Opinion

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

Submitted 11-20-2017 under OPINION

Where do human rights come from? Are they God-given or are they granted by governments on their citizens, and thus contingent on spirit of the age understandings of justice?

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

Submitted 11-13-2017 under OPINION

Four years ago, an Ohio judge ruled that a 10 year old Amish girl will not be forced to undergo chemotherapy. Akron Children’s Hospital argued that the chemo is 85% effective and without it, her cancer is almost always fatal.

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Is companionship enough without sex?

Submitted 11-06-2017 under OPINION

This is more of a Dear Abby type of question than the kind we normally handle, but it came in response to a recent column on a similar topic so I sent it along to the panel. Betty (pseudonym) asks:

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

Submitted 11-02-2017 under OPINION

Support survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault by attending "Letters for Desirae" on November 5-6, 2017 from 4 p.m. -10 p.m. at Lantern Coffee Shop and Bar.

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

Submitted 10-30-2017 under OPINION

Daniel (pseudonym) writes: Charles Manson and his followers murdered nine people in California in July and August 1969, including actress Sharon Tate.

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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 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 Commission to pass an official Equal Protection Policy

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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

We are human beings. We make mistakes. Apologies are not always the answer.

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Religious transformation

Submitted 10-23-2017 under OPINION

Readers of Ethics and Religion Talk might remember a column from the summer of 2016 in which I wrote about a man who sent me a 64 page essay in the mail, arguing that Jews are the most spiritually disgusting people ever to walk the face of the earth ...

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