title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera ran for when Democratic incumbent Brian Baird retired. She advanced to the general election with 28% of the vote, well ahead of fellow Republican candidates David Hedrick and David Castillo. State Representative Denny Heck, a Democrat, ranked first with 31% of the vote.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera raised over $1.5 million in contributions, 62% of which came from individual contributors and 35% from political action committees. The biggest single contributor was construction and mining contractor Kiewit Corporation, which gave her campaign over $16,000.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: During the campaign, she received support from state Republican leaders Cathy McMorris Rodgers and former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton. "The Columbian" called her "a rising star in the Republican Party". In October, Herrera was named one of Time Magazine's 40 under 40: "The Washington Republican survived a Tea Party challenge to win the GOP primary in the Evergreen State's 3rd Congressional District. Now Herrera, a 31-year-old Latina and former congressional staffer, has successfully recast herself as the outsider as she takes on a longtime Democratic pol in November."


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In the November general election, Herrera defeated Heck, 53%–47%. She won five of the district's six counties. Heck later represented , serving alongside Herrera.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: On December 22, 2010, she announced that she had taken her husband's name and would thenceforth call herself Jaime Herrera Beutler.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera Beutler announced her candidacy for reelection in January 2012. She quickly outraised her two opponents, Democrat Jon Haugen and Independent Norma Jean Stevens. She won the open primary with 61% of the vote. By the end of the campaign, she had raised more than $1.5 million to Haugen's $10,000. She defeated Haugen 60%–40%.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera Beutler ran for reelection in 2014. She faced Republican challenger Michael Delavar and Democratic challenger Bob Dingethal. Dingethal and Herrera Beutler advanced to the general election, where Herrera Beutler defeated Dingethal, 60% to 40%.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In the nonpartisan blanket primary, Herrera Beutler finished first with 55.4% of the vote; Democrat Jim Moeller finished second with 24.4%. In the general election, Herrera Beutler won with 62% of the vote to Moeller's 38%.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In the nonpartisan blanket primary, Herrera Beutler finished first with 40.9% of the vote; Democrat Carolyn Long, a political science professor at Washington State University's Vancouver campus, finished second with 36.6%. Combined, the Democrats in the primary received just over 50% of the vote. In the general election, Herrera Beutler defeated Long with 53% percent of the vote, the closest race since her first campaign. She was one of only two Republicans, the other being Don Young of Alaska, to win a seat west of the Cascades or on the Pacific Coast.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera Beutler received over 56% of the vote in the blanket primary and Long just under 40%, setting up a rematch between the two. In the general election, Herrera Beutler won by a larger margin than in 2018, defeating Long by about 13 points.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Former Green Beret Joe Kent challenged Herrera Beutler in the 2022 top-two primary for Congress. A Trump supporter, Kent ran because of her vote to impeach Trump. Kent supports claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and has said that Trump bears no responsibility for the storming of the Capitol. In the nonpartisan blanket primary, Herrera Beutler failed to advance to the general election, losing to Kent and Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. On August 9, she conceded, saying, "I’m proud that I always told the truth, stuck to my principles, and did what I knew to be best for our country." Kent went on to lose the general election to Gluesenkamp Perez.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In March 2011, Herrera Beutler introduced her first bill to Congress. The Savings Start With Us Act would reduce the salaries of members of Congress, the president, and the vice president by 10%.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: After the birth of her daughter Abigail (who was diagnosed with Potter's syndrome) in July 2013, Herrera Beutler announced that she would still be active in the House for key votes, but would dedicate a good deal of time to Abigail's care.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In June 2014, Herrera Beutler proposed the Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids Act, which would help coordinate care for children met with medical complexities in Medicaid. The bill was passed by a committee, but did not get a vote on the House floor.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera Beutler is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership and the Congressional Western Caucus.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In the first impeachment of Donald Trump, on December 18, 2019, Herrera Beutler voted against both articles of impeachment, along with all other voting Republicans. On January 12, 2021, she announced her support for Trump's second impeachment, after the storming of the U.S. Capitol six days earlier, citing "indisputable evidence" that Trump had "acted against his oath of office". She blamed him for inciting the storming and upbraided him for continuing to push lawmakers to object to certifying the results of the presidential election rather than "doing anything meaningful to stop the attack". She called Trump's initial statement denouncing the violence "pathetic". Responding to claims that impeaching Trump would only "inflame Republican voters", Herrera Beutler said that as a Republican herself, she believed that she and other Republicans "will be best served when those among us choose truth". The next day, she and nine other Republican representatives voted to impeach Trump. In response to backlash from Republicans in her district over her vote, Herrera Beutler made several Twitter posts on January 15 expanding on her reasoning, citing "indisputable and publicly available facts" that proved Trump had engaged in impeachable conduct. She said Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy asked Trump to tell the rioters to cease and desist and Trump responded, "Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are." She told a CNN reporter that the quote showed that "either [Trump] didn't care, which is impeachable, because you cannot allow an attack on your soil, or he wanted it to happen and was OK with it, which makes me so angry."


