This is an good piece from Mercatornet’s Family Edge: Some of the most interesting debates on family policies are taking place in the European countries of the former Soviet bloc. In 2008, Lithuania passed legislation to define “family” as the married union of a man and a woman together with their children, adopted or biological. The point was key in terms of who gets the … Continue reading Marriage or savagery: Lithuania debates the family
This is a thoroughly thought-provoking article from Jennifer Roback-Morse. I realize this is a touchy subject even among Christians (Does the state have any legitimate role in marriage, or is marriage essentially a private covenant between individuals and God?). However, I think the author makes a compelling case for the necessity of marriage and the need for the state to back one-man-one-woman marriage instead of … Continue reading Parenthood is not just a private project
This is an excellent piece that digs down to the fundamentals. We get a lot of funny comments from readers who think we believe women are inferior, must kowtow to all men, should remain uneducated, etc., etc., ad nauseum. Here’s the plain truth, demonstrating that the shoe is (sadly) on the other foot in our modern culture. Those of us who hold to so-called “traditional … Continue reading “Women, Stop Submitting to Men”
The issue of gender equality has come to center-stage in British public thanks to the debate on male-preference primogeniture. American readers may be unfamiliar with the term ‘male-primogeniture’ so a brief word of explanation may be helpful.
The rules of succession for the British thrown are governed by a system in which firstborn sons take precedence over their older sisters in line for the throne. A woman will only inherit the throne of Britain if she has no male siblings. A younger brother – no matter how young – will always bump ahead to first-place in line above older sisters. Given the system of male primogeniture, the present Queen became monarch only because she did not have any brothers. Similarly, Queen Victoria (1819 –1901) was only able to inherit the throne because she had been the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent and Victoria Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg.
I don’t intend to defend or criticize the system of male primogeniture in this post. In fact, I don’t think it is a clear-cut issue biblically. Rather, I’d like to use the recent debate as an opportunity to make a few observations about gender equality. Specifically, I will suggest that (a) gender discrimination is both laudable and inescapable, and that (b) those who are advancing gender equality are often guilty of the same problem as those who practice male domination; as such, feminism and male domination are both opposite sides of the same coin.
OK, I suspect a lot of angry readers will not read any further, but hear me out. Continue reading “Gender Equality Takes Center Stage”
Another excellent piece from Mercatornet: The illusion that moral diversity is a viable social strategy is at its last gasp…. [F]or about sixty or so years, Western culture has been engaged in a protracted rebellion against whole swathes of public ethics. For whatever reason, our culture has effectively disdained to engage in moral debate on subjects that pertain primarily to matters that prick the individual … Continue reading The end of tolerance
Albert Mohler highlights a chilling case from Canada: Mark Steyn hit the nail on the head when he accused a Canadian appeals court of allowing for a “fourth-trimester abortion” — that’s right, the killing of a baby that is already born….As CBC News reported, the woman was given a three-year suspended sentence and will spend no time in jail for the killing of her baby. … Continue reading Thrown Over the Fence — Infanticide, Canadian Style
From Jon Mitchell at Mercatornet: Secret infidelity within marriage is dishonest. On that, there is widespread agreement. But the prevailing question in our culture today seems to be whether monogamy itself is dishonest about human desire and personal fulfilment. To think of monogamy as dishonest is to miss the point. Monogamy is in fact an honest virtue that recognizes the human condition and the capacity … Continue reading Monogamy on the ropes?
Michael Cook has written an excellent post over at Mercatornet, responding to what results when we reject a Transcendent Creator/Lawgiver: “The religious fundamentalists are correct: without God, there is no morality. But they are incorrect, I still believe, about there being a God. Hence, I believe, there is no morality.” This startling syllogism comes from Joel Marks, a retired professor at the University of New … Continue reading Sauntering beyond good and evil
There’s a thoughtful, cogent piece on so-called “narrative ethics” by Sarah Flashing over at The Center for Women of Faith in Culture: “Christianity isn’t a list of rules, it’s a relationship” is how the cliché goes and I’ve never been very fond of it. While I agree that Christianity is about the transformative power of the gospel in the real lives of God’s children and … Continue reading The Moral of the Story…Is There One?
