Let’s say you are on the trustee board of a Christian-affiliated university and you are trying to figure out what your school should do about its policies related to LGBTQ students. You have two conservative voices in your ears, one…
Ethics at the end of life: Which moral vision shall govern at the end of life?
This is the final in a four-part series on ethics at the end of life. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had this to say about the end of life: Why, aside from the demands of religion, (is it) more praiseworthy for…
Baylor, ‘biblical sexuality’ and the good news
On May 14, the Baylor University board of regents released a statement on human sexuality and identity. In it, the regents affirmed the dignity of all students “regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” committed to providing a supportive educational…
Ethics at the end of life: The ultimate ethical issue is whether we wait for death
This is the third in a four-part series on ethics at the end of life. The ultimate ethical issue at the end of life is whether we wait for death or instead hasten it. A massive and sometimes confusing vocabulary…
Ethics at the end of life: The first ethical issue is not who decides but who accompanies
This is the second in a four-part series. Secular Western medical ethics tends to be principlist and procedural. Two crucial core principles in medical ethics are autonomy and informed consent. The affected persons (often shorthanded as “patients,” although we must…
Ethics at the end of life: How medicine and technology have changed the context of dying
As the school year ends and I try to process the many agonies of the annus horribilus COVID year of 2020-21, I will remember many deaths, but most especially the death of my father in late December 2020. These posts,…
European school seeks to bolster Baptist scholarship and mission
While serving as a Baptist pastor in Kentucky, Erica Whitaker is working toward a Ph.D. at a prestigious European university. Her academic pursuit, however, is more than a distance learning endeavor with a public research university in the Netherlands. Her…
When politics becomes religion
Politics sometimes becomes religion for people. This is a fact. It is dangerous when politics becomes religion for people. This is my conviction. This phenomenon seems most likely to happen when a culturally established religion fades to become merely politics,…
A Holy Week reflection on justice and the Cross
On Palm Sunday in my Bible study class at First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga., I was slated to teach this parable of Jesus. It is one of my favorites. Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to…
Beth Moore and a lost Southern Baptist Convention
Religion News Service reporter Bob Smietana broke the story this week that famous Bible study leader Beth Moore is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention and ending the mutually lucrative publishing relationship with their Lifeway group. She claimed that the SBC…
One year later: Some musings on post-COVID culture and social ethics
When this column appears, it will be exactly one year since my last trip to the airport. One year since I lectured outside my own home or university. Just under one year since my Mercer classes went to Zoom for…
LGBTQ inclusion and clergy sexual abuse treated equally in SBC expulsions
Four churches were expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention Feb. 23 in a joint action that gave the appearance of equating LGBTQ inclusion with predatory sexual behavior. Among the four churches expelled, two were removed due to welcoming LGBTQ Christians…