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: On November 30, Herrera Beutler voted in favor of H.R. 550: Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2021. The bill helps create confidential, population-based databases that maintain a record of vaccine administrations.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: During the 117th United States Congress, which began in 2021, Herrera Beutler has voted with her party 90% of the time, ranking her the 35th most bipartisan member of the House. During Trump's presidency, Herrera Beutler voted in line with his position 79.7% of the time. Her partisan reputation has softened as her tenure in Congress has lengthened.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In 2019, the Alliance for Biosecurity, a consortium of companies that develop products to respond to national security threats, gave Herrera Beutler its 2019 Congressional Biosecurity Champion Award. The award is given once a year to a member of Congress who works to improve the country's ability to prevent and combat major bio-security threats to national security.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In April 2011, Herrera Beutler voted for Paul Ryan's budget, which would have lowered taxes for the highest earners from 35% to 25% and made Medicare a voucher system.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In December 2019, Herrera Beutler voted against impeaching President Trump, saying that there was inadequate proof that he engaged in obstruction of justice and abuse of power. In 2021, she voted in favor of Trump's second impeachment in the wake of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, which she blamed him for inciting.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: On May 19, 2021, Herrera Beutler was one of 35 Republicans who joined all Democrats in voting to approve legislation to establish the January 6 commission meant to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera Beutler favors repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). In March 2017, she said she would vote against the American Health Care Act, a Republican replacement for Obamacare, because of its adverse effects on children who depend on Medicaid.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: After Trump implemented an executive order banning immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, "The Seattle Times" reported in January 2017 that Herrera Beutler "was vaguely critical of the order, without saying she opposed it or calling for any specific changes".


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera Beutler voted for the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which authorizes DHS to nearly double the available H-2B visas for the remainder of FY 2020.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera Beutler voted for Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 1158) which effectively prohibits ICE from cooperating with Health and Human Services to detain or remove illegal alien sponsors of unaccompanied alien children (UACs).


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In June 2021, Herrera Beutler was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the AUMF against Iraq.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera Beutler opposes same-sex marriage. In July 2022, she voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which would establish federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. On December 8, 2022, she joined 38 other Republicans in the House and voted in favor of the final passage of the Respect for Marriage Act.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In November 2013, Herrera Beutler co-sponsored the Military Justice Improvement Act, which would address a rise in military sexual assaults. Under the act, the military chain of command would lose the power to evaluate and respond to such incidents. "Despite efforts by military leadership to address this serious issue, the problem remains", she said in a news release. "A Defense Department report found that fewer than one in six cases were being reported to authorities, often due to fear of retaliation by superiors. A quarter of the time, the perpetrators of these crimes were in the victims' direct chain of command."


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In December 2017, Trump signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2018, which included part of Herrera Beutler's and Suzan DelBene’s (WA-01) Child Abuse Accountability Enhancement Act (H.R. 1103). The act closed a legal loophole that denied justice to some survivors of child abuse.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: On October 21, 2021, Herrera Beutler was one of nine House Republicans who voted to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In August 2008, Herrera married Daniel Beutler, who worked for SeaPort Airlines. The couple lives in Camas, Washington. In December 2010, she announced that she had taken her husband's name, and would thenceforth be known as Jaime Herrera Beutler.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In May 2013, Herrera Beutler announced that she and her husband were expecting their first child. In June 2013, she announced that her unborn child had been diagnosed with Potter's Syndrome, an often fatal condition in which abnormally low amniotic fluid caused by impaired kidney function inhibits normal lung development. A stranger who read the news suggested that she try an experimental treatment: saline injections into her uterus that would enable the baby to develop without kidneys. She said she tried several hospitals, and told CNN that "most wouldn't even return her calls". Finally, a doctor at Johns Hopkins agreed to try this treatment. The results were instantaneous. For four weeks, she drove every morning from the District of Columbia to Baltimore for injections.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: Herrera Beutler is the ninth woman in history to give birth while serving in Congress. On July 29, 2013, it was announced that her baby had been born two weeks earlier, at 28 weeks' gestation. The girl, Abigail, was born without kidneys, and became the first child in recorded medical history to breathe on her own without both kidneys. In a Facebook post, Herrera Beutler said, "She is every bit a miracle." On July 24, 2013, Herrera Beutler was absent for a roll call vote concerning the NSA, citing health reasons. When she revealed Abigail's birth, it was understood that it was her reason for missing what was considered an important vote.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In early December 2013, it was announced that Abigail would be going home from the hospital nearly six months after her birth. On February 8, 2016, at age two, she received a kidney from her father at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford in California.


title: Jaime Herrera Beutler

text: In May 2016, Herrera Beutler gave birth to a boy. In May 2019, she gave birth to her third child, a girl named Isana. Her husband is a stay-at-home father.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The Palestine national football team (), controlled by the Palestinian Football Association, represents Palestine in association football. The squad is governed by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) continentally, and FIFA worldwide.


title: Palestine national football team

text: A football federation in Mandatory Palestine was founded in 1928. While a team for the Arab residents of Palestine played its first match in 1953, the national team was recognized by FIFA in 1998, after the creation of the Palestinian National Authority. The same year, Palestine played their first FIFA-recognized match in a 3–1 defeat to Lebanon in a friendly. The team has won the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup, thanks to a 1–0 win over the Philippines in the final. Their win in the competition qualified them to the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, marking their first appearance in the competition. Palestine also qualified to the following edition of the Asian Cup in 2019, their first through regular qualification. They have yet to qualify for the World Cup.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The Palestinian team is known by various nicknames: "Lions of Canaan" (), "the Fedayeen" () and "the Knights" (). Their main colours are red and white. The team reached an all-time high position of 73rd in the FIFA ranking in February 2018 after going on a 12-match unbeaten streak, from 29 March 2016 to 22 March 2018. Palestine's main venue is the Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium in Al-Ram; however, they have been forced to play in neutral stadiums for home matches in numerous occasions due to political issues.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Maccabi leader Yosef Yekutieli attempted for Maccabi Association's membership in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) as early as 1925. The application was turned down, as only associations representing states could be admitted as members. Yekutieli thus decided to create the Palestine Football Association (PFA). Maccabi officials were obliged to include Arab teams. The association's first session was held in the summer of 1928. Notwithstanding the fourteen Jewish representatives that partook, one Arab delegate participated – an individual representing Arab Sports Club of Jerusalem. FIFA accepted the PFA on 17 May 1929 and during the first years of the PFA, Arab clubs partook in PFA sanctioned-matches. During this time, 11 of the 69 PFA teams were Arab, but after the mid-1930s, until its transformation into the IFA, its membership became largely Jewish with only minor Arab membership.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The Arab Palestinian Sports Federation (APSF) was born in April 1931 due to the belief that the PFA did not represent Arab interests. A Palestinian national team played its first match against a squad from the American University of Beirut in the same year according to "Falastin". Due to the 1936 revolt, the activities of the APSF were hampered and the federation completely disappeared toward the end of the 1930s.


