Ethics

Baxters TV series: deeply touching emotional dilemmas. Ever fear rejection in romance? Concerned about family members you love experiencing troubled relationships? Been tempted to stray? Wondering whether or how faith and God fit into life’s complicated messes? If so, you’ll probably connect right away with Prime Video’s new deeply moving TV series, The Baxters. (Short op-ed)

Women Talking movie: sex, religion, #MeToo. In the Oscar-winning film Women Talking, mysterious sexual assaults are plaguing a secluded religious community.  Women and girls awaken drowsy, bruised, bleeding – some pregnant – as men drug them with cow tranquilizer and rape them at night.  While the men are gone, the women debate whether to do nothing, stay and fight, or leave.  (Short op-ed)

‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ movie: Televangelist sex, drugs, and holy rollin’.  The 1980s PTL televangelist scandal became a global soap opera, complete with corporate intrigue, Jesus-praisin’ power struggles, big bucks, betrayal, sex, tears, and mascara…plenty of mascara.  The Eyes of Tammy Faye interprets Jim and Tammy Bakker’s saga for new generations, providing valuable life-lesson reminders.  (Short op-ed)  Washington Examiner version

God and coronavirus: Gone missing?  How could a loving, just, powerful God allow a tragedy like the coronavirus pandemic?  Doesn’t he care that innocent people are suffering and dying?  It seems unjust.  If God exists, isn’t he strong enough to stop this madness?  (Short op-ed)

Christian leaders behaving badly: Why should anyone embrace their faith?  Ravi Zacharias, the popular Christian faith defender, was exposed posthumously as a sexual predator. This sex scandal has created international turmoil.  If Christian leaders are hypocrites, why should anyone give their beliefs a serious look?  (Short op-ed)  Washington Examiner version

CNN’s Redemption Project: Could you forgive your loved-one’s killer?  When someone offends you, do you get even?  Ignore?  Seek to reconcile?  Suppose their offense were killing your loved one or maiming them – or you – for life.  Would you meet with the perpetrator and talk it out?  Van Jones presents compelling, moving, true stories of offenders encountering the offended.  (Short op-ed)

Captive movie: gripping Atlanta hostage drama.  Her story captured a nation’s heart.  Hostage Ashley Smith reads to courtroom killer Brian Nichols from Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life.  Two broken, wounded souls navigate a risky journey about purpose, survival, faith and redemption.  (Short op-ed)

WW II movie drama: Christian students hiding Jews from Nazis.  As the world commemorates the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Return to the Hiding Place dramatically portrays a forgotten story of dedicated Dutch students’ vital role in rescuing hundreds of Jews from Nazi persecution.  Driven by faith, love and conviction, they endured great hardship and risked their lives to protect the oppressed from Hitler’s terror.  (Short op-ed)

Human Trafficking Movie Grabs Hearts.  Annika, a delicate young girl, has been unwittingly handed into virtual slavery by her homeless father.  Sweatshop labor and sex-for-sale portend a bleak future, unless someone intervenes.  Caden, a spoiled, rich, 20-year-old Southern California student, determines to be that someone.  Their inspiring saga in the feature film Not Today might grab your heart, too.  (Short op-ed)

Hilarious High School Bloopers?  By Rusty Wright with Meg Korpi. “Worst analogies written by high school students” had me laughing till I ached.  Discovering their true source reminded me to practice what I preach.  (Short op-ed)

Needed: Ethical Bailout.  Interwoven among news of economic turmoil and government rescues in the banking, investment, insurance and automobile industries are some wild tales of greed, deception, and bad choices.  Companies look to government for financial bailouts.  Where do we look for an ethical bailout?  (Short op-ed)

The Psychology of Prisoner Abuse.  Prisoner abuse scandals generate shock, shame, outrage and disgust.  Why do people abuse others in such degrading ways?  What goes on inside the minds of abusers?  Fascinating psychological experiments reveal clues to the roots of such behavior. The implications may disturb you. (Probe radio series transcript.)

The Psychology of Prisoner Abuse.  Prisoner abuse scandals generate shock, shame, outrage and disgust.  Why do people abuse others in such degrading ways?  What goes on inside the minds of abusers?  Fascinating psychological experiments reveal clues to the roots of such behavior. The implications may disturb you. (Short op-ed)

Our Cheatin’ Hearts.  From classroom to boardroom, from sports to shoplifting, people try to get something that’s not rightfully theirs.  What are the roots of dishonesty?  Why do people cheat?  How does cheating impact society?  Is there a solution?  (Probe radio series transcript.)  Spanish

Cheating in school and life: What to do?  Too often, consumers shoplift, sneak and swipe and students cheat.  Thoughts on causes, implications and solutions. (Short op-ed)

Kevorkian’s murder charge: Is assisted suicide ethical?  Is it ethical for a physician to assist a suffering patient’s suicide or to actively euthanize a patient?  (Short op-ed)

Choosing Abortion.  When I met her at a media convention, she seemed so vibrant and alive, full of zest and eager to interact, an attractive woman with a bright smile and sparkling eyes.  I would not have guessed the emotional anguish and physical torment that lay in her past.  Gut wrenching stuff. (Short op-ed)  French  Portuguese

India’s Missing Girls and the Right to Choose, by Rusty Wright and Meg Korpi, PhD.  Female infanticide and feticide in India’s patriarchal culture stir passions for equality and fairness but raise troubling questions.  Does favoring a woman’s right to choose logically imply that one supports her right to terminate a fetus simply because it is female? (Short op-ed)

Greater than Olympic Gold.  World-class British hurdler Tasha Danvers-Smith found herself unexpectedly pregnant three months before the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.  Should she terminate her pregnancy in hopes of Olympic glory and fortune?  An inspiring story.  (Short op-ed)

October Baby movie:  Do you feel wanted?  For nineteen-year-old Hannah Lawson, that desire drives a quest to discover her real identity.  You see, she’s just learned that she was adopted, and the product of a failed abortion attempt.  (Short op-ed)

Tiananmen Leader’s Divine Cause.  Chinese student Chai Ling helped lead the massive 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square that drew the world’s praise and her government’s wrath.  Twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, today this Harvard MBA is a successful businesswoman who still risks persecution to bring reform to China.  Her current activities might surprise you.  (Short op-ed)

Jordan’s Bold Educational Experiment. Amid continuing Middle Eastern political and social unrest, a quiet revolution is taking place in Jordan that could help reshape the future of that nation and provide a model for the world. It is a revolution not of guns or violence, but of character and mind—and it was started by King Abdullah himself.(Short op-ed by Meg Korpi and Rusty Wright)

War Room movie: got prayer?  Got marital problems?  Job-related stress?  Ethical conundrums?  Try prayer.  This Kendrick Brothers / Sony TriStar release weaves prayer insights into a lively drama about a troubled middle-class family.  (Short op-ed)

‘The Mulligan’ movie: Need a second chance?  Ever wish life granted second chances?  What would you do with them?  The Mulligan movie uses the game of golf to get you to ponder possibilities.  (Short op-ed)