Social and ethical issues
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Just a friendly request to any readers in California to consider voting “yes” on Proposition 2 tomorrow, which would make modest–but significant–improvements in the lives of millions of farmed animals. Yes on Prop 2 California Voter’s Guide to Prop 2 And, just for balance, here’s an argument against proposition 2. Yes, we here at ATR Read more
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Marvin reflects on the place of texts in the Bible that seem to implicate God in violence, with a little help from St. Augustine. I’m not sure God insists that we be pacifists; I’m even less sure that God is a pacifist (as Marvin acknowledges and Miroslav Volf argues). But there are still passages in Read more
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I just finished reading, for the first time, Gustavo Gutierrez’s Theology of Liberation. My understanding is that it was one of the earliest works of liberation theology, coming out of a Latin American, specifically Peruvian, context. What’s interesting to me is that, not having much background in LT, I was expecting something like warmed-over Marxism Read more
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Ezra Klein points out that eating locally is neither feasible for a lot of people, nor is it necessarily the best way to reduce carbon emissions with your food choices. (Granted, there are other reasons for eating locally.) Peter Singer and Jim Mason make a similar point in The Ethics of What We Eat (a Read more
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I’d been toying with writing a post outlining my current thoughts about abortion, but, turns out, I agree with nearly everything in this post from Lynn. So I’ll just refer you there. Thanks, Lynn! Read more
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Christopher‘s reflections on the ways in which marriage rites for same-sex couples might differ from ones for opposite-sex couples are well worth your time. They take him into some thoughts on the purpose of marriage from a Christian perspective that I find very congenial. (See here, here, and here.) Read more
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From Christianity Today: The local grocery store is the space where we gather the fruit of the earth — all of which come from God’s gracious hand — and distribute them to the creatures made in God’s image. Take away all the sophisticated marketing labels and bold two-for-one signs, and you have a place where Read more
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A report from the Boston Globe (via Episcopal Cafe). With a rising concern about things like fair trade and global warming within a lot of churches, will animal welfare start to make inroads? My sense is that this is still not on most churches’ radar screens. Perhaps out of a concern that focusing on animals Read more
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Thought it might be helpful to have links to all my posts on Christopher Southgate’s book on animal theodicy, The Groaning of Creation, in one place. 1. Intro 2. The only way? 3. God so loved the world 4. There’s a wideness in God’s mercy 5. Heaven can wait 6. Priests of creation 7. The Read more
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Bls points us to an article from the Post on how religious believers are reflecting their faith in their food choices. I think the idea of having a church garden that supplies all the food for a seasonal picnic is fantastic. Not least because it resulted in an all-veggie potluck, about the opposite of most Read more
A Thinking Reed 