title: Palestine national football team

text: While the PFA was established in 1928, the first international match played by Palestine was an 8–1 defeat away to Egypt in 1953. The last game saw Palestine lose to Libya 5–2, to finish bottom of the group.


title: Palestine national football team

text: At the 1965 Pan Arab Games, Palestine were grouped with Aden, Iraq, Lebanon and the United Arab Republic. They finished second, thus advancing to the semi-finals for the first time. Palestine faced Sudan and were beaten 2–1. In the third place play-off, Palestine met Libya, where they lost 4–2. Palestine participated in the 1966 Arab Cup held in Iraq; they were drawn in Group B alongside Syria, Libya and North Yemen. Starting with a 0–0 draw to Libya, Palestine beat North Yemen 7–0 before losing 3–1 to Syria. They ended the tournament with four points and failed to qualify to the knock-out stages of the competition.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Palestine were drawn alongside Libya, North Yemen and Syria in the 1966 Arab Cup. With one win, a draw and a loss, Palestine was eliminated in the group stage.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The national team participated in the 1976 Pan Arab Games, held in Damascus. Palestine started their campaign with two defeats to Morocco (3–0) and Saudi Arabia (3–1), before defeating Jordan (2–1). They lost to hosts Syria (2–0) in their fourth game of the tournament, drew against South Yemen (0–0), and finished with a win against Mauritania (1–0) to end the tournament in 6th place. Palestine participated in the 1992 Arab Cup held in Syria; they were drawn in Group B alongside the hosts and Saudi Arabia but were eliminated from the group stage after one draw and one loss.


title: Palestine national football team

text: In May 1995, the PFA was granted the status of provisional member in FIFA. Palestine eventually gained FIFA membership on 8 June 1998 after numerous attempts since 1946. Under Ricardo Carugati, Palestine played their first official matches in July 1998 against Lebanon, Jordan and Syria at the 1998 Arab Cup qualification.


title: Palestine national football team

text: In the next year, Palestine took part in the 1999 Pan Arab Games held in Jordan. There, they won games against Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, drew with Libya and Syria, while only losing to hosts Jordan. Palestine finished in the third-place which is their best result to date. In their first ever Asian Cup qualification, Palestine were drawn into a five-team group with Jordan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, and Qatar. A single victory 2–0 against Pakistan proved to be not enough to qualify as they lost 1–0 to Qatar, 5–1 to Jordan before finishing the campaign with a 2–0 defeat to Kazakhstan.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Managed by Mustafa Yacoub, Palestine drew into Group C of the 2002 World Cup qualification along with Hong Kong, Malaysia and Qatar. The team finished in a good second place scoring 8 goals thanks to Emad Ayoub who netted four times. In the 2002 Arab Cup, Palestine crashed out of the group stage, but managed to draw against group winners Jordan, Kuwait and Sudan, whose only losses were against eventual semifinalist Morocco. Under Nicola Hadwa Shahwan, the team were drawn alongside Kuwait, Qatar and Singapore. Palestine finished last with two points.


title: Palestine national football team

text: After a failed Asian Cup qualifying campaign, the PFA hired Austrian coach Alfred Riedl to lead the team during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification. Palestine was included in a group with Uzbekistan, Iraq and Chinese Taipei. They won both games against Chinese Taipei, drew 2–2 with Iraq, however this was insufficient for Palestine to advance beyond the second round as they lost both fixtures versus Uzbekistan 3–0 apart from a 3–0 defeat at the hands of Iraq. Palestine took part in the inaugural AFC Challenge Cup held in Bangladesh. They were drawn alongside the host team, Cambodia and Guam. In the group stage, Palestine registered their biggest win ever, a 11–0 victory over Guam. Palestine advanced from Group C and met Kyrgyzstan in the quarter-finals. After playing a goal-lees first half, they were beaten with a last-gasp goal. In the summer of 2006, Palestine achieved its highest FIFA ranking at 115, placing them 16th in the Asian continent.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Managed by Azmi Nassar, Palestine were drawn with China national football team, Iraq and Singapore during the 2007 Asian Cup qualification. Palestine finished in the bottom with 4 points. They achieved their only win against Singapore 1–0.


title: Palestine national football team

text: In 2008, with the help of FIFA's goal program, the PFA built the Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium, and on 26 October 2008. Palestine held a match at their home for the first time since they became member of FIFA, a 1–1 draw with Jordan ahead of a crowd of over 7,000. Palestine entered the first round of 2010 World Cup qualification and were eliminated after only one match that finished 4–0 for Singapore. The second leg was not played as scheduled due to the Palestinian team being barred from travelling. However the FIFA refused to reschedule the match.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The 2010 AFC Challenge Cup qualifying draw put Palestine in Group C, with Afghanistan (later withdrew), Kyrgyzstan and Nepal. They started the run with a goalless draw against hosts Nepal. The final game finished in a 1–1 draw with Kyrgyzstan to miss the chance of qualification on goal difference.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Palestine drew into group C with Jordan, Libya and Sudan for the 2011 Pan Arab Games. They lost the opening match 4–1 to Jordan in Doha. The team improved in the second match against Libya which finished 1–1. The last game against Sudan was won by Palestine 2–0 to clinch the second-place berth in the tournament. At the semi-finals they lost 3–1 to Bahrain. The team completed their campaign with a 3–0 loss to Kuwait after extra time.


