Thomas Beatie is Pregnant and World Loses Mind
Surely everyone has heard about Thomas Beatie by now. Right? You know, “Mr.” Thomas Beatie, the pregnant man? I tried to ignore this silly story, but after a quick visit to Oprah’s web site I just can’t help but ask: “Have we lost our freakin’ minds!!!” Oprah’s web site says:
Thomas is 34, happily married and … pregnant. Our cameras capture it all-the ultrasound, inside the nursery and more. How is this possible?
“How is this possible?” How is it possible?!? What kind of idiotic question is that?!? How is it possible? I’ll tell you how it is possible! Thomas Beatie is a woman who had a sex change operation that did not go beyond the surface level. Said differently, her female reproductive equipment was left undisturbed and intact. She’s a woman with a few outward male attachments. Yes, she radically accessorized, but she is still female inside, obviously. How did this happen!?! Are Oprah and her people really, really stumped on this one? Is the answer really that far from sound reason and understanding? Really, is it? Read More »
Human Nature Theory and Ethical Orientations
We were presented with a worksheet in a class on Ministerial Ethics (PL311) detailing the Four Theories of Human Nature as lifted from Augsburger’s Pastoral Counseling Across Cultures. We were instructed to theologically identify with one of the four theories. We were also presented with a variety of ethical orientations, such as: Deontological (rules and duty); Teleological: (goals and outcomes); Situational (acts and decisions that fit the situation); Sense (conscience and spirit); Virtue (the formation of character in community); liberation (fulfillment of life and freedom from oppression); and Care (responsible care to self and other). The goal was to associate an ethical orientation with one’s choice of nature theory. The combinations classmates announced in class were interesting, to say the least. I’ll make this point in a bit, but first I’ll list the Four Theories of Human Nature. Read More »
Self-enrichment in a World of Relative Values?
I randomly pulled an ethics book from its shelf this morning, after my morning devotions. I flipped to a very provocative page re: the issue of postmodernism, and its relationship and/or affect upon ethics, which has been a strong and obvious theme in discussions concerning Christianity and Christian ethics of late, at least here on this weblog. The content I read deserves to be quoted in full. It is simple, rich and, as I stated earlier, provocative: Read More »
John Stuart Mill: On Kant and Utility
John Stuart Mill sites the following statement from Kant as evidence of Kant’s philosophical reliance upon a similar teleological or utilitarian ethic (Mill says that even Kant had to appeal to the principle of utility): “So act that the rule on which thou actest would admit of being adopted as a law by all rational beings.” Kant’s statment does read as a universal first principle of morality’s origin and basis. I think it a mistake, however, to attribute to Kant the same ethical utility as advanced by Mill. Kant seems satisfied with universal ethical principle. Read More »
Christian Ethics: Building Disabled Babies
Ethics class is heating up thanks to a real-time case study re: Gauvin Hughes McCullough. Gauvin Hughes McCullough is the son of a deaf lesbian couple (Sharon Duchesneau and Candace McCullough). The couple decided to purposely ‘build’ a deaf baby, by seeking out a sperm donor who was deaf too. It worked. The boy is severely deaf. Gauvin was diagnosed with “a profound hearing loss in his left ear and at least a severe hearing loss in his right ear,” according to the story. Deaf enough, I suppose.
The Birthmark: Can We Lose Our Humanity?
A classical short story titled The Birthmark (Nathaniel Hawthorne) raises a few very important questions concerning the relationship between religion, theology, ethics, and science. Read More »
