Abortion and Faith Discussions: Part Two

Last updated on: September 18, 2023 at 7:49 am By Vance Morgan

Except for those who deliberately and religiously stay disconnected from current events and those who live under a rock, everyone in this country knows that the United States Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision with its June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, thus overruling fifty years of precedent and abolishing the right to an abortion as federally guaranteed, turning things back to the states to do what they will. Five of the six justices... Read more

Abortion and Faith Discussions: Part One

Last updated on: September 15, 2023 at 11:46 am By Vance Morgan

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Exactly one year ago, an important event in which I was both involved with planning and execution, occurred on our campus. It was controversial and cutting-edge. After attending the event, a colleague who has been on the faculty for twenty-five years told me that she had never been prouder of our college. Over the next three Sundays I will be looking back at the context, planning, and reality of that event, which the President of the college intends to be... Read more

That was Fun! I Can Do This!

Last updated on: September 14, 2023 at 1:15 pm By Vance Morgan

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Marilynne Robinson writes that “I remember once, as a child, walking into a library, looking around at the books, and thinking, I could do that.” My “I could do that” moment happened when I was in my early thirties. “Hey, Doc!” Ben said as he poked his head through my office door. “I’m not a doctor yet—I’m just a graduate student,” I replied. “Okay . . . but you’re teaching my class and I’m very confused.” I was very aware... Read more

The “Let’s Totally Screw Things Up” Committee

Last updated on: September 12, 2023 at 8:14 am By Vance Morgan

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I learned many things from my good friend Marsue, who was the rector of the Episcopal church that I attend. She was a great storyteller; in the midst of one of her entertaining and inspiring sermons she brought us into the world of the Quakers. Apparently when a couple is thinking of marriage, or a person believes she or he is called to ministry, they come before a committee of fellow-Quakers charged with the task of helping the persons in... Read more

Thoughts on the anniversary of 9/11

Last updated on: September 11, 2023 at 7:38 am By Vance Morgan

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Everyone beyond a certain age can remember clearly what they were doing twenty-two years ago today when they heard the news. I was in my college’s main cafeteria getting coffee and noticed something weird happening on the Today Show broadcast on a television hanging from the ceiling in the corner. At that point all they knew was that one of the Twin Towers was on fire, apparently because an airplane had crashed into it. I had scheduled office hours that... Read more

Is Tolerance the Most Important Virtue?

Last updated on: September 9, 2023 at 12:10 pm By Vance Morgan

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What happens when a perfectly good virtue gets turned into not only the most important virtue, but in many cases the only virtue? I came face to face with this question in the early weeks of a recent emester with twenty-five juniors and seniors in a section of General Ethics. We find ourselves in a world of competing religious, moral, and political claims shouting at each other across various divides, claims that are both incompatible with each other and resistant to... Read more

Finding a Moral Compass

Last updated on: September 8, 2023 at 8:34 am By Vance Morgan

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Is it ever right to hold a grudge? Is resentment or unforgiveness ever justified? These questions were front and center in a seminar with a bunch of freshmen not long ago; their answers revealed one of the most important and ubiquitous moral divides of all—the divide between what we think we should believe and what we actually believe. And behind the discussion loomed an even larger moral issue: Where does a person’s moral compass come from, and is there any way... Read more

What Does the Bible Say About . . . ?

Last updated on: September 5, 2023 at 1:49 pm By Vance Morgan

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In an interview with CNN a few years ago, Barbara Brown Taylor said something that sounded familiar to me. “True believers are among the meanest people I’ve ever met,” she says, stretching out her legs in a cozy living room filled with books on poetry, religious icons and a photo of her posing with Oprah. “I cannot think of anybody of another faith who has wounded me like Christians,” she says. “Judged, condemned to hell, cast out of the body... Read more

Should My Time Be For Sale? A Labor Day Reflection

Last updated on: September 3, 2023 at 5:09 pm By Vance Morgan

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What follows is a story from my current book project–Nice Work if You Can Get It: Lessons and Stories from a Lifetime in the Classroom. It’s a bit longer than my usual blog posts, but it is very appropriate for Labor Day. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it! In 1729, Jonathan Swift of Gulliver’s Travels fame anonymously published a short work entitled A Modest Proposal, one of the great works of satire in the Western literary tradition. The complete title of... Read more

The Moral Life in One Sentence

Last updated on: September 14, 2023 at 10:57 am By Vance Morgan

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A couple of years ago, I was interviewed in my office by a reporter from The Cowl, my college’s student-run newspaper. The interviewer was a former student and asked some reallly good questions. For instance, she knew that I have taught at least two dozen sections of General Ethics, the philosophy department’s gateway course into moral philospohy, over the three decades that I have taught at the college. “You have introduced many students over the years to many different moral perspectives... Read more