title: Palestine national football team

text: During the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Palestine were drawn with Afghanistan in the first round. The first leg was won 2–0, while the second leg ended in a draw 1–1. On 3 July 2011, the first World Cup qualifying match played at home, Palestine took the lead with a long-range shot by Houssam Wadi. Palestine reached the second round to face Thailand. The first match was lost 1–0 in Buriram, while in the second match, Palestine produced a better performance with Murad Alyan taking the lead early, before Thailand responded before half-time. The second half was similar and two teams waited until the dying minutes before scoring back-to-back goals. This resulted in Palestine's elimination.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The PFA chose not to renew Moussa Bezaz's contract after exiting the second round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying. Jamal Mahmoud, a former player and manager of Al-Wehdat, was announced as the national team manager in November 2011, after two disastrous friendly matches, without a permanent manager saw defeats against Indonesia and Iran 4–1 and 7–0, respectively. Palestine made history by playing and defeating their first UEFA rival Azerbaijan, on 2–0. The match was later registered as unofficial for unknown reasons.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Mahmoud later led the team in the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup. In the run-up, Palestine finished group play at the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup without conceding a goal after 2–0 wins over Nepal and Maldives alongside a 0–0 draw against Turkmenistan on the way to a semifinal exit at the hands of eventual champions North Korea. The third place play-off ended in a 4–3 loss against the Philippines. During the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup qualification, Palestine drew into Group D with Bangladesh, Nepal and the Northern Mariana Islands. They started with a hard win against Bangladesh 1–0. The next game ended in a 9–0 rout over the Northern Mariana Islands. The qualifiers finished in a goalless draw against Nepal to earn a second straight AFC Challenge Cup berth.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The team ended up winning the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup by drawing only one of the 5 matches without conceding a goal. In the opening match, Palestine won against Kyrgyzstan with a last-gasp goal by Abdelhamid Abuhabib. In the next group game, they played against Myanmar and won 2–0. The ended the first round with a 0–0 draw against hosts Maldives. Palestine advanced as group winners to the semi-finals where they faced Afghanistan. The match ended in favor of the Palestinians with a 2–0 win. At the final, Palestine clinched the win over the Philippines with a lone goal scored by Ashraf Nu'man through a free-kick. The victory gave the Palestine team their first major trophy and guaranteed their participation in the next year's AFC Asian Cup. Following its 2014 AFC Challenge Cup win and qualification for the Asian Cup, Jamal Mahmoud resigned as national team manager citing differences with the Palestine Football Association.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Palestine was placed in Group D along with Japan, Jordan and Iraq in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup having lost all three group matches. They started their campaign with a 0–4 defeat by Japan. In the second game Palestine were beaten 1–5, with the opposing team ending the first half with a 3 goals lead. In the second half, Palestine scored their first ever Asian Cup goal by Jaka Ihbeisheh six minutes before the end. However, at this point they were eliminated. The participation ended with a 0–2 defeat to Iraq. After a disastrous performance in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, the PFA appointed Olympic team manager Abdel Nasser Barakat as national team manager, who then decided not to pick several veteran players as the team moved to overhaul.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Palestine registered two 6–0 wins over Malaysia during 2018 World Cup qualifying. Those results, combined with a 0–0 draw at home to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, placed Palestine close to qualification for the third round of Asian World Cup qualifiers. They were eliminated from the qualification following a 2–0 defeat to the UAE on 24 March 2016. They won their final FIFA World Cup qualification match at home 7–0 against Timor-Leste, five days later.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Although eliminated from the World Cup, Palestine advanced to the third round of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification. Drawn with Oman, the Maldives and Bhutan, Palestine came second in the group with five wins and one defeat, and qualified to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup for the first time through regular qualification. Between February and March 2018, Palestine reached their best ever FIFA ranking of 73rd, thanks to an unprecedented 12-match unbeaten streak (between 29 March 2016 and 22 March 2018), winning eight and drawing four. In February 2018, Palestine achieved their best-ever FIFA ranking (73rd).


title: Palestine national football team

text: On 19 December 2017, Julio César Baldivieso was hired after Abdel Nasser Barakat was released. The hiring was widely criticized by Palestinian fans. On 22 April 2018, the PFA appointed Noureddine Ould Ali as head coach to lead the team in the next period. Palestine was crowned champion of the 2018 Bangabandhu Cup as an invited country to the tournament. In the road to the final, they topped their group with 6 points, defeating Tajikistan 2–0 before winning against Nepal 1–0 with a Khaled Salem header. In the semi-final Palestine knocked out Bangladesh 2–0 with the goals coming in each half. At the final, Palestine played Tajikistan for the second time. The match ended 0–0 in regular time, to be decided in a penalty shoot-out which Palestine won 4–3.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Drawn with Australia, Syria and Jordan, Palestine started their 2019 AFC Asian Cup campaign on 6 January 2019 with a 0–0 draw to Syria. Five days later, Palestine faced title-holders Australia; a header by Jamie Maclaren and a goal by Awer Mabil sent Palestine trailing 2–0 at half-time. Australia sealed the win with a 90th-minute header from Apostolos Giannou. On 15 January 2019, Palestine headed into their last group-stage match needing all three points against Jordan, and hoping for a Syria win against Australia. In the 17th minute, Palestine came close to scoring when Amer Shafi produced a fingertip save to keep out Abdelatif Bahdari. In the second half, Oday Dabbagh failed to score from two headers, and the match ended in a 0–0 draw.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Between July and August 2019, Palestine participated in the 2019 WAFF Championship; they were drawn with hosts Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. Palestine ended the tournament with two wins, one draw and one defeat, and finished in second place in their group: however, this wasn't enough to reach the final.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Palestine were drawn with Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Uzbekistan, Yemen at the 2022 World Cup qualification. They kicked-off with a historic win over Uzbekistan 2–0 in Al-Ram. Five days later, Palestine were defeated 2–1 to Singapore. On 15 October 2019, Palestine drew 0–0 with Saudi Arabia, during which its decades-long boycott of play in the West Bank came to an end in protest against Israel's control over Palestinian territories. Thereafter, the team lost again to Yemen 1–0. This was later followed with another away loss to Uzbekistan, thus placing Palestine in the bottom and reducing the country's opportunity to reach the final round.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Manager Noureddine Ould Ali lost his job after 2022 World Cup qualification resumed in 2021 following a 5–0 loss to Saudi Arabia. He was replaced by Makram Dabboub who won his first World Cup qualifiers against Singapore and Yemen, 4–0 and 3–0, respectively.


