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We weren’t made for social distancing, but it might be an opportunity to examine our potentially half-hearted interactions with others.

With roughly 20% of the world population in lockdown, Beth Matheson from Wycliffe USA points out social distancing has revealed how hollow our in-person interactions often are. “We all are pretty good at the social niceties of, ‘Hi, how you doing? I’m fine.’ But I think a lot of us now are realizing that you need more than that.”

The new Wycliffe devotional Lessons from Lesser Knowns is intended to be used in a group of people having dinner together. But Matheson says this kind of interaction can be done over the internet as well. People have more ways to connect now than ever before, and Matheson encourages Christians to make their interactions with other people meaningful.

And to do that, our interactions must be grounded in the Gospel. The devotional features six different Bible passages, but not the kind you might see at women’s conferences or in a craft store. “These are forgotten and overlooked passages that talk about how God loves people who are forgotten and overlooked. He wants his people to have the same heart for marginalized people.”

The devotional comes with international recipes for each lesson, and Matheson encourages Christians to visit Wycliffe.org/dinnerparty to learn more.

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Kevin Zeller

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Christian Concern, a Christian watchdog organization in the United Kingdom, has announced it will mount a legal challenge to the government’s decision to permit “Do-It-Yourself” abortions. 

The group said the government’s decision came without any public consultation, parliamentary scrutiny, or debate, with the government itself having warned that the move would put thousands of vulnerable women at risk at an already highly vulnerable time.

Government officials reversed an earlier decision Monday, announcing that women can now perform abortions at home without medical supervision during the COVID-19 outbreak.  

The BBC reports the official abortion policy has been changed several times by the government during the pandemic. 

Women and teenagers were first told abortion services would still be available, but that decision was later retracted. Now the UK government will allow women to take two abortion pills at home, instead of risking exposure to the Coronavirus by going to a clinic. 

Christian Concern says Monday’s announcement is the most significant change to UK abortion law since the Abortion Act of 1967. The announcement came despite last week’s statement by government officials that there would be no change to abortion law as a part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Abortion has nothing to do with Coronavirus, and abusing public trust to advance a different agenda undermines trust in the government and effectiveness of the response to the epidemic,” said Andrea Williams, CEO of Christian Concern. “There are no proposals, to our knowledge, to use abortion clinics’ capacity or personnel to respond to Coronavirus.”

Williams also warned that the new measures will see Do-It-Yourself abortions performed on women by themselves in their homes without a doctor or medical professional.  

“At a time of national and global crisis, to be pushing through a back-door policy that will put thousands of women at risk is dangerous and chilling. This policy will not help the women involved and will only lead to further vulnerability and trauma,” she continued.

“Something has gone wrong at the heart of our democratic systems when such a policy is introduced without proper public scrutiny, especially when our NHS (National Health Service) is and will be under such strain in the coming weeks and months. We call on the government to urgently repeal these changes,” Williams concluded. 

Other pro-life groups in the UK have also spoken out about the sudden change in the abortion law. 

“It is unconscionable that the Government is contradicting their stance, yet again, to allow women to be taking both stages of the medical abortion at home,” Liz Parsons, director of advocacy for the UK pro-life charity Life, told the Catholic Sentinel website. 

“It is an absolute disgrace that the abortion lobby should take advantage of the terrible situation we find ourselves in, with COVID-19, to instigate the biggest change to the 1967 Abortion Act we’ve seen in years, without any public consultation,” she continued. 

UK abortion law had previously mandated that abortions only be carried out in a hospital, by a specialist provider or at a licensed clinic, with the approval of two doctors.

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Acts of betrayal have the power to violate our sense of trust, dismantle our faith in God, and uproot life as we know it. Yet victims of even the worst betrayal can experience healing and discover a life of health and wholeness through Christ. 

That’s according to Phil Waldrep, author and founder of Phil Waldrep Ministries.

“When people go through betrayal, one of the things that happens is their self-worth is shattered,” he said. “They feel hopeless, that this person did not value their relationship, friendship, or marriage, that the betrayer was able to do whatever they did without thinking about how it would have hurt them. They feel like their life is in a million pieces.”

“If you let God pick up the pieces and put them back together, His way and with His Word, healing is possible. It may take some time, but the other side is more beautiful than you could’ve imagined.”

The popular pastor and author speaks from experience. During a sit-down interview with The Christian Post, he shared how two decades ago, law enforcement officers surprised him at his office. Though the ministry was not its target, the investigation brought to light an employee’s unsavory activities, leaving Waldrep with no choice but confrontation.

