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Competing Demands Nitpickerus: Dionysius, I seem to remember you saying that we must obey all of God's commandments all the time regardless of what we perceive the consequences to be. Dionysius: Yes I do recall saying that.[1] God's laws are absolute. We can't pick and choose. Nitpickerus: But we can only...
Nitpickerus: I asked you in the last issue if it was ever justifiable for a Christian to lie in order to obstruct an evil person or to protect the innocent? What about those people who sheltered Jews during the Second World War and lied to the governing authorities. This seems...
Breaking the bad news Nitpickerus: Isn't it possible to tell lies and yet be motivated by love? Dionysius: But if loving God means obeying him,[1] and if obedience involves speaking the truth,[2] then... Nitpickerus: I'm thinking of situations where telling the truth and showing love appear to conflict. Dionysius: Such as?...
What does it mean? Nitpickerus: So what is the ninth commandment? Dionysius: 'You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour'[1] Nitpickerus: And who is my neighbour? Dionysius: You're not the first to ask that.[2] According to Jesus it includes even those with whom we have nothing in common.[3] Even our...
Imposing our morality Dionysius: Now as I recall we were going to discuss the ninth commandment.[1] Nitpickerus: You were. ! wasn't happy that you'd dealt with 'imposing our morality'. You never moved beyond health education. All those statIstics about condoms. It was more like a public health lecture than a biblical...
Should we impose our morality? Nitpickerus: It's all very well for us to pontificate about ethical issues Dionysius. We're Christians. We've got an agreed starting point. But most of our patients don't accept the authority of the Bible. We can hardly impose our morality on them, can we? Dionysius: It's not...
Falling in love Nitpickerus: In the last issue, Dionysius, we discussed sexuality but didn't really touch on the whole area of falling in love. Dionysius: What are you talking about? Nitpickerus: Come on Dionysius, you must have experienced it. All of a sudden some new person comes into your life and...
How far is too far? Nitpickerus: Dionysius, in our last discussion you argued that God teaches there is to be no sex except in the context of a lifelong, monogamous relationship between a man and a woman. Dionysius: That's right. No sex outside marriage. Nitpickerus: So how far can unmarried adults...
Is abortion intentional killing? Nitpickerus: At the end of our last discussion I asked you whether abortion was murder. Dionysius: What did we decide the biblical definition of murder was? Nitpickerus: The intentional killing of an innocent human being.[1] Dionysius: So is abortion intentional? Nitpickerus: Well, it's a planned procedure, so...
Nitpickerus: Dionysius, there is a lot of disagreement even among Christian doctors about what constitutes ethical behaviour. Dionysius: I've noticed! Nitpickerus: How can we resolve this? Dionysius: We need to start by understanding something about how people think with regard to ethical issues. Almost all people, whether...
