Tag Archives: ethics

It’s difficult being a priest

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A discussion about religious morals made me look at the actions of priests who recently exhibited somewhat questionable behavior: fire someone for converting to a different belief, lie to their flock, preach hate, or discriminate against women and homosexuals.

In all these cases we can objectively say that their behavior was ethically wrong. So why did they do it? Are they bad people? Their actions certainly indicate so.
Well, not always. When you look more closely, a pattern emerges: In general, priests try to avoid unethical behavior. They usually know when they are doing something unethical – and don’t like it very much. Sometimes they just have to do it – it’s expected of them.

Similar to firemen rushing into a burning building, priests sometimes have to do dangerous things. Like bodily harm to a fireman, a priest has to shoulder the risk of destroying his integrity.

For a priest, lying, hate-mongering and spreading homophobia are occupational hazards.

It’s part of their job.

Another Bishop, another Stupidity

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In the tranquil valley of Erschmatt in Switzerland, a storm is brewing. The predominantly christian community has to deal with a shocking development that threatens the very fabric of their existence.

What has happened? In Switzerland religion is a subject that is taught in all schools. Presumably, the curriculum contains information about the world’s major religions. Edith Inderkummen, a catholic, has a degree in religious pedagogy from the University of Lucern, and was teaching religion and ethics at a local state school. Then she decided to convert to judaism. She was fired for this (warning: article in german).

The Bishop of Sitten revoked her license. He seems to believe that someone who has a degree in ethics and religion is unfit for teaching after committing the vile act of converting to a different religion.

This opens a couple of questions:

  • What exactly is taught in these religion classes? More importantly: what does the Bishop think is taught in these classes? Information about religions, or catholic indoctrination?
  • Officially the stance is that only someone who believes in gods can teach religion. Isn’t that like saying only someone who is a child can be a pediatrician? Or that only blind people can become ophthalmologists? But even if – the woman still believes in essentially the same god; it’s just that the belief is sold by a competitor.
  • Why does the Bishop think that converting to judaism makes someone unfit to teach Ethics? I agree that religion makes a bad ethical foundation, but does this Bishop really believe that his own bronze-age morals are better? I’m sure that – unlike the Bishop – someone with a degree in Ethics can differentiate between religious ‘morals’ and truly ethical behavior. All the Bishop has proven here is that he is unfit to teach ethics.

A lot went wrong here. But what went wrong most of all:

How the hell can a Bishop fire a teacher employed by a secular school?

A golden standard

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After making headlines around the world for literally discovering new medical territories (developing a medical test to detect homosexuality, and discovering previously unknown dangers that driving a car poses to women), the Saudis are in the spotlight again for yet another discovery: ‘Put up or shut up’ is really hard.

After being offered a seat on the UN security council, the Saudi Foreign Minister turned it down, citing ‘double standards’ and past ‘UN failures’.

It seems the Saudis are disappointed over the fact that the UN did not manage to find a solution to the Palestinian cause nor remove weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East.

It should be noted that, when it comes to double standards, the Saudis are the experts, so we should trust their judgement should they detect one outside their own country.

So, agreed. There are lots of things that can be improved in the UN. This time around, though, the Saudis seem to prefer to take a step back, and focus on other, more pressing things.

Because everyone knows that the best way to change things is to not accept responsibility.

It seems the Saudi Golden Standard – the one that the UN didn’t live up to – currently is ‘Those who can, do; those who can’t, criticize’.

Everyone who’s ever watched a soccer game is familiar with that one.

Ethics, schmetics

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The classifieds section of a swiss paper recently contained an ad for a company that was looking for a new employee. The ad stated that the job would only be given to a swiss national. The company was sternly reprimanded – and rightly so. Switzerland has some of the world’s highest ethical standards. Hence everyone in Switzerland is forbidden to discriminate against anyone based on race, religion, nationality, sex, marital status, or sexual preference.

Except the Swiss Churches. They regularly discriminate against people based on religion, sex, marital status and sexual preference. Legally. For example, a couple of weeks ago, the Roman Catholic Church of Switzerland legally fired a doctor because he re-married.

But that’s OK. After all, the Church is the paragon of Ethics. It says so. And everyone knows the Church can’t lie. It’s forbidden.

Like firing someone because he re-marries.

Good, god-fearing citizens one sunny day in the US…

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Here’s a picture of a bunch of devout, god-fearing and upstanding citizen who have gathered on a sunny Thursday in August 1959 to do good.

A pity that they are – by today’s standards – committing hate crime

Little Rock integration protest

If there is an image that documents the absurdity of a religion’s claim on absolute morals, it is this.

Image credit: US Library of Congress

“Please forgive me, we are not monsters.”

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During the terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi (emphasis mine):

Elliott’s 35-year-old mother Amber was reportedly able to grab two more children – including a wounded 12-year-old boy whose mother had been murdered – before exiting the shopping mall and taking the children them [sic] to safety.

As the group turned to leave, the gunman allegedly called after them saying the jihadists only wanted to kill Kenyans and Americans, not Britons, pleaded with Amber to convert to Islam and begged “please forgive me, we are not monsters.”

Here’s a hint: if you need to say that, you usually are.