Ethics

A LETTER ABOUT SEXUAL IDENTITY DISORDER

xxxxx,

Several days ago your letter came, revealing your struggles with sexual identity disorder and what you have proposed to do about the matter. You will not be surprised, I am sure, to find a concerned ear for you in the situation you are handling, but you will not find a sympathetic ear for what you are contemplating doing with it. There is a distinction between the disorder itself and what a person proposes to do with it. The disorder may be understandable; what people decide to do with it is another matter.

CAPITAL CRIMES IN MOSAISM

CHRISTIANS AND TEMPORAL AUTHORITIES

Virgil Warren, PhD

            In non-Christian societies, people wonder whether they can continue in their jobs if they become Christians. The minister of a new congregation in Moscow asked about that issue. A policeman had asked whether he would have to quit his job if he accepted Christ.

COMMENTS ON DIVORCE: MATTHEW 5:32

Virgil Warren, PhD

“Everyone that puts away his wife—except for sexual immorality—treats* her like an adulteress, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

ETHICS AND THE GOLDEN RULE

Virgil Warren, PhD

            Treating other people the way we want to be treated implies the fundamental continuity of humankind. Variations between people do exist, but they do not normally deal with matters that impinge on ethical considerations. Supposing the continuity of human nature as the background for the Golden Rule is preferable to supposing that the Golden Rule describes a non-content procedure, the approach of R. M. McIver, “The Deep Beauty of the Golden Rule” in Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, pp. 233-39.

ETHICS STANDARDS

Virgil Warren, PhD

What is the standard and the basis for it?

MIXED MARRIAGE

Virgil Warren, PhD

            Scripture says so much about marriage because it is a universal experience. Besides, it is an intense experience. Married life calls for more skill and understanding than other relationships. It is harder than living alone because it is more complicated, especially when children enter the picture. It is harder than being a good neighbor, getting along with people at work, or even living together in the community of faith. Marriage affects the full range of life rather than just some aspects of it (total). The actions of one partner likely affect the other, and marriage involves a degree of intimacy. We find it possible—and even fulfilling—to relate to many people in varying degrees of “distance” or “closeness,” but in marriage there is no “distance,” and nothing is hidden. Besides, marriage is all the time whereas work is only part of the waking hours and not every day. Marriage is exclusive of all other relationships; its distinctives are not experienced with anyone else. Finally, marriage is permanent while other relationships are not necessarily for life. In a universal, total, permanent, exclusive relationship, it is imperative that the partners share at least the basic values by which marriage operates.

PRIMARY FACTORS IN ETHICAL THEORY

RESPONDING TO ETHICAL RELATIVITY

Virgil Warren, PhD

            Relativity in ethics seems sensible because (a) incompatible moral beliefs and practices exist, and (b) no one seems able to establish a universal basis for ethical theory. 

SOME VALUES OF LOVE AS AN ETHICAL PRINCIPLE

Virgil Warren, PhD

            Love gets us past legal minimums of do’s and don’t’s. It provides a basis for going beyond the call of duty, takes into consideration other people’s differing preferences, watches out for negative effects on weaker brothers’ behavior, and concerns itself with good and better, not just with good and bad. Love fosters a concern for enhancing the quality of other people’s lives, not just with the rightness or wrongness of specific behaviors relative to some standard.

STRAY NOTATIONS ON THE COMPLEXITY

OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOR

Virgil Warren, PhD

THREE THOUGHTS ON ABORTION

Virgil Warren, PhD