them.
   There is a great responsibility for those who disseminate information for public consumption. The business ethics of the media are quickly becoming more global ethics and less local ethics.
   It is very clear the media uses print, broadcast, and other electronic systems to influence values as that 'industry' continues to move from objectivism to subjectivism.
   As this new electronic worldview unfolds, it will be interesting to study the shaping of values. The ethical questions are, "Whose values? what values? and for what purposes?"
Violence in the Media - The debate over media violence has eluded definitive answers for more than three decades. At first blush, the debate is dominated by one question—whether or not media violence actually causes real-life violence. But closer examination reveals a political battle. On the one hand, there are those who blame media violence for societal violence and want to censor violent content. On the other hand are those who see regulation as the slippery slope to censorship or a smokescreen hiding the root causes of violence in society. One thing is certain: the issue of media violence is not going away.
   Violence in America has been inextricably linked to economic changes. The economic hardships of the 1930s and the late 1970s resulted in the highest homicide levels in the 20th century. This relation persists today. The basis for a breakdown in family values is a material condition. It corresponds to the ongoing deindustrialization of American society, moving jobs overseas (outsourcing), the creation of underclasses, and less ability to be upwardly mobile. Rates of criminal violence have dropped significantly over the past 10 years, except among the young, the part of the population most affected by the nationwide squeeze on jobs, income, and opportunity.
   Americans would hardly be surprised to learn that we lead the industrialized world in rates of murder, violent crime, juvenile crime, imprisonment, divorce, single-parent households, numbers of teen suicide, cocaine consumption, per capita consumption of all drugs, and pornography production.
   Increasingly the debate is focusing on our "culture of violence," and on our normalization of aggression and the resulting lack of empathy in our society. An example of this would be the marketing of violence against women and the subjugation of women in the media for the sake of profit.
   Our culture has an appetite for shock and the sale of shock. Attention by media is increasingly gained by being louder, incrementally uglier, bolder in pushing the limits of decency, and exaggeration. Although what gets attention is more profitable, it is not the producers who are entirely at fault. The disease of indecency lies at the heart of every consuming American who relishes it, pays for it, and has never been taught any difference. The blame is the American appetite for secular values, acceptance of societal ‘conditioning’ by those values, and the ultimate embrace of violence and indecency as a civil right. Biblically, the old term "concupiscience" is descriptive for this spiritual state. It is to be so lost that one knows neither right nor wrong.
   The escalation and exploitation of violence and indecency for personal, business interests, and civil rights is immoral because it breeds behavior that is harmful to people and weakens the American character and government.


Sources:
Applying Ethics, 1996
Christian Ethics in Plain Language, 2005
Dictionary of Christian Ethics, 1967
Genetic Engineering, 1982
Moral Choices, 2000
Moral Dilemmas, 1998
Wikipedia
USA Today
World Bank
Center for Disease Control