title: Palestine national football team

text: In June 2022, Palestine qualified for their third straight AFC Asian Cup finals, winning all three games against Mongolia, Yemen and Philippines without conceding a goal.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The Palestinian Football Association faces problems in training and playing due to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Because of travel restrictions placed by Israel upon people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the difficulty in obtaining an exit visa from Israel, many players in the team are drawn from the Palestinian diaspora, from as far away as Chile and the United States. Recently, Israel's refusal to issue exit visas has resulted in players, or in some case the entire team, being unable to represent the territories. In November 2006 (the last match of 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification group stage is scheduled), all players based inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip were denied exit visas. The AFC cancelled the match since both teams had been eliminated from the competition by virtue of their previous results against China and Iraq. A film, "Goal Dreams", was made about the team attempting to overcome obstacles in the qualification for the 2006 World Cup, who were also featured on the BBC documentary series "Frontline Football".


title: Palestine national football team

text: In October 2007, the second leg of a crucial 2010 World Cup qualifier between Palestine and Singapore was not played due to Palestine's inability to obtain exit visas. The AFC and FIFA decided not to reschedule the match despite protests from the PFA, and Singapore was awarded a 3–0 win in a walkover match. In May 2008, the team was not allowed to travel to the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup. After a 2011 World Cup qualifier against Thailand, two starters, Mohammed Samara and Majed Abusidu, were refused entry to the West Bank and therefore could not travel back with the team from Thailand.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Striker Ziyad Al-Kord was prevented from travelling and had his house destroyed. Tariq al Quto was killed by the Israel Defense Forces, and during Operation Cast Lead, three Palestinian footballers, Ayman Alkurd, Shadi Sbakh and Wajeh Moshtahe, were among the Palestinian casualties.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Mahmoud Sarsak was administratively detained by Israel in July 2009 for being a member of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine; following a hunger strike and international pressure on his behalf from FIFA president Sepp Blatter, he was released in July 2012. In 2012, Olympic Team goalkeeper Omar Abu Ruways was arrested by Israel for being a member of a terrorist cell.


title: Palestine national football team

text: Sameh Maraaba was arrested in April after returning with his team from training in Qatar. The Shin Bet accused Maraaba of exploiting his status as a Palestinian football player to act as a courier for Hamas. Shin Bet released a statement in which it was contended that Maraaba admitted that, before he left for Qatar, he met a senior Hamas operative in Kalkilya, asked him to meet an operative from Hamas' military wing in Qatar and received money, a cellphone and written messages which he brought back to Hamas operatives in Kalkilya.


title: Palestine national football team

text: In addition, Israeli forces have been accused of intentionally shooting Palestinian footballers in the knees and feet, including on one occasion ten bullets in the feet of 19 year old footballer Jawhar Nasser Jawhar.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The team's former goalkeeper Abu Rwayyis was arrested in connection with an attack on IDF soldiers in April 2012.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The following 26 players were called up for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification – Third Round qualifying matches against Mongolia, Yemen, and Philippines on June 8, 11, and 14 respectively.


title: Palestine national football team

text: The following footballers were part of a national selection in the past 12 months, but are not part of the current squad.


title: Palestine national football team

text: , the complete official match record of the Palestine national team comprises 229 matches: 66 wins, 57 draws and 106 losses. During these matches, the team scored 291 times and conceded 357 goals. Palestine's highest winning margin is 11 goals, which has been achieved against Guam in 2006 (11–0). Their longest winning streak is 7 wins, and their unbeaten record is 12 consecutive official matches.


title: Christian ethics

text: Christian ethics, also known as moral theology, is a multi-faceted ethical system: it is a virtue ethic which focuses on building moral character, and a deontological ethic which emphasizes duty. It also incorporates natural law ethics, which is built on the belief that it is the very nature of humans – created in the image of God and capable of morality, cooperation, rationality, discernment and so on – that informs how life should be lived, and that awareness of sin does not require special revelation. Other aspects of Christian ethics, represented by movements such as the social Gospel and liberation theology, may be combined into a fourth area sometimes called prophetic ethics.


title: Christian ethics

text: Christian ethics derives its metaphysical core from the Bible, seeing God as the ultimate source of all power. Evidential, Reformed and volitional epistemology are the three most common forms of Christian epistemology. The variety of ethical perspectives in the Bible has led to repeated disagreement over defining the basic Christian ethical principles, with at least seven major principles undergoing perennial debate and reinterpretation. Christian ethicists use reason, philosophy, natural law, the social sciences, and the Bible to formulate modern interpretations of those principles; Christian ethics applies to all areas of personal and societal ethics.


