Aristotle wrote with great insight and clarity that maintaining friendships was a prerequisite to acting virtuously. For Aristotle, to act virtuously was necessarily to consciously act for the right reasons. But doing this requires bringing our non-rational parts into harmony with the rational. Further, finding this harmony requires self-knowledge that…
People who don’t believe in God are constantly disparaged as immoral by those who do. Many conservatives believe that most of what they perceive to be wrong with the world can be traced to secular humanism, a phrase they can barely utter without spitting. For them, secular humanism is a…
When my friend Doug wrote that “God loves us like an abusive parent,” it sounded so very harsh, but it then reminded me of that most troublesome of concepts: hell.
I was raised Catholic, where hell was portrayed to be a very bad place to go. Many Catholics, however, and many liberal Christians, don’t believe that hell is a place where people are literally tortured. Check out today’s conservative Christians, however, on your local AM radio station. You’ll hear them fervently arguing that the version of hell taught by moderate Christians is way off the mark. Hell is not a metaphor or a mere figure of speech. Here’s what it is:
The reality of hell is the most horrifying, terror striking, fearful truth known to man. It encompasses the worst possible fear and the meanest conceivable existence, continual never-ending torture. “And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Revelation 20:10).”
Therefore, many fundamentalists believe that someone sent to hell will be (literally) tortured (literally) forever. It will be like being forced to go to Dachau, the Rape of Nanking, Abu Ghraib or worse, for eternity.
The following is a letter I wrote to an acquaintance who asked me to contribute to a “Pregnancy Resource Center” in order to assist them to do their “important work.” As you can see, my investigation revealed that Pregnancy Resource Centers are unwilling to plainly admit their real agenda.
Dear ____:
I was intrigued when you invited me to contribute to the “Walk4Life” to support the Missouri “Pregnancy Resource Center.” I took your invitation as an excuse to learn more about the PRC. The more I learned, however, the more I disagreed with its work. I decided to respond at length. Though this email might seem out of proportion to your short request, it is commensurate with my strong feelings on these topics.
I applaud the efforts of the PRC to offer free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds to women. Assisting women who really want to give birth to a baby is great. Making parenting assistance available to pregnant women is laudable. And I certainly agree that adoption is a genuine worthy alternative to abortion, for those who freely choose this option.
The web site of the Missouri PRC (like the sites of many of the numerous “Pregnancy Resource Centers”) says very little about what PRC actually does when a pregnant woman walks through the door. Clicking on the topic buttons of the PRC website brings up only blank email forms (see http://www.prcmo.net/ ). I thought it quite odd that the Missouri PRC wouldn’t clearly state its true mission on its …
Contrary to today’s moralists, the important issue is not what the rules are, but whether to apply established rules. Throwing out the moral rulebook occasionally leads to heroic feats but it occasionally leads to Abu Graib. As Aristotle wrote, rules are not a substitute for good character. Stay on the lookout,…