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RESOURCES ON
ETHICS & HOMOSEXUALITY
Commentaries on Ethics & Homosexuality
Transcriptions of commentaries by Gregory Koukl from the radio broadcast Stand to Reason.
Commentaries on Ethics
- Animals Are Only Human -- These ideas are the product of a sick human being, ladies and gentlemen. I don't mean mentally sick. I mean morally sick, socially sick, spiritually diseased.
- Babies as Organ Farms -- Greg responds to a "stunning" L.A. Times editorial that states we should harvest the organs of anencephalic babies because it can now be morally justified.
- Broodmare Motherhood? -- Addressing the broader issue of surrogate parenting I think there's only one solution: it should be outlawed.
- Can God Kill the Innocent? -- Why is it moral for God to kill innocent human beings when it is immoral for us?
- Confusing Skill and Morals -- When tragedy strikes a celebrity, are we required to turn off our moral compass?
- Damned Culture and Darned Socks -- Individual people are the threads of the social fabric and the values of those people will determine if the fabric is strong or weak.
- Did Morals Evolve? -- If the answer is yes, then we are in trouble.
- Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Means and Ends -- You have to have a human being before you can get human stem cells.
- Euthanasia, Rights & Metaphysics -- A law passed in Oregon proposes to make physician-assisted suicide 'more civilized.' But what does it say about the values we hold for human life?
- Evolution Can't Explain Morality -- If you argue that morality evolved, you may end up saying that one "ought" to be selfish.
- Goodness by Gallup -- While some moral values are subject to the whims of society, can that explain all morality?
- Happiness as Ethics -- Greg explains the problem with making happiness the goal in life.
- I'm Not Dead Yet -- Why are human beings valuable? What is a human being? You have to answer those questions before you can say that this child isn't a human being without value.
- Is a Human Being Valuable? -- If alleviating suffering is the goal that has intrinsic value, and not the person itself, why could we not experiment on it so we can increase our scientific knowledge in a way that might alleviate further suffering?
- Killing Abortionists -- Some ask "if you consider abortion murder, doesn't that incite the killing of abortionists?"
- "Kondoms Are Us" -- Think for a minute if you were to put drugs on the table in the Jr. high cafeteria and told the students, "We're just making them available. We're not making any value judgment. It's your decision." Would that be conscionable?
- Legal vs. Moral -- What do you say when someone throws the "But abortion is legal" mantra at you?
- Means and Ends -- Some Christians like to say: "The end never justifies the means." Greg points out why this is a meaningless statement, and teaches us a few steps in moral reasoning.
- Minimalist Ethic--Too Minimal -- Part of the failure of this ethic is that it presumes we are omniscient when it comes to the harm our actions cause.
- Monkey Morality - Can evolution explain ethics? No. Greg explains why not.
- Morally Velocetized - What happens when a society becomes morally velocetized? What was unthinkable yesterday, becomes thinkable today, and doable tomorrow. Especially with partial-birth abortion.
- The Myth of Moral Neutrality - Our government and schools are asked to be morally neutral. But that's not possible. You must take a moral stand, explicitly or implicitly.
- Not Heroism: Just Plain Virtue -- What does the word Hero really mean, and what has it come to mean today?
- President Bush's Speech -- "Advances in biomedical technology must never come at the expense of human conscience."
- Re: Alan Keyes -- Are all men created equal? If so, what is the significance of their equality?
- Relativists & Sociopaths -- How can some people commit sensationalistic crimes? Greg suggests perhaps they are just championing their moral point of view.
- Ricki Lake: Moral Moron -- . . .if you are one of the voyeurs who watches that show on a regular basis, shame on you.
- "Society Says" Relativism -- Some would say "Legal abortion is now the law of the land--get over it." But is there a higher law? The Founding Fathers thought so.
- Paul, Romans, & Homosexuality - The first chapter of Romans contains the Bible's clearest statement regarding same-sex relations. Recent scholarship has come to different conclusions about this passage. Who's right?
- The Pope's Moral Courage -- The public reaction to John Paul's recent encyclical on critical moral issues reveals the new rules of political discourse.
- The Problem With Happiness -- I guess my basic contention is that to the degree we cling to this expectation of personal happiness, we will define good life , appropriate life, successful living in the context of freedom from problems and pain. And it's to that degree that life will deliver to us the severest disappointment, because life is not like that.
- The Virtues of Virtue -- What should be ultimate goal of our life? Find out what really satisfies.
- Three Observations -- Here is my question. What has changed in 30 years? Morals haven't changed. If I'm right about morality, moral rules are fixed. They are objective in some sense. They are outside of us; they are not just expressing the culture. The thing that has changed is the whims of culture.
- To Bribe Or Not to Bribe -- Is offering a bribe always immoral, or is there a biblical principle which should be used to weigh the circumstances?
- When Absolutism is Relative -- Greg clarifies these terms and tells how to discern which biblical absolutes apply to each circumstance.
