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Opinion

 

Ethics and Religion Talk: Do human rights come from God or from the government?

Submitted 11-20-2017 under OPINION

Note: We welcome two new panelists this week, the Reverend Ray Lanning (Reformed Presbyterian) and The Reverend Colleen Squires (Unitarian Universalist). Rev. Ray Lanning, a retired minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America,...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Is natural healing God's only will?

Submitted 11-13-2017 under OPINION

Her parents argued that the chemo made her sick, and also that "Our belief is the natural stuff will do just as much as that stuff if it's God's will.” If the parents were members of your faith, how would you counsel them? Father...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Is companionship enough without sex?

Submitted 11-06-2017 under OPINION

“I was married for 40 wonderful years. My husband died six and a half years ago. I met a Church of Christ Christian. He is a widower after 48 years of marriage. I am very religious and prayed about having sex and read the Bible. I...

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Letter-writing effort to support local incarcerated woman, educate community

Submitted 11-02-2017 under OPINION

On Sunday, November 5, 2017 and Monday, November 6, 2017 from 4 p.m.- 10 p.m., people will gather at Lantern Coffee Shop and Bar to write letters for Desirae Glatfelter. Glatfelter is a 29-year-old Black woman survivor of domestic violence. She is...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Should Manson follower, killer Leslie Van Houten, be freed?

Submitted 10-30-2017 under OPINION

Recently, Leslie Van Houten, the youngest of the Manson 'family,' was recommended for parole by a state panel that concluded that she has radically changed her life during the more than 40 years in prison for two brutal...

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Immigrants' rights are workers' rights

Submitted 10-26-2017 under OPINION

Citizens packed the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting Tuesday night, October 24, 2017, to speak on two prominent issues affecting our city: The Rapid’s ongoing labor dispute with the ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union), and the need for the...

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Demanding a public apology is the newest form of extortion in our social network-centered world

Submitted 10-24-2017 under OPINION

I am not sure when it happened, but a switch went off a few years back in our society, and we began to demand a public apology for every slight, big or small, true or false. It happens locally and nationally, and it seems to be a growing trend. And...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Religious transformation

Submitted 10-23-2017 under OPINION

... that we have betrayed the LORD time and time again, and that I, as a Jew, am a disgusting, filthy pig. It was nothing more than a clumsy attempt to convince me that God would love me if I became a Christian because God no longer likes Jews. The...

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Isn't my dog cute? No!

Submitted 10-16-2017 under OPINION

Ever since I was a child, I have disliked dogs. It goes back a long way, and I am not sure how it originated, but as anyone who knows me will attest, it’s not just a dislike, it's a passion. I have many reasons for my negative opinion of...

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Is stealing signs in baseball unethical?

Submitted 10-16-2017 under OPINION

"Jason" asks a baseball ethics question: Is it morally wrong for a team to steal the other team's signs? R. Scot Miller, who writes from an Anabaptist and Quaker Christian perspective, responds: “I find it difficult to accept...

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