title: Christian ethics

text: Originating in early Christianity from 27 to 325 AD, Christian ethics continued to develop during the Middle Ages, when the rediscovery of Aristotle led to scholasticism and the writings of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). The Reformation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the subsequent counter-Reformation, and Christian humanism heavily impacted Christian ethics, particularly its political and economic teachings. A branch of Christian theology for most of its history, Christian ethics separated from theology during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For most scholars of the twenty-first century, Christian ethics fits in a niche between theology on one side and the social sciences on the other. Secularism has had significant influence on modern Christian ethics.


title: Christian ethics

text: Christian ethics, also referred to as moral theology, was a branch of theology for most of its history. Becoming a separate field of study, it was separated from theology during the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Enlightenment and, according to Christian ethicist Waldo Beach, for most 21st-century scholars it has become a "discipline of reflection and analysis that lies between theology on one side and the social sciences on the other".


title: Christian ethics

text: Christian ethics is a virtue ethic which focuses on developing an ethical character, beginning with obedience to a set of rules and laws seen as divine commands reflecting behaviors which are morally required, forbidden, or permitted. Although virtue ethics and deontological ethics are normally seen as contrasting with one another, they are combined in Christian ethics. Claire Brown Peterson calls the Christian ethic a natural law ethic. According to Peterson, the New Testament contains "the expectation that humans are capable of knowing much of how they should live apart from explicit divine instructions ... Thus Gentiles who lack the revelation of scripture are said to have the law 'written on their hearts' () so that they can [legitimately] be held accountable when they violate what they are capable of seeing is right." Wilkins says that in this view, the primary moral laws are universally known, are discernible through reason, are innate in all people (and, therefore, binding on all), and their practice contributes to individual and community well-being. Elements of each of these theories can be found in the Bible and the early church.


title: Christian ethics

text: By the twenty-first century, additional traditions had formed in Christian ethics based on different interpretations of divine attributes, how God communicates moral knowledge, differing anthropological conclusions, and different ideas about how the believer should relate to the Christian community and the outside world. One aspect of these differences, which focuses on the church and its mission, developed into what Wilkins calls "prophetic ethics". Its starting point is social justice and Jesus' "kingdom ideals", rather than individual morality; it recognizes the group dimension of sin, and tends to be critical of (and challenge) the other Christian ethical theories. Anabaptism is an early incorporation of the prophetic model reaching back to the Radical Reformation. They differed from other Reformation groups in that they saw the church as a unique type of human organization and its problems, not as theological, but as ethical failures rooted in entanglement with politics. Anabaptism began among the dispossessed and persecuted with isolationist tendencies, whereas modern versions, such as the Social Gospel movement, have turned toward cultural engagement. Post-colonial thought, and black, feminist and liberation theologies are examples of this Christian ethic engaging the "sinfulness of the social order".


title: Christian ethics

text: According to Servais Pinckaers, moral theologian and Roman Catholic priest, the sources of Christian ethics are the "Scriptures, the Holy Spirit, the Gospel law, and natural law." The four sources of Wesleyan theology are the Bible, tradition, reason, and Christian experience (an experience of the decisive adoption of Christianity). Christian ethics takes from the Bible its normative rules focusing on conduct, its basic understanding of natural law, its patterns of moral reasoning which focus on character, and the ideals of a community built on social justice. Philip Wogaman writes that Christian ethics has also had a "sometimes intimate, sometimes uneasy" relationship with Greek and Roman philosophy, taking some aspects of its principles from Plato, Aristotle and other Hellenic philosophers.


title: Christian ethics

text: Christian ethics began its development during the early Christian period, which is generally defined as having begun with the ministry of Jesus (–30) and ended with the First Council of Nicaea in 325. It emerged from the heritage shared by both Judaism and Christianity, and depended upon the Hebrew canon as well as important legacies from Greek and Hellenistic philosophy.


title: Christian ethics

text: The Council of Jerusalem, reported in chapter 15 of the Acts of the Apostles, may have been held in about AD 50. The council's decrees to abstain from blood, sexual immorality, meat sacrificed to idols, and the meat of strangled animals were considered generally binding for all Christians for several centuries, and are still observed by the Greek Orthodox Church.


title: Christian ethics

text: Early Christian writings give evidence of the hostile social setting in the Roman Empire, which prompted Christians to think through aspects of Roman society in Christian terms. Christian ethics sought "moral instruction on specific problems and practices" which were not sophisticated ethical analyses, but simple applications of the teachings (and example) of Jesus about issues such as the role of women, sexuality and slavery. After Christianity became legal in the 4th-century Roman Empire, the range and sophistication of Christian ethics expanded. Through figures such as Augustine of Hippo, Christian ethical teachings defined Christian thought for several centuries; For example, Augustine's ethic concerning the Jews meant that "with the marked exception of Visigothic Spain in the seventh century, Jews in Latin Christendom lived relatively peacefully with their Christian neighbors through most of the Middle Ages" (until about the 13th century).


title: Christian ethics

text: In the centuries following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, monks on missionary journeys spread practices of penance and repentance using books known as . Theologian Christoph Luthardt describes Christian ethics of the Middle Ages as listing "7 capital sins... 7 works of mercy, 7 sacraments, 7 principle virtues, 7 gifts of the Spirit, 8 beatitudes, 10 commandments, 12 articles of faith and 12 fruits of faith". Crusade historian Jonathan Riley-Smith says that the Crusades were products of the renewed spirituality of the High Middle Ages (1000 – 1250), when the ethic of living the Apostolic life and chivalry began to form. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance saw a number of models of sin, listing the seven deadly sins and the virtues opposed to each.


