What Does “Bless Same-Sex Couples” Actually Mean?

Here We Go Again… In a time where information and disinformation can spread across the world in a half second, it is unfortunate that ambiguity seems to be a hallmark of the current papacy. Ambiguity has NO place in theology – especially moral theology, and it should not be defended (looking at you Barron….). However,…

Morality and the Vision of God

We all know we’re supposed to be good people, but what does it mean to be good? How does the Church reach conclusions on disputed ethical issues like abortion, euthanasia, or marital issues? In this short video, I go over the Church’s natural law method of determining morality – and why it is necessary to…

Protestants and Polygamy

A “New Sexual Frontier”? Christianity Today recently posted a report on the shifting views of polyamory.* After explaining a situation in which a “Christian couple” was encouraged by a “Christian counselor” to engage in polyamory in their marriage, the article asks the question: How can pastors and leaders prepare to address questions related to polyamory? Not…

Brightburn: Ring of Geyges Redux?

The 2019 film Brightburn poses an interesting question: What would happen if an alien being crash landed in rural Iowa as a baby, was adopted by human parents, and eventually discovered he had superhuman powers? Now this premise should not sound original to nearly anyone in Western civilization for the last 80 years or so…

Should Christian Businesses Support Unchristian Behavior?

The following post is adapted from a paper titled “Christian Businesspeople, Gay Weddings, and the Ethics of Co-Operation in Wrongdoing“. It was presented at the 2015 National Evangelical Philosophical Society meeting near the time of the Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission supreme court case  (part of an ongoing attack against Colorado baker…

Why Shouldn’t We Call Abortion “Murder”?

Introduction On April 12, 2018, FemCatholic posted an article titled “Why We Shouldn’t Call Women Who’ve Had Abortions ‘Murderers’.” It has numerous good points regarding rhetoric and strategy, and includes several key distinctions that need to be well thought out before use of the term “murder” is employed in the abortion debate. However, it also…

Aquinas on Abortion

Introduction The Christian Church was against  against abortion from the earliest days (see The Fathers on Abortion). It can be something of an embarrassment, then, for Christians to discover that the views of the Church’s greatest theologian, Thomas Aquinas, have been used to support abortion. The specific view in question has to do with Aquinas’s statement that God created the rational human…