I haven't written in a while because I have been thinking about the current world situation. From a spiritual perspective, we seem to be in a period of moral bankruptcy stemming from all moral questions being profoundly oversimplified. The cause of that reductionism is neither on the left or the right alone. Rather, it's everywhere.…
If You’re Single, Have [consentual] Sex with Whomever.
I mean it. Just do it. Have fun. Do the same if you are in an open relationship. As long as your partner or partners and the sheep in your pasture are okay with it, I say go for it! Why? How can I say that? I really don't want to get your puritan panties…
Faith and Obligation?
If something is an obligation, is doing it really faith or rather fear of punishment? Those of us raised in small-c catholic traditions may recall the idea of holy days of obligation. These were days wherein church attendance was considered mandatory, and failure to attend was considered sin unless you had an officially sanctioned reason…
Forming my What?
I get a number of emails each day that are sale notices for ebooks. Yesterday I happened to glace at one of the descriptions of a book that read, "...the Church contributes to society by forming the conscience of people." I almost fell out of my chair! If that's not a line straight out of…
Morality and Your Genitals
The Puritan streak that remains deeply embedded in American culture would have you believe that morality and your genitals are intimately connected. The resulting attitudes are perhaps among the most unhealthy ones possible. They lead us to see the physical as bad, as somehow distinct from the spiritual and the holy. This view has caused…
Who Are We to Be?
I confess that, watching the political discourse over the last few years I have become increasingly discouraged. I have watched American politics, not as an obsession but as a citizen interested in public discourse, since the late Johnson administration. To my more smart assed younger friends, I should specify that I mean the Lyndon, and…
Guns, Schools, and Selfishness
At a certain developmental stage, young children are appropriately concerned only about themselves and what they want. At that stage, that behavior is appropriate and we would be wrong (and ineffective) if we tried to hurry them out of that stage. We would interfere with their normal, healthy development, and they would suffer consequences at…
What We Are Missing
It seems to me that we have lost sight of a basic ethical principal. I would state that principal as follows: An action is right or wrong independent of the impact of that action on me. Stated another, perhaps less gentle, way no one of us is the center of the ethical universe. Indulge me…
Perspective
I have been discouraged for some time now that we have become unwilling to forgive the minor indiscretions of youth that, at the time, weren't seen as terribly problematic (such as the wearing of blackface in a college skirt or at a party). At the same time, we are unwilling to address serious transgressions that…
Morality is not a Popularity Contest
I have noticed that, quite often, when an organization determines that a certain course of action is the right course of action their next step is to enter into a long process to determine how to best implement that course of action. What they really seem to be doing is determining how to implement their…
Craig Bergland 