Category: Social Issues
Should Faith Communities Use Trigger Warnings?
A growing number of college campuses are considering including “trigger warnings” on literature and writing that students may find upsetting due to past trauma. The Great Gatsby, for example, may ... Read More
Medicine and Moral Conflict in Botswana
The ride from Gaborone to the hospital in Molepolole starts in the dark. By the time the sun rises, we are onto Donkey Road, a 40km drag that lives up to its name of scattered donkeys, pensively explo... Read More
Invoking the Unknown: Sectarian Invocations in Government Assemblies
As Esther Boyd discussed in her recent post, the Supreme Court’s Greece vs. Galloway decision upheld the constitutionality of sectarian prayers in legislative assemblies. Eric Rassbach, deputy g... Read More
Genocide and Others
After visiting the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem I must have been visibly upset. An Israeli woman who was part of our tour group, knowing my Jewish heritage, approached me to ask who in my family wa... Read More
Opting Out: The Separation of Difference and Religious Freedom
Last week, religious freedom in the United States was at the center of two major court decisions, and the results have left many religious minorities feeling out in the cold. I am referring to the Sup... Read More
When did “never again” become “not again?”
I should be an optimist. Every movie and TV show shows the big guy as jolly, right? Furthermore, I’m a socialist who believes another world is possible through collective action, and a humanist ... Read More
Why “Father Knows Best” Is Not (But Is Often Used as) a Theological Statement: Authoritarianism and Sexual Morality Codes
Maybe it is because it is spring, and with the warm weather, our skin comes out of hiding, reminding us there are actual bodies under the sweatsuits. Maybe it is because graduation is approaching, sig... Read More
Confession of a Gay Hypocrite
I have a confession to make: Despite all of the ways I speak and write and work for the cause of LGBTQ justice, I recently became a hypocrite to that cause. The scene for this failure was a visit to m... Read More