Provocations
Short-take commentaries and conversation starters
Redeeming the City
Fri 10 Aug 2007 • Responses: 1 • by Dan Russ
In the city, then, the human tendency is to use technologies to create a way of life that ignores the existence or need of either Creator or of creation.
In the biblical tradition, man as maker and as city builder is seen as both the only creature that bears the image of the Creator and the only creature that dares to usurp the Creator and devour the creation. Humanity, therefore, either blesses or curses the creation. In the context of Genesis, the great book of origins, God created all things, including that strangest of all things, humankind in his image, and pronounced them good.
Dealing with Extremists in Islam
Thu 26 Jul 2007 • Responses: 66 • by Luder G. Whitlock, Jr.
A withdrawal of Western troops from Iraq will not assure that conflict will end.
The relationship between the West and Islam will be one of the most important issues during the first part of the twenty-first century. It has enormous implications not only for the Middle East, but for Europe with its growing Muslim population. The growth of a militant, violently ruthless Islam endangers not only the West, but the world.
Dialogue in an Age of Narcissism
Wed 06 Jun 2007 • Responses: 1 • by Fred Harburg
Advice to a graduate on moving from preoccupation with self to a healthy and enriched perspective.
A graduating senior recently asked me, “How can I develop character in my life?” I think I mumbled something about the importance of reflection and living an examined life. I even gave him an empty leather-bound journal with the advice to be attentive to capture his observations, feelings, and questions.
With the benefit of greater reflection, I realize that my answer was a half-truth. What I left out was the practice of dialogue that can move one from preoccupation with self to a healthy enrichment of perspective.
Confessions of an Agenda
Thu 24 May 2007 • Responses: 6 • by Al Sikes
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” Al Sikes looks at the confession made by the editors of the New York Times in their treatment of Christopher Hitchens’ new book attacking religion.
At the top of the page: “The New York Times Book Review, May 13, 2007.”
Just underneath “Book Review” was a large black ashtray that consumed almost half of the tabloid-size page. Inside the ashtray were a cross, a Star of David, and Islam’s crescent, all formed by cigarette butts. And below the ashtray was the bold headline: “In God, Distrust.” The headline introduced a Michael Kinsley review of Christopher Hitchens’ book, God Is Not Great—How Religion Poisons Everything.
Death Penalty Reconsidered
Fri 04 May 2007 • Responses: 2 • by David Aikman
Thoughts on Amnesty International’s death penalty statistics.
Amnesty International is an international human rights organization that draws attention on a regular basis to the plight of political prisoners in various countries of the world. But for many years it has had a standing campaign to abolish the death penalty.
Proponents of the death penalty have traditionally argued that it is needed by society to provide retributive justice and to grant some sort of emotional “closure” for the families of murder victims. Opponents argue that it is inherently barbaric, that it is an irreversible punishment if the executed person turns out to be innocent, and that it doesn’t deter murder at all. Proponents tend to regard Amnesty International as an international meddling group determined to impose do-good liberalism on everyone else. Opponents regard it as a champion of global humanity, civilization, and progress.
The Woman and the Petri Dish
Mon 23 Apr 2007 • Responses: 6 • by Monica Slinkard
While abortion is an issue deserving thorough consideration by people of faith, it must not monopolize discussions about reproductive issues.
Louise Brown, the first person conceived through in vitro fertilization, turns twenty-nine this year. Since her birth the field of assisted reproductive technologies has marched ahead with little regulation and, until recently, little discussion in either the public square or religious circles.
Emerging reproductive technologies range from the various types of in vitro fertilization—joining sperm and egg in a Petri dish and introducing the resulting embryos into the uterus or fallopian tubes—to experiments with full ectogenesis, that try to accomplish everything from conception to birth outside the body. In the U.S. the President’s Council for Bioethics has recently been addressing these technologies and has recommended regulation and further research, but overall policy is still lacking.
Not in Our Time
Thu 12 Apr 2007 • Responses: 6 • by Al Sikes
A culture of short-term thinking has been a useful ally to partisan gridlock.
“Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?” With those words King Hezekiah comforted himself while setting aside Isaiah’s warnings that his descendants and his kingdom’s wealth would be taken by the Babylonians. Millennia later, a “not in my time” attitude is one of our most formidable cultural and political challenges. Too many seem to say, “tomorrow—leave that to the forecasters” (and chance).
Thoughts on Global Warming
Wed 07 Mar 2007 • Responses: 9 • by Al Sikes
Our dominion over the earth is a gift from God. Indifference is not an option.
In a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the planet, the leading international network of climate scientists had concluded for the first time that global warming is “unequivocal” and that human activity is the main driver, “very likely causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950” (New York Times, February 3, 2007).
The most recent global warming report—this one from the United Nations Environment Program’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—escalated the forecasts of damage while concluding that humans could still act in amelioration. In the weeks following this report disparate dissenters renewed their claims that the warming changes are part of nature’s cycles. The dissenters declaim as reports, movies, papers, and the like rise like the proverbial flood tide.
The Economics of Slavery
Tue 27 Feb 2007 by Peter Edman
We need the creativity of a George Washington Carver to tackle the slave economy.
One thing that strikes me as I consider the statistics of modern-day slavery that Jody Hassett Sanchez and others report—upwards of 27 million people and an economic impact of $12 billion (presumably yearly)—is that, even bracketing the horrendous moral issues for a moment, the economic return is so appalling.
Consider by comparison the case of ExxonMobil, the world’s largest corporation: It has around 106,000 employees worldwide and made a profit of $39.5 billion just in 2006. Considering their $340 billion in revenue, some analysts argue that their return on investment is actually low. I’m no analyst, but it looks to me like a person in slavery generates $444. Compare this with the $373,000 profit and $3.2 million revenue per Exxon employee. It boggles the mind.
The Problem with the News
Wed 21 Feb 2007 • Responses: 5 • by David Aikman
“A picture of humanity that is relentlessly colored by its most gruesome crimes is as unrealistic as one that ignores such crimes altogether.”
As a journalist for many years (full-time for more than two decades), I’ve acquired a compulsive addiction to TV and radio news bulletins. If I’m driving a car and the time approaches the “top of the hour,” I’m quite unable to resist tuning the radio to the local full-time news network. If I’m watching TV (a fairly rare event), no matter what the program is that I might have intended to view, within a few minutes I find myself switching to CNN, or FOX, or MSNBC.
It was thus with utter dismay that I watched, on one of the news channels (for propriety’s sake I won’t say which), on a single middle-of-the-evening news bulletin quite recently, the following items: (1) a woman who thought she was a vampire had tied a man up, slashed him with a knife, and drunk his blood (presumably, he thought she had other things in mind when he submitted to being tied up); (2) a mother in a private home was barely prevented from drowning all of her children; (3) an 84-year-old woman was jailed for three years for having sex with an 11-year-old in her foster care.