title: Christian ethics

text: Inaccurate Latin translations of classical writings were replaced in the twelfth century with more accurate ones. This led to an intellectual revolution called "scholasticism", which was an effort to harmonize Aristotle's thoughts and Christian thought. In response to the dilemmas this effort created, Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) wrote "one of the outstanding achievements of the High Middle Ages", the "Summa Theologica". His positions were eventually developed into the school of thought known as "Thomism", which contains many ethical teachings that continue to be used, especially within the Roman Catholic Church.


title: Christian ethics

text: Martin Luther, in his classic treatise "On the Freedom of a Christian" (1520) argued that moral effort is a response to grace: ethically, humans are not made good by the things they do, but if they are made good by God's love, they will be impelled to do good things. John Calvin adopted and systematized Luther's main ideas, grounding everything in the sovereignty of God. In Calvin's view, all humans have a vocation, a "calling," and the guiding measure of its value is simply whether it impedes or furthers God's will. This gives a "sacredness" to the most mundane and ordinary of actions leading to the development of the Protestant work ethic. Where some reformers such as Huldrych Zwingli regarded church and state as identical, Calvin separated church and state by stating that God worked through the church spiritually, and directly in the world through civil government, each with their own sphere of influence. Using natural law, the Old Testament covenant model and his reformation theology and ethics, Calvin provided the grassroots "federal theology" used by "nations and churches struggling for justice and liberty". These reformers contributed ideas of popular sovereignty, asserting that human beings are not "subjects of the state but are members of the state". During the Reformation, Protestant Christians pioneered the ethics of religious toleration and religious freedom. Protestants also valued virtue ethics. After the Reformation, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics continued to be the main authority for the discipline of ethics at Protestant universities until the late seventeenth century, with over fifty Protestant commentaries published on the Nicomachean Ethics before 1682.


title: Christian ethics

text: Max Weber asserted that there is a correlation between the ethics of the Reformers and the predominantly Protestant countries where modern capitalism and modern democracy developed first. The secular ideologies of the Age of Enlightenment followed shortly on the heels of the Reformation, but the influence of Christian ethics was such that J. Philip Wogaman, pastor and professor of Christian ethics, asks "whether those (Enlightenment) ideas would have been as successful in the absence of the Reformation, or even whether they would have taken the same form".


title: Christian ethics

text: The Roman Catholic Church of the 16th century responded to Reformation Protestantism in three ways. First, through the Counter-Reformation which began with Pope Paul III (1534–1549). Secondly, through the new monastic orders which grew in response to the challenges which Protestantism presented. The most influential of these new orders was the Order of Jesuits. The Jesuits' commitment to education put them at the forefront of many colonial missions. The third response was by the Council of Trent in 1545 and 1563. The Council asserted that the Bible and church tradition were the foundations of church authority, not just the Bible (sola scriptura) as Protestants asserted; the Vulgate was the only official Bible and other versions were rejected; salvation was through faith "and" works, not faith alone; and the seven sacraments were reaffirmed. According to Matthews and Dewitt, "The moral, doctrinal and disciplinary results of the Council of Trent laid the foundations for Roman Catholic policies and thought right up to the present."


title: Christian ethics

text: Christian humanism taught the radical new idea that any Christian with a "pure and humble heart could pray directly to God" without the intervention of a priest. Matthews and Dewitt write that, "The outstanding figure among the northern humanists—and possibly the outstanding figure among all humanists—is the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus". His ethical views included advocating a humble and virtuous life, "the study of Classics, and honoring the dignity of the individual". He promoted the Christian ethic as expressed in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1 – 7:27).


title: Christian ethics

text: After separating from theology, the primary concern of nineteenth century Christian ethicists was the study of human nature. "Beginning with the rise of Christian social theory" in the nineteenth century, theologian John Carman says Christian ethics became heavily oriented toward discussion of nature and society, wealth, work, and human equality. Carman adds that, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, "the appeal to inner experience, the renewed interest in human nature, and the influence of social conditions upon ethical reflection introduced new directions to Christian ethics".


title: Christian ethics

text: Carman adds that the question of how the Christian and the church relates to the surrounding world "has led to the development of three distinct types of modern Christian ethics: "the church, sect and mystical types". In the church type (i.e., Roman Catholicism and mainstream Protestantism), the Christian ethic is lived within the world, through marriage, family, and work, while living within and participating in their respective towns, cities and nations. This ethic is meant to permeate every area of life. The ethic of the sect (i.e., Amish, Mennonites, some monastic orders) works in the opposite direction. It is practiced by withdrawing from the non-Christian world, minimizing interaction with that world, while living outside or "above" the world in communities separated from other municipalities. The mystical type (i.e., some monastic orders, some parts of the charismatic movement and evangelicalism) advocates an ethic that is purely an inward experience of personal piety and spirituality and often includes asceticism.


title: Christian ethics

text: In the late twentieth century, these and other differences contributed to the creation of new varieties of Christian ethics. The Anabaptists, the Social Gospel movement, postcolonialism, black theology, feminist theology, and liberation theology focus first and foremost on social justice, the "kingdom ideals" of Jesus, recognize the community-based dimension of sin, and are critical of the traditional theories of Christian ethics.


title: Christian ethics

text: In the early twenty-first century, Professor of philosophy and religion at Maryville, William J. Meyer, asserts that Christian ethicists often find themselves on one side of a discussion of ethics, while those advocating a secular worldview that denies God and anything transcendent are their opponents on the other side. He says these discussions are divided by beliefs about how claims ought to be addressed, since both sides assume there is a polarity between human reason and the authority of scripture and tradition. Meyer asserts that the answer to this difficulty lies in modern Christian ethics embracing secular standards of rationality and coherence, while continuing to refuse the secular worldview and its premises and conclusions. Meyer describes this effort to affirm religion "within the context of modern secularity" as "the critical fault line in the contemporary world".


