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Opinion

 

Ethics and Religion Talk: Can Race be an Ethical Criteria for Advancement?

Submitted 10-16-2023 under OPINION

The Reverend Colleen Squires, minister at All Souls Community Church of West Michigan, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation, responds: "Affirmative Action was originally put into place because of racism and bias found in the admission...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: How Can I Earn "Brownie Points" With God?

Submitted 10-11-2023 under OPINION

Fred Stella, the Pracharak (Outreach Minister) for the West Michigan Hindu Temple, responds: "The Hindu Dharma does not envision a deity who keeps a scorecard, dishing out demerits and good conduct medals. Yes, we are encouraged to perform...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: What is the Holy Spirit?

Submitted 10-02-2023 under OPINION

Rev. Ray Lanning, a retired minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, responds: "Christians believe that the one true God exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As the third person of the Godhead,...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Who Owns My Medical Data?

Submitted 09-25-2023 under OPINION

Is it ethical for medical systems to take ownership of data, genetic information, and tissue coming from medical tests related to patient treatment? The Reverend Colleen Squires, minister at All Souls Community Church of West Michigan, a...

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In Funny Girl, Katerina McCrimmon Blazes

Submitted 09-21-2023 under OPINION

Funny Girl (onstage until Sept. 24 via Broadway Grand Rapids) rises or falls on Fanny Brice. Even more so than most musicals, its star is its star — the body around which everything else orbits. If she doesn...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Is Time-Tracking Software Ethical?

Submitted 09-18-2023 under OPINION

Is it ethical for an employer to install time-tracker software on an employee’s home computer (which they also use for work) and use the information to ensure that workers aren't slacking off during work time while working from home? Fred...

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Sweeney Todd Cuts As Sharply As Ever

Submitted 09-13-2023 under OPINION

At first, you don’t see him. You see others, though: the citizens of long-ago London. Horror-struck, they sing operatically of Sweeney Todd, a man they call “the demon barber of Fleet Street.” Todd shaved his customers, yes, shaved...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: How Does Your Tradition Respond to Cancel Culture?

Submitted 09-11-2023 under OPINION

The Reverend Colleen Squires, minister at All Souls Community Church of West Michigan, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation, responds: "For me this is a complicated question. I certainly support our society holding people accountable for...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Are Religious Communities Too Exclusive?

Submitted 08-28-2023 under OPINION

One of the things that frustrates me about religion, and keeps me from joining any particular one, is that so often it is tied to ethnicity, nationalism, tribalism, etc. How can any critically thinking person believe that God just happened to reveal...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Are We Really Free to Make Choices or is God in Total Control?

Submitted 08-21-2023 under OPINION

Father Kevin Niehoff, O.P., a Dominican priest who serves as Judicial Vicar, Diocese of Grand Rapids, responds: The premise of this question is freedom. The Roman Catholic Church teaches, “freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to...

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