Christian Ethics: This subject engaged my studies for my Master’s Degree at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School last summer. While investigating the ideas, processes and outcomes inherent to spiritual formation, I also began to explore how spiritual formation reflected on a person’s Christian ethics. My adult field education with CBHD offered the opportunity to combine both these interests in a specific study.
Meeting with Dr. Michael Sleasman for approximately 12 weeks allowed me to examine how the Bible informed the ethical decisions we make. Our initial discussions examined core theological concepts, while our later philosophical conversations focused on virtue theory along with how philosophical and theological thought complement each other. Of particular interest to me was how postmodern world views and contemporary society shape our moral thinking and subsequent actions.
As practicing Christians, we live out an everyday theology of ethics, which makes this subject more than a theoretical study or mere conceptual dilemma. Our values determine our actions, work relationships, and activities, and in some cases even life and death decisions. These decisions involve bioethical issues often portrayed in the medium of film, or modern movies. The primary focus of my field education was to create a high school or adult education curriculum using the genre of film that included ethical concepts that were grounded in theological reflection.
The purpose of this material develops the participant’s articulation and discussion of their mores revealing their belief systems. When we included information on spiritual formation and the importance of transformation into the likeness of Christ, these discussions provided the participants with the chance to grow closer into a likeness of Christ, enhancing their personal relationship with Him.
Since our “being” influences our actions—within individual faith, the ecclesial community, and evangelistic outreaches—these ethical discussions play a crucial role in life. This culminated for me with participation in CBHD’s conference, “Healthcare and the Common Good.” Currently employed as a small business owner, healthcare issues affect me from a business perspective. My business-attuned eyes were opened to the challenges facing our healthcare professionals who strive to practice medicine while holding strong Christian principles.
I left the conference convinced that healthcare solutions could only be resolved through Christian leadership from every sector: health providers, insurance companies, businesses and government. Each sector ruminating on these issues allows for a synergistic outcome that can optimize any one solitary decision based on a singular viewpoint. The valuable CBHD leadership needs to be applauded for confronting this dilemma.
As Christians, we want to live a life in discipleship to Jesus Christ, letting our actions speak by living out our faith. Our goal is for Christian ethics and values to be ingrained in our everyday world where the Word of God bears on every aspect of each moral decision we make. We must live as a “city on a hill” (Matthew 5:14), where decisions embody the words we hold dear. I am thankful for the opportunity to work with Dr. Sleasman and CBHD because this work has been instrumental in shaping my ethical mores in our contemporary world, and has led me to continue my doctoral studies in Business Ethics.
As a Trinity Evangelical Divinity School graduate of the MA in Christian Thought, Christianity and Contemporary Culture/ Bioethics program, I have taken numerous bioethics courses which have led me to believe that as we look to the future there are few more pressing concerns for Christians, and humanity as a whole, than those that are raised by bioethics and emerging biotechnologies. Given that background, I was delighted to learn of an opportunity to serve as a media intern with CBHD.
Among a variety of other tasks with The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity I had the opportunity to learn and practice a little bit of web design. It was fascinating to see what lies behind an everyday webpage. There is a huge network of information that we normally see as just a bunch of text, highlighted links, or graphics. While pondering this relationship of a simple foreground set atop a complex background, I was struck by just how important the efforts of all those involved with CBHD are.
We are increasingly confronted by a barrage of bioethical issues in the newspaper and on television. Unfortunately the issues are often presented with brevity and an agenda that makes it difficult to see the ethical complexities that underlie in vitro fertilization, stem cell research, transhumanism, nanotechnology, etc. These issues have serious implications both good and bad for people of all ages, all walks of life, and living all around the globe.
CBHD provides a unique forum for substantive research, rigorous ethical reflection, and practical information. These resources allow the rest of us to not only see the link ‘Stem Cell Research’ but to click on it knowing that decisions we must make about bioethics in the 21st century will be better made and biblically grounded because of the many years of dedication by CBHD.
To all the staff—thanks.
