Send Me Your Ethics Questions!
— Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 —
I want to hear your ethics problems.
This morning we’re launching a brand new, fun project here called “Q&E: Questions and Ethics.” I’m raring to go.
Here’s the way it works. If you’re thinking about an ethical dilemma (big or small) that’s got you thinking, send it to me. Maybe it’s something you heard a co-worker talking about, and you wonder: “If that were me, what would I do, as a Christian?”
At Q&E, I’ll try to answer the question (or question the answers) here from a kingdom-oriented, Christ-centered vantage point.
The question could be about anything from whether you ought to let your teenage son get a tattoo to whether you ought to use IVF to get pregnant to whether it’s a lie to tell your Mom she’s gaining weight when she asks you dead out.
It’ll work kind of like “The Ethicist” column by Randy Cohen does over at the New York Times magazine, except, well, completely different.
Here’s why.
I get a lot of “Hey, what should I do if…” questions, and a lot of them are really thoughtful questions. They force me to think about things in my own walk with Christ, and they prod me on to being a better man, husband, father, preacher, writer, bureaucrat, etc. I think our discussion of some of these questions could prompt us to think.
Here’s how.
Send me an email to questions@russellmoore.com with your question. Or, if you prefer send a video link (YouTube, Vimeo, or just off the camera on your computer) of you asking the question. Or, if you use Twitter, you can tweet the question to me @drmoore.
Some ground rules.
I’m not going to use your name, unless you explicitly ask me to. Otherwise, you’ll be “Confused in Corinth” or “Tempted in Topeka” or whatever (just like old Ann Landers used to do it, if you remember back that far).
I reserve the right to change some minor details to protect your identity and I reserve the right to combine several, similar questions into one synthesis test case.
I won’t respond to you personally by email on these. I’d love to, but can’t.
I won’t answer all of them right away. There’s no timeline. I may save some up while I think about the answer, and it might take me a while. So please don’t send me the “Why won’t you answer my questions” email.
Also, there are lots of people with similar problems to yours. Don’t assume if you read something on here that I’m talking about you. Sometimes I’ll address an issue in some venue, and someone will huff and protest, “How did you know about me.” There are all kinds of Bible verses I could refer you to on that one, folks, but Carly Simon lyrics will do for now.
I’m all for a frenzy of discussion on the comments section. Some of these will be “Thus saith the Lord” type answers: “Should I throw kittens in a wood chipper, for the fun and amusement of my friends” (and stay tuned for how I’ll answer that one). Some will be more “Thus leaneth Moore” type answers: “Should I tell my fiance that I always prayed that I’d wind up married to his brother?”
I’ll answer some of them with text, here on the site. I’ll answer some of them audibly on the podcast (see the link over on the edge of this site for how to sign up for the “Moore to the Point” podcast). The decision as to which is which will be completely arbitrary, dependent more on my thyroid levels that day than on any strategic plan.
So, email me your ethical questions and dilemmas, and let’s get “Q&E” rolling out the gates.
And, by the way, my mother is not gaining weight, in case you thought that my example above was from real life.
Ok so heres the deal. My best friend and I have both been working part time for one of the local colleges. I have been working in Admissions for a little over a year and she has been working in Financial Aid for a few months. A full-time position opened up in the Financial Aid department, and we both desire to have it. We have basically been informed that the decision is down to the two of us. In the long run it is more along the line of work she wants to do for the rest of her life. She will be getting engaged and married soon, and I know she could use the full time job. If I was hired I would probably only work there for a year or two at the most, but I really want it too, not only for the substantial raise, but because I need a change from the job I have now. We both have certain advantages over eachother. We have been open and honest, and I am confident it won’t ruin our friendship. I am just wondering if I should really rally to get this job.
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With the rise of social networks, like facebook, myspace and twitter, how do we effectively share the Gospel? To many, these networks are becoming their primary source of interaction with society, just as ATMs and drive thrus have become the preferred choice of daily interactions, our “accounts” are now our faces. We show our best side, or rather the side that we want people to see, and hide the blemishes of our lives. As, this is the only source of contact I have with many “friends” from the past and the only opportunity for me to communicate with them. Is it really possible to know or bond with someone through this filter? To share God’s love in an effective way? Our comments, in 140 characters or less, and without inflection, can be, and often are, misconstrued. Thus, creating ripples in our relationships, that cannot be addressed, because they are simply not known. At the same time, a simple response click of the “like” button, and we have nodded approval or an “I hear you!”, leaving us with an unknown connection at the heart level and without putting our thought into words. (Paul @timothy “like”!)
The question is as we move toward this “world”, how do we effectively witness to this generation, that shuns face to face interaction?
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I’ll go ahead and ask a question here since I know I’ll forget to email you later. I once was part of a church that had members and attenders who contributed money they made from tobacco farming, tobacco research (how to make a better plant), working at hard liquor distilleries, and even from casinos and the lottery. Now I live in a state that has legalized medical marijuana, and I’m sure that sooner or later someone will want to donate a portion of their cannabis profits to the church. Where do we draw the line in making money as Christians, and where do we draw the line in accepting money as churches?
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[To tag with Dan's question.]
How do you invest as a Christian. Many mutual funds and conglomerates have subsidiaries that are involved with pornography and other things listed by Dan. Should the church take money that comes from profits of member’s mutual funds and other investments that involve porn?
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My question does not deal with a particular ethical situation but more with an ethical framework. As Christians, New-Covenant people, how should we use the Tanakh, or Hebrew Scriptures, when doing Christian ethics? To further clarify, we know that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law and Prophets and that we Christians are not under Mosaic Law. Yet Paul says that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for training in righteousness. However, we know that many OT commands are not applicable in the same way (if at all) to Christians (e.g. Do not boil a goat in its mother’s milk, do no eat pork, do not wear garments made from more than one material, etc.) Can we then bifurcate the OT and classify commands as civil, moral, etc., or should we read it through a redemptive-historical lens? To conclude, what role should the Old Testament play in Christian ethics, and how do we extrapolate ethical commands still applicable to Christians?
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I am a first year MDiv student at Southern. I Co-pastor a church plant in Shawnee, OK. One of my church members presented me with a question that is difficult to answer. She has done some research on birth control pills. She says that all of them are designed to do the following things: to kill the sperm before it reaches the egg and if by chance the sperm does reach the egg and fertilize it it will then act as an aborticant and do away with the newly formed emybro. She said this is known among the leaders of most evangelical denominations including the SBC. Her question was this; if our leaders know about this why don’t they inform the pastors who can then inform their congregation so they can make an informed choice concerning other birth control methods.
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@Lawrence Guest,
Hi. I’m a RN and currently working on my master’s degree in adult nursing at Liberty. Your church member friend is incorrect. In a nutshell, birth control pills work by making eggs impenetrable to sperm. (To get technical, the pills work by inhibiting LH secretion which prevents ovulation). It also changes the lining of the inside of the uterus so that implantation cannot occur (implantation is when the egg and sperm unite and then attach themselves to the wall of the uterus so that the embryo can begin to develop). Birth control pills have absolutely no effect on sperm. To quote the pharmacology textbook we are using at Liberty, Pharmacology for the Primary Care Provider by Edmunds and Mayhew, birth control pills “are not considered abortifacients because an existing pregnancy will not be disrupted by their administration”.