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Ethics and Religion Talk: Crises of Faith, part 1

Submitted 03-23-2022 under OPINION

Eight of our panelists responded to this question. I’m sharing the first four this week, and the rest in next week’s column. Rev. Ray Lanning, a retired minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, responds: “...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Should Sex Work be Criminalized?

Submitted 03-14-2022 under OPINION

In most of the country, it's not legal for women to rent their body for sexual use (i.e., prostitution), but in many states, not including Michigan, it is legal to rent their wombs (i.e., gestational surrogacy)?  Shouldn't a woman (or a...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: How Important is Ethnicity in Casting?

Submitted 03-07-2022 under OPINION

Submitted to an Ethics and Religion Talk Panelist: “Recently comedian Sarah Silverman stated that Jewish actors should be cast for Jewish roles. People of underrepresented subject positions, such as queer performers, or performers of...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Must You be Morally Pure to Dispense Sacraments?

Submitted 02-28-2022 under OPINION

Cathy writes: “We have been encouraged to follow the Lenten Gospel Reflections of Bishop Robert Barron during Lent. I am still reeling from an article in which he says ‘In the fourth century, St. Augustine faced the challenge of the...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Should an Unvaccinated Person with COVID-19 Receive a Lung Transplant?

Submitted 02-22-2022 under OPINION

About one in 10 lung transplants in the United States now go to COVID-19 patients. When somebody who could have received a vaccination but refused, contracts such severe COVID that they need a lung transplant, should they be allowed to jump in and...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: How Do You Address Suffering?

Submitted 02-14-2022 under OPINION

Imam Kip Curnutt, Director of Religious Education and Associate Imam of Masjid At-Tawheed in Grand Rapids, responds: “As humans, we all experience suffering at times. It is part of the nature of this world that we are tested with both ease and...

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Hamilton Still Thrills

Submitted 02-11-2022 under OPINION

In May of 2009, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the 29-year-old creator of In The Heights, took the stage at the White House as part of an evening devoted to celebrators of the American experience. He mentioned that he was working on a hip-hop concept album...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Should racist comments by teenagers affect their adult lives?

Submitted 02-07-2022 under OPINION

Imam Kip Curnutt, Director of Religious Education and Associate Imam of Masjid At-Tawheed in Grand Rapids, responds: “I think this issue boils down to how we deal with moral responsibility and forgiveness. In Islam, as soon as someone reaches...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Should a Court Override Religious Beliefs?

Submitted 01-31-2022 under OPINION

Regarding a 2013 case in which an Amish girl’s parents stopped chemotherapy in favor of ‘natural medicine’ which they say is equally effective if it is God’s will. A judge sided with the parents, but an appeals court sided...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Is It Ethical to Erase Memories Using Electroconvulsive Therapy?

Submitted 01-24-2022 under OPINION

From The Atlantic: “ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) is now being used to alter and destroy memories. It may sound like fiction, like something out of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but a recent study published in Nature...

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