- When Is a Human Being Human? -- A simple response to give, next time someone tells you an unborn baby is a "human being but not a person."
- White Lies and Other Deceptions -- Is lying ever right? Is trespassing? Is violence? Some thoughts to help you sharpen your ability to make ethical decisions.
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Commentaries on Homosexuality
- Banks vs. Boy Scouts -- Yes--the Boy Scouts are discriminatory and prejudiced. But what's wrong with that?
- Becoming What He Hates -- An example of clear-thinking Christianity applied in a gracious but direct letter in response to an LA Times article by Marvin Liebman, entitled 'Christian' Bigotry Can Breed Violence.
- Devon, My Brother -- When Martin's brother Devon was diagnosed HIV positive, the only thing that mattered to him was that someone he loved was dying of a terrible disease. As this account shows, even AIDS can be redemptive when love is reborn between two brothers.
- Ellen Degeneres Comes Out -- Does the fact that homosexuals have made great contributions to society have any bearing on whether or not homosexuality is immoral?
- Equal Rights for Homosexuals -- On the heels of President Clinton's address to a homosexual group, Greg points out that homosexuality is a moral behavior rather than the kind of innate characteristic (like race) that justifies special protections. Morally-minded people are losing their liberty to speak out against homosexuality as a moral issue or follow their consciences on it in the public square.
- "Fags Doom Nation"? -- Christian ambassadors need to have both the right message and a winsome approach.
- "Heterosexism" -- Part of the goal was to shift the emphasis from what many perceived to be a homosexual problem, away from the homosexual activity itself and towards the attitude people have about homosexuality.
- Homosexual Family Values? -- Are "family values" a label or a concept?
- Homosexuality: Giving Your Point of View -- Homosexuality is a serious moral wrong, and Christians ought to do what they can to discourage it. Finding the most effective way to do so in a "pluralistic" society is sometimes difficult. Here are a few suggestions.
- Homosexuality, Heredity & Biological Determinism -- Greg cautions us to "look before you link" behavior to biology--and why it doesn't make a moral bit of difference.
- Homosexuals in the Military? -- This point relates to privacy as a policy issue and it doesn't relate to morality at all.
- I'm a Sissy -- Somebody once said that a person's significance is determined by the substance of his enemies.
- Is AIDS a Noble Disease? -- Do people who die of AIDS deserve the honor and respect given to, say, children who were victims of the Holocaust? Greg says no way.
- Knowledge and Relationship in Balance -- So why is it okay for her to state her offense to me, yet it is not okay for me to make a principled point about a moral issue because it offended her personally?
- Letter to a Homosexual -- How do you graciously enforce your home standards?
- Matthew Shepard and Hate Crimes -- This kind of thinking would make Alcoholics Anonymous responsible every time a drunk gets beat up in an alley.
- Morality and the Public Good -- How do we publicly argue for biblical morality without moralizing? It isn't always necessary to quote chapter and verse to persuade.
- No Evil for Evil -- When Christians act against immorality, they should do so in a moral way.
- Response to a Letter From a Homosexual -- Can you be both charitable and immoral?
- Searching for the Sin Gene -- We can't say, "I have a nasty disposition therefore you can't judge me when I'm rude to people."
- Shame & Homosexuality -- Somehow, society's finger of shame is now pointing in the opposite direction.
- Should Libraries Promote Homosexuality? -- Live and let Live? Not likely! How do we deal with this radical sexual agenda?
- Stand Against "Sadness" -- Where do people get the idea that Christians are people who don't judge other people?
- "Stop the Church"/ACT-UP -- Does the Catholic church have a right to take a stand on moral issues in public and demand certain behavior from people who are a part of that community of faith?
- The Boy Scout Oath: Morally Crooked? -- Can one be both a homosexual and "morally straight," according to the Boy Scout Code? A recent appellate court ruling suggests not only that sexual orientation is morally neutral, but that imparting humanitarian ideals should be the Scouts' only legitimate goal. Greg discusses the ramifications of this idea for people on both sides of the table.
- The Nine Percent Fraud -- The truth is out. The "fact" that 10% of our population is homosexual is a myth. Worse than a myth, it's a self-conscious, nine percent fraud.
- There's Somebody Valuable in There -- Public discourse on homosexuality seems to ignore a middle ground--in favor of either getting rid of adherents, or encouraging the behavior as benign. The Christian view is often lost--treating them with respect.
- What Is Normal? -- Greg examines two definitions of the word "normal" with respect to how they apply to homosexuality.
- What was the Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? -- Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Was the most extensive judgment found anywhere in the Bible outside of the book of Revelation actually for the sin of inhospitality, not homosexuality?
- Who is Responsible for Hate? -- What do crazy people with guns killing other people and the boy scouts have in common?
- You Can't Marry Your Canary -- Restricting the definition of marriage is not inappropriate discrimination. As a matter of fact, the word, discrimination, doesn't even apply because there is no such thing legally, culturally, socially or linguistically as a marriage that is not between a man and a woman.
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