Tag: ethics
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On Dolly Parton and the Beauty of Virtue
Dolly Parton is not simply a good person, or a beautiful poetess; she is both beautiful and good, in a way the philosophy of character strives to explain but can’t always illustrate convincingly. … it may be that Dolly can do more to explain the philosophers than the other way around. Let us make a […]
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Guilt
Be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves James 1:22 Have you ever just not wanted to do something right then? I was sitting in my chair, doing my morning reading, snuggled in a blanket for the first time this season with my feet propped up and the little dogs in […]
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Studying Ezra 10 1-12
Please be forewarned: people who are looking for a conventionally pious reading of Ezra 10:1-12, the text we are studying for Sunday, April 11, will not find it here. I think a lot is at stake in how we read this text, honestly. I think that if we accept the moral wisdom and the God-ordained […]
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Stepping Up
All kinds of groups can be “church” in the sense of being that place where we feel the people around us embrace us and accept us, and where we can count on people to care about us and support us. Most recently, last night at rehearsal one of the chorus members announced that she may […]
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Juxtaposition
I don’t post a lot of political commentary. It’s not my area; I am opposed to the contemporary sport of fomenting outrage; all that. Every so often, though, something is so striking I feel like reflecting on it out loud. So, tonight I was checking email. [Life has been busy – there’s a backlog.] I […]
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My Mother’s Yankee Daughter
Here is a story that became a legend in our family: We were driving to church. My brother and I were kids. We were talking about the Civil War. Both of us knew it was fought to end slavery and keep the Union together, and that Abraham Lincoln was a hero. And my mother thought […]
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On Being One of Them
Late last night, I sent the email to the student who had hoped to change the grade in the class that was over in June. No, there is no good way to do this, I finally said. No, I can’t. Which is true. But not simply true. “The faculty member always has some discretion.” That […]
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Thinking about the Mahabharata
I have been thinking about the Mahabharata. Not because I am an expert. I finally acquired the new-ish huge-for-an-abridgement English translation of this epic sacred text by John D. Smith, but haven’t read it. I have read the Bhagavad-Gita, but my knowledge of that is still mostly superficial, honestly. I know the outline of the […]
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Painfully Timely
This was one of the daily lectionary readings today: There are six things The HOLY ONE hates – no, seven things God detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows […]
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Points of Reference
My grandparents were refugees. From China, technically, because they had left Russia in 1929. They lived in Harbin for two years or so, before they managed to be part of a small group that received a waiver from the US government to enter the country from China. They needed a waiver because of the Chinese […]
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31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Here’s a sermon for Sunday, October 30 on 2 Chronicles 28:8-15 – a little late: Sunday, October 30, is “Reformation Sunday.” The Protestant churches in the Christian family celebrate this occasion as the anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing his famous 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, sparking a debate about what […]
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About Ethical Responsibility
“Doing what the Bible says” does not simply do away with the need to decide among values – including Biblical ones.
Matters of Interpretation 