“This was one of my closest friends, a guy I loved like a brother,” he recalled. “He was the one guy I would have said would be with me through thick and thin. But I found out he was doing a lot of very serious, immoral, unethical, although technically not illegal, behavior. I was shell shocked because he was riding on the back of the ministry to do a lot of that.”

After the initial confrontation, the employee was “broken, repentant, and acknowledged he had a problem,” Waldrep said. “So I decided to extend grace.”

Just a few months later, the man’s wife called Waldrep and informed him her husband had resumed his undesirable activities. Once again, the pastor confronted his friend. But this time, his reaction was different.

“He was defiant and unkind,” Waldrep said. “I was gracious, I think, to let him resign before I had to do anything. But when I look back, it left me emotionally and spiritually in shambles.”

“Oftentimes, in a deep betrayal, the person who got betrayed is the one who is left picking up the pieces. The betrayer, many times, walks away unscathed.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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Philosophers inquire. They do not (or at least should not) avoid difficult questions, unless there is good reason to do so. As a philosopher, I find that the COVID-19 pandemic raises important questions of moral philosophy. In what follows, I will examine one. Should our response to the pandemic be guided by consequentialist reasoning? I will suggest a negative answer.

Consequentialism is the position that the only factor which morally justifies an act is its results. In other words, the moral rightness or wrongness of an act is fixed solely by its outcome; the consequence of an act makes the act right or wrong.[i] If the outcome of an act is beneficial, then the act is justified: the end justifies the means. The main versions of consequentialism are utilitarianism and moral egoism. Utilitarianism is the view that, in any moral situation, the right act is the one which will lead (or tend to lead) to the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people.[ii] On moral egoism, one ought to behave in ways which maximize the best outcomes for oneself and let others do the same. Philosophers who deny consequentialism are called non-consequentialists.

Utilitarianism is a popular view of morality. Prima facie, the idea is attractive and easy to understand: satisfy desire for as many people as possible. After all, we intuitively grasp the idea of desire-satisfaction. And who doesn’t want to maximize his own satisfaction, anyway? But there are significant objections to consequentialism in general, and to utilitarianism in particular. As David Oderberg puts it:

I have given a number of fairly abstract reasons why consequentialism is on the face of it unintuitive and unmotivated. But I also think it is straight out false, and not only false but an evil and dangerous theory – a view I am not alone in holding. There are a number of ways in which I could defend the view, but I want to focus on one in particular, …This is the charge that consequentialism allows, indeed requires, certain kinds of action that are obviously wrong and so not to be done. In particular, consequentialism permits and requires actions that are horrendous evils, as evil as anything can be… In general, according to consequentialism, it is at least permitted, often obligatory, for a person to commit what looks to any sane observer like a blatant and serious violation of someone else’s rights, and hence to commit an act of grave injustice, in order to maximize value, or at least to do what he thinks is likely to maximize value. Now, for the non-consequentialist, no intuition his opponent can bring to bear in support of the consequentialist position on this matter is as strong as the intuition that such apparent injustices are indeed injustices, and so to be forbidden on all occasions, no matter what the consequences.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Elliott Crozat

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The biggest impact of the coronavirus pandemic for those semi-sequestered in their homes is probably not the fear of contracting COVID-19, but the ever-present distraction of it.

Every day I wake up thinking about the affects this could have on my family and others. I check stats and national updates by the hour. Sundays I preach to a tiny camera lens to those huddled around technology devices and honor worship distancing.

These are different times and focus can easily blur amid the challenge of trying to know when this pandemic season will end and normalcy — even a new normalcy — will begin.

Interestingly, the distractions with which we struggle today are not new. In ancient times, Nehemiah addressed and resisted insurmountable distractions while seeking to fulfill the mission and plan of God.

Nehemiah — a visionary leader and man of God — left his life of service in Persia to return to his homeland and provide leadership for the rebuilding of a wall around Jerusalem, a wall destroyed more than a century earlier.

In Nehemiah 6, we are told the wall was almost complete except for the placement of doors within the gates — nearing the finish line, but not quite there.

Nehemiah’s enemies sent an invitation — a distraction — to Nehemiah: “Come and let us meet together at the plain of Ono” (Nehemiah 6:2 ESV).

The plain of Ono, about 25 miles northwest of Jerusalem, was not a far distance, but far enough from the project for Nehemiah’s enemies to take advantage.

Nehemiah’s RSVP?  “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3 ESV).

Distraction is a Temptation

Distraction is the temptation to give the focus and energy needed for something highly important to something that is often quite insignificant.

When distractions present themselves (as they often do on a daily basis), are you tempted to respond? Nehemiah had convictional focus that refused distraction and compromise.

What are some of the common voices of distraction we hear and face today? Here are few suggestions:

SOURCE: Christian Post, David H. McKinley

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