Ethics in Religion Commons^™

Beyond Self-Defense: A Critical Analysis Of The Biden Administration’S Application Of ‘Just War’ Theory In The Israel-Hamas War, Thomas Elias

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Abstract

The Israel-Hamas war has ignited critical questions regarding the justification for violence, particularly the right to self-defense. Harm to Palestinian noncombatants and the conflict’s prolonged duration has contributed to critiques and doubts about Israel’s military operations and the Biden administration’s substantial military aid post-October 7th. The war’s extensive destruction and dehumanization creates a stark tension with the Biden administration’s invocation of just war theory. This paper critically analyzes the Biden administration’s use of just war theory in supporting the Israel-Hamas war, investigating how Christian theological ethics on just war and self-defense have been utilized and misapplied since October 2023. …

See-Judge-Act In The Age Of Viral Violence: Moral Agency, Praxis, And Social Media, Thomas Elias

Graduate Student Research Symposium

More and more, young adults are encountering war and violence through an unrelenting stream of social media images and videos: bombed apartment blocks, civilians fleeing airstrikes, and acts of political violence. Psychological research links exposure to unfiltered depictions of war with heightened trauma symptoms. In the age of social media, people undergo the moral processes online in response to war, terror, and injustice. While these platforms amplify global awareness, they also strain the capacities of moral agents to see clearly, judge responsibly, and act meaningfully. Drawing on Catholic social thought, digital ethics, and psychological research, this project explores how viral …

Women’S Peace Agency: Reading Africae Munus In The Framework Of Emilie Townes’ Womanist Ethics And The Cultural Production Of Evil, Leonard N. Zifac

Graduate Student Research Symposium

This paper employs Emilie M. Townes's womanist ethical framework—particularly her concept of the "cultural production of evil"—to critically examine Pope Benedict XVI's post-synodal exhortation Africae Munus (2011) and its treatment of African women's agency in peacebuilding. While Africae Munus calls the Church in Africa to serve reconciliation, justice, and peace, and acknowledges women's dignity and contributions to family and community life, the document largely confines women's roles to maternal, supportive, and domestic spheres without adequately challenging the patriarchal structures that systematically marginalize women from strategic leadership and formal peace processes. Drawing on Townes's analysis of how cultural narratives, religious discourse, …

Belonging In Unashamed Authenticity, Nathan R. Kitchen

Together We RISE (Making Excellence Inclusive)

In 2020, the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute reported that 47% of LGBTQ adults were moderately or highly religious. This equates to 5.3 million religious LGBTQ adults in America. We cannot ignore this population.

When making the transition into young adulthood, many religious LGBTQ youth feel they must make a choice between their spiritual well-being or their queerness. As a university community interested in the success of the rising generation, we can provide support for religious queer young adults through understanding:

1. What is happening in this transition and why,

2. The well-being needs of religious queer young adults …

Great Men Are Almost Always Bad Men: The Cultural Revolution Of The Techno-Totalitarians, Gregory S. Mckenzie

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

No abstract provided.

Fratelli Tutti: Pope Francis And The Catholic Response To Human Rights, Tiffany Hunsinger

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

On October 4, 2020, Pope Francis issued a letter to the world entitled Fratelli Tutti, On Fraternity and Social Friendship.

The document served as a culmination of the Church’s response to the global pandemic, as well as the more considerable perils of throwaway culture. This presentation will explore the specific response of the Catholic Church as it attempts to counter destructive boundaries and structure of its institution.

Pope Francis continues a tradition in pastoral response to the “signs of the times.” However, can the Church respond effectively in this current world?

