[Read more…] about A Change of Character, Not a Change of Air
Life
Are Men and Women Unequal in Being?
Recently, I heard a Christian leader claim that women and men are unequal in being. His conclusion seems to follow from at least two premises: (1) women are physically weaker than men; (2) women are less rational. Together, these make up the material (body) and immaterial (soul-reason) parts of a person.
What Socrates can Teach us About MAiD
The Nicene Creeds affirms that the Son is begotten of the Father and not made of God (since he Himself is divine). This observation flows from the common sense observation that human parents beget children and God makes them as Creator.
MAiD either administers drugs or asks a patient to take a drug that terminates their life. Criminals used to die in this way, as Socrates did. Socrates drank the hemlock cup as a criminal punishment for his impiety and for corrupting the youth.
Now, Socrates did not believe he was committing suicide, since he belied suicide was morally wrong. He reasoned that our bodies are not our own but belong to God. We destroy what God owns, our bodies.
Christians have agreed. God made us. We belong to him. We are the sheep of his pasture. But MAiD presents us with a huge challenge since those who apply for MAiD are: Incurably ill and advancing quickly to death. [Read more…] about What Socrates can Teach us About MAiD
Funded Childcare Promises Freedom but it will Bind us to Industry
Canada wants both spouses to work in order to increase GDP since our economy requires continual growth. This also creates a third job because one spouse leaves the home and hires a nanny / day care to watch the kids.
At one point, the spouse who left the home (usually the wife) will realize: I am leaving the home to work outside the home because caring for my children is not adequate work; while at the same I am employing someone to watch my kids.
This realization should lead to the following conclusion: our society exploits the idea of freedom to work away from home in order to grow GDP and deny the biological urge to care for our children. At the same time, it creates jobs of non-parent caretakers of kids, lauding the goodness of this career.
If caring for other people’s kids is good, why not ours?
[Read more…] about Funded Childcare Promises Freedom but it will Bind us to Industry
Judith Butler and Gender Performance
In a 1988 article, gender theorist Judith Butler argued that performative acts in society constitute gender. What she meant was this. Society defines gender norms, and men and women act and dress according to those norms. But these norms have no deep structure. They are stylized performances of gender. Male and femaleness have no essential gender. “Gender is what is put on,” she argues (1988: 531).
Butler affirms and builds on Simone de Beauvoir’s claim that “one is not born, but, rather becomes a woman” (1988: 519). Beauvoir means that the idea of af being a “woman” is not a natural given but something shaped by society. [Read more…] about Judith Butler and Gender Performance
Christian Piety can no Longer Avoid Politics
Of late, I have begun to realize that Christian piety (at least in Canada) can no longer avoid political implications.
Here are five reasons why I believe this, which in turn explain what I mean by political implications. The church’s mission is worship, but her worship of God and her good works will encounter a world that does not think those works are always so “good.” [Read more…] about Christian Piety can no Longer Avoid Politics