Theological Tuesday

Parables of Jesus 16:
The Seed Growing Secretly (Mark 4:26-29)
The Wise and Foolish Builders (Matt 7:24-27, Luke 6:47-49)
The Two Sons (Matt 21:28-32)

Ethics: Debt For Christmas Gifts?

Most Americans incur significant debt between Black Friday and Christmas in order to give gifts, send cards, travel, and eat well for the Holiday. They usually rue this a bit in the new year, which is why anyone in the entertainment or hospitality industry knows that January is a slow month. As a result, most financial advisers (and certainly the ones referred to in a Christian Post article I read today) say to not use credit cards for Christmas-related expenses. Generally, I would agree that debt is bad, but if people are already living a debt lifestyle for their own selfish benefits (house, cars, cable, clothes, etc.), why is it so awful to at least do something sweet for other people by the same financial means?

Links:
Don’t do Christmas on credit, debt charity warns (CP)

Theological Tuesday

Parables of Jesus 15: The Wedding Feast/Dinner Banquet (Matthew 21:33-46, Mark 12:1-12, Luke 20:9-19)

Ethics: Incentive

A story someone sent me about incentives was completely fascinating. In an effort to increase the number of people donating blood, blood banks started paying people to donate blood. The actual result of this program was to reduce the number of blood donors, since the people who donated felt that getting paid ruined the moral reward for which they had previously been giving the blood. Similarly, in Israel, a daycare center noticed that parents were chronically tardy, causing more of the workers to have to stay late. As a solution, they began imposing small fines on the parents who were late, and there was an almost immediate doubling of the number of late parents. This was because the fine was less valuable than the freedom to be late and the parents believed that paying a fine made the transaction no longer a moral question, morality clearly having a stronger pull than a fine. Since both of these examples demonstrate a particular kind of perverse incentive, I thought it might be useful to think about rewards and their unintended consequences on some of the rest of the behaviors in our lives.

Links:
When economic incentives backfire (Harvard Business Review)
Why fining people can actually increase an activity (Tech Dirt)
Perverse Incentive (Wikipedia)

Various Current Events

Body scanners, pat downs prompt traveler backlash (CSM)
Body scanner images hit web (Fox)
Pat me, pat me (Townhall)
Are TSA pat-downs and body scans unconstitutional? (CSM)
TSA—No religious exceptions for pat-downs (CNS News)
Former El Al security chief tells US to profile (CNS News)
TSA chief: Inspections are invasive (Politico)
Napolitano: Scanners safe, pat-downs discreet (USA Today)
Napolitano: Be patient with scanners (USA Today)
“Revival” author explains White House identity crisis (NPR)
Rangel guilty of 11 ethics violations (Fox)
Dolan elected Pres. Of Catholic Bishop’s Conference (NYT)
Natural isn’t always better (John Stossel)
Prince William to Marry Kate Middleton (NYT)
NATO razing booby-trapped houses (NYT)
Playboy TV targets female viewers (NYT)
Pretty good for government work (Warren Buffett)
Not $200 million a day (Thomas Friedman)
GM IPO recovers billions for taxpayers (NYT)
Why 300 million people are suddenly poor (CSM)
Tempe homeless man returns $3,300 to ASU student (AZR)
Blessed are the unoffended (CT)
Mustang’s second key ignites a supercar (CSM)
Catholic council renews interest in exorcism (NYT)
Passengers push for child-free flights (NYT)
Cities offering free storage to homeless (USA Today)
GOP urged to avoid social issues (Politico)
IRS - new requirements for paid tax preparers (USA Today)
AZ begins setting up medical pot program (AZR)
She’s a hooker for Jesus. Honest. (NY Post)

Wacky Wednesday--Christianity Is Bad For The World

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~It’s a source of oppression of other religious viewpoints
~It’s too sexually restrictive.
~The historical treatment of Jews has been terrible.
~It’s been very harmful to women.
~Christians are indifferent to the suffering of animals
~Christians have been responsible for tremendous environmental destruction.
~Ever hear of Manifest Destiny?
~It’s followers are hypocrites
~Christians are too authoritarian.
~No one can actually live up to its moral tenets, so everyone feels miserable about themselves for their failures.
~Christians are always trying to impose their morality on everyone else.
~The whole idea of forgiving evil is impractical and only encourages bad people to do more of their harms.
~Who held slaves in the Old South? Hint: it wasn’t Buddhists or atheists.

Theological Tuesday

Parables of Jesus 14: The Wicket Tenants (Matthew 21:33-46, Mark 12:1-12, Luke 20:9-19)

Ethics: Should Christians Be Patriotic?

The idea of being patriotic strikes most people as an automatic good thing. Of course we should love our country and work for its benefit. But what happens when we start to derive our personal sense of identity and worth from the success of our country? At what point might patriotism spill over into nationalism or even idolatry? And as Christians, to what degree might commitments to our country present problems for us when our country is wrong or when our concerns need to be more universal than that? Particularly, how important is American exceptionalism or even American superiority in our sense of personal value? On the other end of the spectrum, can a person ever be not patriotic enough as a Christian? Moreover, can our definitions of patriotism accommodate other people being patriotic to their own countries?