Or do the needed changes surpass the capability …

Manumission In Virginia: The Anti-Slavery Legacy Of John Lynch, Stephen A. Langeland

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

This paper is in no way an apology for the institution of slavery in any form. In fact, it is a reiteration of Biblical doctrine and natural rights philosophy that posit all humans are created equal. The institution of slavery knew few bounds throughout recorded history and was as ubiquitous and durable as the activities of marriage or warfare, practiced by every culture and religion (Drescher 2009, 7-8, 12-39). Negro slavery specifically was an institution in all colonies of the New World at some point in history (Davis 1969, vii). The morality of slavery was an unquestioned fact of life …

Israel's Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestinians, Bria Riepe

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

The carving of Palestine to create a ‘Jewish State’, Israel, has imposed upon the Israeli and Palestinian people the necessity of separation on highly unequal terms and qualities of human existence. Since Israel’s creation, millions of Palestinians have been forcibly removed from their homes, displaced, rendered refugees, and continue to exist under severe Israeli military occupation. According to Israeli immigration laws, displaced Palestinians are prohibited from returning to their homes, joining their families in Israel or the occupied territories, and even from entering the ever-expanding borders of Israel. This has occurred alongside a high immigration rate through Israel’s Law of …

Pope Francis, Human Rights, And The Crises Of Our Time, John Sniegocki

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

My paper/presentation will explore the holistic understanding of human rights contained in Catholic social teaching, with a focus on how Pope Francis applies this tradition to some of the major crises of our time. Particular attention will be given to issues of economic inequality, ecological devastation, migration, violence, and the rise of neo-fascist populist movements around the world. Francis’ integrated analysis of the common roots of these problems and his proposed constructive responses will be explored and assessed. Strong emphasis will be placed upon his understanding of the critical role to be played by grassroots movements and widespread popular mobilization.

The Right To Religious Freedom And Its Political Significance: Catholic And Islamic Approaches, Matthew Bagot

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

It is generally agreed that the Catholic Church formally committed itself to modern human rights in 1963 as a result of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical, Pacem in Terris.But it was the more specific historical development regarding the right to religious freedom that took place two years later at the Second Vatican Council, which really prompted global change. As Samuel Huntington wrote, the Church’s commitment to religious liberty on the part of all persons (and to the liberty of non-religious persons) had an extraordinary impact on democracy movements around the world. Indeed, Huntington referred to these movements as a “Catholic …

Pastors And Politics: Considerations For Missional Church Leaders Addressing Political Matters, Matthew Stinson

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

We live in a politically divided time. Long-standing questions about the political role of the church have taken on a renewed interest for American Christians who see this political divide widening and have trouble reconciling their beliefs with the platforms of either major party. How ought Church leaders, seeking to lead missional congregations, speak to our current political context?

This paper lays out a framework for political engagement by missional Church leaders. It first offers a definition of a missional church and a missional church leader. Second, it surveys some of the various approaches to Church and State relations in …

"Returning To My Father" : A Decolonial Reading Of Lk 15:11-32 Towards A Reconstruction Of African Theological Anthropology For Authentic Sacramental Ethics Via Indigenous Divinity Graduate Schools., Besem Etchi

Graduate Student Research Symposium

This paper makes three hermeneutical contributions: (1) By uncovering the Indigenous Norse zero-point subtext structuring today's Catholic liturgy, the paper constructs ancestral primacy as the delinking methodology for indigeniztion; (2) By emphasizing ritual as transformative technology for identity and relationship, in its wielding of neurolinguistic programming, the paper establishes indigenous epistemology as the proper spatial locus for any symbolic exchange that emerges authentic sacramental ethics; (3) By discussing the possibilities that creating indigenous Divinity graduate schools in African countries offers, a path of realizing sociopolitical stability and harmony in African states as a communal body is systematized.

With the ritual …

B-2 Same-Sex Marriage And The Apocalyptic Consciousness Of Seventh-Day Adventism, David Hamstra

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

Arguments made for and against affirming same-sex marriage in Seventh-day Adventism rely on typical moral background presuppositions about immanent and transcendent goods identified by Charles Taylor in his philosophical genealogy of A Secular Age. Arguments made only in terms of marriage’s immanent goods have the potential to diminish the plausibility of a uniquely Adventist way of imagining the transcendent: apocalyptic consciousness focused on the immanent/imminent restoration of Eden by Jesus Christ following the second coming. Comparing marriage to the this-worldly and next-worldly benefits of divergent Adventist Sabbath-keeping practices foregrounds the availability of immanentized moral presuppositions to make sense of …

Wrap-Up Report, Wonsuk Ma

Empowered21 Global Network of Spirit-Empowered Scholars

No abstract provided.

