The debate over torture is heating up on two fronts: politics and popular culture. The airline bombing attempt on Christmas Day brought renewed calls to use torture on terror suspects, and the Jan. 17 premiere of the new season of “24″ again thrusts that drama’s frequent depictions of torture into the mix.
Is torture ever justified? The answer is clear to American believers – but for some that answer is clearly “yes,” for others it is definitely “no.” And that stark moral divide is shaping a debate that is growing more intense even years after the first revelations of prisoner abuse.
The current financial crisis, coming in the midst of a presidential campaign fueled by faith-based rhetoric, is giving Americans a chance to reconsider economic policies in the light of religious beliefs. That does not often happen, as the economy is generally viewed as a secular mechanism that works for the greater good when it operates [...]
As concern for the environment has grown in faith communities, a greater emphasis has fallen on how people care for and treat animals. The verse in Genesis – a text sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam – that gives mankind “dominion” over the animals is no longer universally interpreted as awarding carte blanche over domestic, [...]
The earliest stages of the development of human beings, from conception through the period shortly after birth, are fraught with life-and-death issues. Whether concerned about the fate or welfare of a particular embryo, fetus or baby, or hoping to benefit from a reproductive technology or stem cell research, countless individuals and families in every part [...]
Religion and adoption are both, at core, about identity. And increasingly, religious issues are complicating adoption. That’s because of the increase in international and interfaith adoptions, in adoptions between races, and in adoptions by singles and gay couples. At the same time, a significant proportion of adoption agencies are faith-based, which has led to conflicts [...]
The National Center for Transgender Equality estimates that between one-quarter of 1 percent and 1 percent of the U.S. population is transgender – their gender identity or expression differs from the biological features they were born with. That’s 750,000 to 3 million people in the United States. Lately, though, more of them are going public [...]
Each day countless Americans and their families face the decisions and dilemmas that arise as people with serious diseases and injuries move toward death in a nation with: a costly, fragmented and highly technological medical system; an extremely diverse religious and spiritual character; and a very litigious legal culture. Disputes occurring at the end of [...]
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