Links:
Patriotism or Nationalism? by Joseph Sobran
In Defense of Patriotism by Edward Daley
What's Right About Patriotism by ChristianityToday
A Defense of American Patriotism by Robert Barlick Jr.
Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty by Pitzer.edu
Patriotism and Government by Leo Tolstoy
On Patriotism by Leo Tolstoy
Patriotism by Brad Edmonds

Various Current Events

Court upholds pastor’s right to bar, receive members (CP)
Roommate discrimination claim dismissed (CP)
Single and pregnant in church? (NAE)
Read the entire Gallup survey (pdf) (CNS News)
Obamacare: 14 mil hrs/yr for vending machine owners (CNS)
College pool hours accommodate Muslims (Inside Higher Ed)
Sex, drugs more common in hyper-texting teens (AP)
Huff Post launches divorce section (National Post)
Judge stays OK sharia ban (Politico)
Child prostitution bust recovers 69 kids (ABC)
Health insurance costs for employees going up (AZR)
Phoenix eliminates 546 vacant job posts (AZR)
At legal fringe, empty houses go to the needy (NYT)
Gay couples to sue over DOMA (NYT)
Obama’s best speech (WSJ)
Read the speech to India’s Parliament (White House)
Matching kids with adults who live their dream (CSM)
Is obesity a social disease? (Reuters)
Biden’s opaque transparency (Fox News)
Does sampling DNA violate 14th Amendment? (FindLaw)
Justice Stevens on “invidious prejudice” (NYT)
Justice Stevens on the 911 Mosque (ABC)
Why are Christian movies so bad? (Relevant Magazine)
ACLU defends pro-life group (Medical News Today)
Oklahoma’s Sharia ban (FindLaw)
A global Robin Hood tax? (Fox News)
Amazon defends, then pulls pedophile book (CNN)
Repeal the 26th Amendment! (Ann Coulter)
Pakistani Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy (CP)

Wacky Wednesday--Divorce is good

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~If your marriage isn’t making you happy, how can you say it’s a good thing to not leave?
~We have all sorts of different family structures now, and we seem to be doing okay with them.
~If someone doesn’t want to stay, how can it be loving to make them do so?
~Death is an awfully long way away for most people.
~If it’s okay for death to “do us part,” why not prior to that?
~Some spouses are awful: abusive, unfaithful, and just plain smelly.
~When you can’t leave, the other person has no incentive to work on the relationship.
~Even if divorce isn’t so great for the kids, maybe it’ll teach them to marry more wisely.
~Don’t kids deserve to see their parents happy apart rather than miserably together?
~There’s a reason we call some differences “irreconcilable.”
~Surely the nation’s lawyers can’t all be so wrong.
~Even Moses and Jesus seem to have made allowance for divorce in some cases.
~What if you’re sexually incompatible? Didn’t God build us to have pleasure?
~If you didn’t think divorce was good, you’d say that people who have slept together shouldn’t be allowed to break up either.
~Some people just aren’t fit for marriage, but you can’t tell until after they’re in it.
~If you split up, and it’s a mistake, you can always get back together again. But how will you know for sure unless you try it.
~If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it’s yours. If it doesn’t , it never was.
~They must be good, otherwise how do you explain the money and difficulty people will go through in order to obtain them? Free market principles alone give a massive stamp of validation to the value of divorce.
~Aren’t you against involuntary monopolies? That’s what marriage is if you can’t end it.

Theological Tuesday

Parables of Jesus 13: The Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13)

Ethics: Should We Vote Third Party?

As you no doubt have heard, despite the already massive gains of the Republicans in the election last week, several more seats would have been won if only third party candidates (most notably Libertarians, but also the Tea Party in a few cases) had not been running. Since this ultimately means that Democrats (who are even less liked than Republicans by these voters generally) retained their seats, these third party votes or candidates wound up helping the least desired candidates. Does that mean that a vote for third parties is always wrong because of the spoiler effect or because it winds up helping your enemies? Do third party candidates do anything useful to offset this problem?

Links:
Why third parties? (About.com)
Third parties leave a mark (CSM)
What are third parties for? (Essay)
Third party rising (NYT)
Third Party in the United States (Wikipedia)
Why Dr. Dobson Is Wrong About Rudy (Andrew Tallman)
Instant-runoff voting (Wikipedia)

Various Current Events

Fast track to inequality (NYT)
Christian flag conflict in NC (CP)
Disaster averted (NYT)
Jan Brewer attends SB 1070 hearing (NYT)
Sherrifs watch SB 1070 hearing (AZR)
Christian couple fired for being too religious (CP)
San Fran passes anti-happy meal law (CBS)
Violent video games stir free speech debate (AZR)

Wacky Wednesday--The Ten Commandments Don’t Matter

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~They’re not for us, they’re specifically for the Jews, unless you think you were delivered from Egypt.
~We don’t obey them.
~Everyone works on Sunday or else causes others to do so.
~Blasphemy is legal and protected by the First Amendment
~Adultery is common and usually legal, or else just barely illegal but not enforced, like here in Arizona.
~Coveting is the basis of modern marketing and, arguably, the American Dream
~Even if you consider these things bad, you balk at making them capital offenses the way the Bible does.
~How many people even know what they say, especially among those who claim they are super-important?
~We live under Grace, not under The Law.

Theological Tuesday

~Interview with Kathe Wunnenburg about Hope on Wheels.
~Parables of Jesus 12: The Sower (Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8)

Ethics: Should Employers Run A Credit Check On Applicants?

One of the practices many employers have adopted in recent years is to run a credit check on any job applicants. The argument for this is that reliable people show the fact by their credit score. But of course the recent economic woes have caused many people who would otherwise have decent credit scores to suffer job loss, late payments, and even foreclosure, making their credit score dip artificially low. So the question is whether these scores are fair for employers to use. There are lots of things employers aren’t allowed to consider in hiring: race, religion, gender, and age, for instance. But consider how wrong it would be for them to consider medical condition, even though this can certainly cost the company money. So how do we as a society draw the line on which things are legitimate to consider in hiring and which not?