Category: Ethics
zeal, wisdom, and John Allen Chau
Last week, an American missionary named John Allen Chau was killed as he tried to approach the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island. Both his own words and those of the mission organization that sent him confirm that he intended to share...
Asia Bibi should get asylum anywhere she wants
I am glad to see this call from Providence magazine to grant Asia Bibi asylum… anywhere. (More on her story here.) The obvious shouldn’t need saying, but it is clear that there are many Muslims in the UK, whether new immigrant or...
the paranoid style in American Christianity
We’re doomed! Doomed, I tell you: Take this seriously. We are like people on a beach, watching a tsunami build on the horizon. You know how tsunamis work, right? There’s an earthquake far out at sea, and the shock wave...
can white people be saved?
I know many of my followers might be skeptical of the concept of “whiteness” and may bristle at the question, “Can white people be saved?” If that’s you — and even if it’s not — I invite you to read...
we need a twenty-first century Comstock
Helen Andrews is at The Hedgehog Review with a review of a book on Anthony Comstock and censorship, subtly calling for a new Comstock for our brave new world of pornography: The problem of pornography has never been worse than it...
colonizing Mars won’t be nearly as exciting as we think
Micah Meadowcroft is in top form with this essay at The New Atlantis about the letdown that colonizing Mars could be: Consider your place in our interplanetary future. Let us speculate. Suppose that SpaceX or some similar enterprise has succeeded,...
love in a time of really nasty politics
I really appreciate everything that Judy Wu Dominick writes, and this reflection on “loving your political frenemies” is no exception: I still ache over the anguish of some and the bigotry of others, but this prayer discipline has chipped away...
holy culture and horticulture
Wilfred McClay has a beautiful and much-needed essay at Comment on the tension Christians experience between our calling to be gardeners and pilgrims: We plant, tend, and nourish gardens, gather and prune them, negotiating and harmonizing the resultants of nature’s forces. We...
solidarity and healing after the Tree of Life shooting
My own connection to Pittsburgh is only through friends; my kids have played on the playground across the street from the Tree of Life synagogue several times. I wanted to share a few pieces about the incident, starting with this...
how bodies matter in miscarriage
Tish Harrison Warren has a moving and beautiful essay at Christianity Today about her quest to honor the body of her unborn child: Our doctor wasn’t a jerk or insensitive to our grief. He was professional; we liked him. But he worked...