Is There Anything Wrong With The Slogan “My Body My Choice” When It Comes To Abortion?, Jean Amost Cadet

Seminary Scholarship Symposium

Early evidence of induced abortion goes back to the 1500s BC. Aristotle’s work, later, described both chemical and mechanical methods to induce it, and ancient Rome also practiced it as a means of population control. Throughout history, there have also been primarily two opposing views regarding a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy early: one, called pro-choice, which supports abortion for diverse reasons; and the other, pro-life, which opposes that practice, because to them, it is an attack on the most defenseless and helpless class of individuals, the unborn. The pro-choice group often refers to the slogan “My Body, My …

The Dignity Of The Human Person: Catholic And Islamic Approaches To Human Rights, Matthew Bagot

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

At the beginning of The Global Face of Public Faith, David Hollenbach, S.J., challenges the world’s religious communities to relate their distinctive visions of the good human life with the growing awareness that all persons are linked in a web of global interdependence. Hollenbach’s work is founded on an understanding of the common good that he discerns at Vatican II and calls “dialogic universalism.” It is universal because humans are sufficiently alike when it comes to the requirements for their respective goods; it is dialogic because cultural differences necessitate deep intellectual engagement across traditions if they are to be …

Economic Rights In Catholic Social Teaching, Andrew Beauchamp, Jason Heron

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Catholic social teaching has a vision of the economy that is very closely aligned with the tradition of civil humanism, dating at least from the Italian Renaissance. In the course of contemporary discussion of economic concerns, Catholic social teaching often asserts human rights in and related to the economic sphere. However, it regards these economic imperatives not in terms of an autonomous, rights-bearing individualism, but rather within the thick web of relationships characterized by civil virtues, including reciprocity and gratuitousness.

Thus the Church conceptualizes the economy as part of a larger social ambit that includes fundamental social virtues. This vision …

Spirituality: Take Me To A Higher Place, Kane Stanglin, Alexandra Mendez, Laura A. Eads, Kyle Crosslin

Collin College Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Student Research Conference

Panel Chair: Marta Moore

Papers Presented:

"The Acceptance of Fate from a Man of God" by Alexandra Mendez

"Acceptance Is Peace" by Kane Stanglin

"Hindu Beliefs in Bhagavad-Gita" by Laura A Eads

"Analysis of 'The Sovereignty of Goodness of God'" by Kyle Crosslin

Obligations Of Grace, Mark E. Roberts

Empowered21 Global Network of Spirit-Empowered Scholars

Grace obliges recipients to respond in gratitude and obedience to God, the giver of grace. While the New Testament emphasizes God's grace given through Jesus Christ in a New Covenant with believers, the Old Testament emphasizes grace more than many Christians recognize. Grace is expressed in the Old Testament especially through God's free choosing of Abraham as the "father of the faithful," through divine covenants with Abraham, with the divinely constituted nation of Israel, and with the governing house of David. Such grace abounds when God's covenanted people fail to keep their covenant, yet God, after disciplining the covenant people …

Session 2 - Societal-Consciousness In The Computing Curricula: A Time For Serious Introspection, Daniel Moix, Srini Ramaswamy

International Symposium on Technology and Society

This paper addresses the growing need for inculcating appropriate ethics within the computing curriculum by fostering the development of a societally-conscious ethical framework among our students to address the use of information technology vis-à-vis government, business and society. We propose a new integrated model based approach (IDEA) and suggest its adoption to encourage students on reflecting upon the social and ethical ramifications of technology, beyond the narrow, project focused tunnel vision that currently (subliminally) exists in many computing curricula, and in particular, in today’s profit-focused, consulting and contract-based software industry.