Tag Archives: series

An Exchange on Gay Christians (Part I)

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A few days ago, Annie "Amba" Gottlieb, prompted by comments on a post she wrote about a gay Christian marriage ceremony, issued a challenge to me via email. I accepted and ended up having in interesting exchange with her about gay Christians and homosexuality in general. At her suggestion, we've decided to make our conversation public in its entirety (The only bits that have been cut out were irrelevant to the topic at hand.). I couldn't have written a better introduction than hers, so here are some highlights.

"[T]he stark irreconcilability of the two world views contending, is not new….What is new – and an emergent characteristic of the blogosphere at its best — is that, beginning in the Comments, passionate, open disagreement does not descend into a flame war. We can reject and even despise each other’s world views, yet we’re still talking, with respect – even with friendship. And this is a principle we hold almost as strongly as our convictions about religion, homosexuality, and marriage."

Without further ado, let the conversation begin. 🙂

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2006 Us Too Father’s Days 10K

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[Us Too 10K bib]Well, that could have gone better.

I didn’t suck as badly as I did in the 2005 Great Race, but I’m not thrilled with my performance in the Us Too Father’s Day 10K. I placed 15th out of 22 men in the 20-29 age group and 179 out of 277 finishers with a time of 58:29. That’s a pathetic 9:25 pace. I’d hoped to finish under 45:00 if possible and definitely under 50:00. I think the biggest think that hurt me was the heat. It was a humid 80+° morning and there weren’t many water stations.

The insufficient water was my only major beef with an otherwise well-organized race. There was a station at about mile 1 and then another around mile 4. There might have been a third that i’m forgetting, but the point is that water stations were few and far between. The Great Race last year was a scorcher, but there was plenty of water along the route. Having so little water on such a hot day strikes me as pretty irresponsible. To make matters worse, by the time 10K racers were finished, 5K racers and their friends/families had taken all the bottled water. All that was left a guy pouring from a gallon jug into the same tiny cups used at the water stations. *grumble*

I’m still on the lookout for July and August races. If you know of any good ones, please let me know.

P.S. "No strollers" means "NO FREAKIN’ STROLLERS, @$$#*%&!!!"

2006 Pittsylvania Mile Run

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I ran the Pittsylvania Mile today. I was the only guy in the 20-29 group, and 30-39 was empty, so I ended running with the 40-49 crowd. They all kicked my butt. That’s OK, though, because I wasn’t running to beat anyone but myself. A couple months ago, I set a goal for myself to run a mile in under 7:30. With training help from my buddies in West Penn Track Club, I achieved that goal.

7:10! Woohoo!

Investigating NFP: Bovens’ Bovine Excrement

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Per my request, with intercessory help from Gregory Popcak, Kevin Miller at Heart Mind and Strength has posted clear and consise rebuttals that address the scientific and bioethical claims made by Bovens. Kevin has degrees in biology, chemistry, and moral theology, so he knows his stuff. He also got to the point much more quickly than did (Part I, Part II). 😉 Tolle, lege.

Investigating NFP: The Great Embryo Killer? (Part II)

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Read Part I of "The Great Embryo Killer?"

Having used what he believes to be sound reasoning to implicate NFP in avoidable embryo deaths, he then entertains some possible pro-life responses. Since there’s little actual reasoning in Bovens arguements, I’d just as soon skip his charicatures of pro-life rebuttals. However, since they involve subtle changes to his arguments and could easily stand on their own, I’ll briefly address them, if only to highlight his slight of hand.

"So what is the alternative? If one is concerned about minimising embryonic death, then one should avoid types of contraception whereby each unintended pregnancy (due to its failure) comes at the expense of a high embryonic death rate. Given our first assumption, a condom user (who makes no distinction between HF and non-HF periods) can count on one embryonic death for each unintended pregnancy. A rhythm method user, however, should count on two to three embryonic deaths for each unintended pregnancy. Assuming a success rate of 95% for condom usage, we can count on an expectation of .5 pregnancies in 10 years. Hence, the expectation of embryonic death is .5 per ten years for a condom user, which is substantially lower than the expectation of two to three embryonic deaths per ten years on the rhythm method. Even a policy of practising condom usage and having an abortion in case of failure would cause less embryonic deaths than the rhythm method."

"So how can this argument be blocked? First, one could say that the empirical data are questionable. However, the result really depends on the simple assumption that embryos conceived outside the HF period are less viable than embryos conceived during the HF period. If this is the case, then the success of the rhythm method is contingent on a higher embryonic death rate and so every pregnancy due to a failure of the technique will come at the expense of a higher embryonic death rate—and this is all that is needed to get the argument off the ground."

If that’s the case, then the argument is grounded. Continue reading →

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