title: Christian ethics

text: The Christian metaphysic is rooted in the biblical metaphysic of God as "Maker of Heaven and earth". Philosopher Mark Smith explains that, in the Bible, a fundamental ontology is embodied in language about power, where the world and its beings derive their reality (their being, their power to exist, and to act) from the power of God (Being itself). Theology and philosophy professor Jaco Gericke says that metaphysics is found anywhere the Bible has something to say about "the nature of existence". According to Rolf Knierim, the Bible's metaphysic is "dynamistic ontology" which says reality is an ongoing dynamic process. In this view, God "gives the universe its basic order", and its "formal statistical patterns", generally referred to as "natural laws," but also allows them to develop organically with minimum interference.


title: Christian ethics

text: According to Roger E. Olson, the Christian view of the nature of reality can also be called "biblical theism" or "biblical personalism": the belief that "ultimate reality is a personal God who acts, shows and speaks..." Mark Smith explains that, in metaphysical language, the power of lesser beings participates in Power itself, which is identified as God. Humanity is the highest level of development in creation, but humans are still creatures. This view asserts that humans reflect the relational nature of God. In the Christian metaphysic, humans have free will, but it is a relative and restricted freedom. Beach says that Christian "voluntarism" points to the "will" as the core of the self, and that within human nature, "the core of who we are is defined by what we love", and this determines the direction of moral action.


title: Christian ethics

text: Humans reflect the nature of ultimate reality, therefore they are seen as having a basic dignity and value and should be treated, as Immanuel Kant said, as "an end in themselves" and not as a means to an end. Humans have a capacity for reason and free will which enable making rational choices. They have the natural capacity to distinguish right and wrong which is often called a conscience or natural law. When guided by reason, conscience and grace, humans develop virtues and laws. In Christian metaphysics according to Beach, ""Eternal Law" is the transcendent blueprint of the whole order of the universe... "Natural Law" is the enactment of God's eternal law in the created world and discerned by human reason."


title: Christian ethics

text: Some older scholarship saw Paul's moral instruction as separate from his theology, saying his ethic was adopted from Hellenist philosophy and was therefore not a specifically Christian ethic. Modern scholarship has broken up these old paradigms. "Christianity began its existence as one among several competing Jewish sects or movements. Judaism was not one thing, either in Judea and Galilee or in the Diaspora, nor were the boundaries among the varieties of Judaism fixed or impermeable". Paul's writings reflect a mix of Hellenism and Judaism and Christianity.


title: Christian ethics

text: He called himself a "Hebrew of Hebrews" but he did so in fluent Greek. He avoided the high Atticistic Greek style of rhetoric, but invented his own style of rhetoric by making "recognizable, sophisticated and original use of the strategies common to the [Greco-Roman] orators". He employed Jewish strategies for interpretation, and used the traditions for reading Jewish scriptures, including the apocalyptic ones, both sectarian and what would later be rabbinic, but he was also aware of the Greco-Roman philosophical discussions of his day. He mixed things that modern scholars have seen as unmixable, changing key elements within a given Jewish/Hellenist paradigm, transforming those elements into something uniquely Christian.


title: Christian ethics

text: Paul's theological and apocalyptic views form the foundation of his ethical views, and the foundation of Paul's theology is the cross of Christ. When the Corinthian church begins in-fighting, Paul responds by saying they have abandoned their core teachings: the cross and the centrality of God. These were the themes that formed the foundation of Paul's preaching. The cross informs Paul's ethic theologically, eschatologically and christologically, reconciling people to God but also summoning them to service.


title: Christian ethics

text: "Paul has more to say about human nature [and ethical behavior] than any other early Christian author", and Paul holds up the cross as motivation for ethical conduct. Practicing the cross by living with the self crucified is associated in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians with Christian unity, self-sacrifice, and the Christian's future hope. "The cross is increasingly recognized as providing a general foundation for Christian ethics".


title: Christian ethics

text: Christian ethics asserts that it is possible for humans to know and recognize truth and moral good through the application of both reason and revelation. Observation, reasoned deduction and personal experiences, which includes grace, are the means of that knowledge. Rabbinic scholar Michael Fishbane goes on to add that human knowledge of God is understood through language, and "It is arguably one of Judaism's greatest contributions to the history of religions to assert that the divine Reality is communicated to mankind through words."


title: Christian ethics

text: Evidentialism in epistemology, which is advocated by Richard Swinburne (1934–), says a person must have some awareness of evidence for a belief for them to be justified in holding that belief. People hold many beliefs that are difficult to evidentially justify, so some philosophers have adopted a form of reliabilism instead. In reliablilism, a person can be seen as justified in a belief, so long as the belief is produced by a reliable means even when they do not know all the evidence.


title: Christian ethics

text: Alvin Plantinga (1932–) and Nicholas Wolterstorff (1932–) advocate Reformed epistemology taken from Reformer John Calvin's (1509–1564) teaching that persons are created with a sense of God (sensus divinitatis). Even when this sense is not apparent to the person because of sin, it can still prompt them to believe and live a life of faith. This means belief in God may be seen as a properly "basic" belief similar to other basic human beliefs such as the belief that other persons exist, and the world exists, just as we believe we exist ourselves. Such a basic belief is what Plantinga calls a "warranted" belief even in the absence of evidence.


title: Christian ethics

text: Paul Moser argues for volitional epistemology. He systematically contends that, if the God of Christianity exists, this God would not be evident to persons who are simply curious, but would instead, only become evident in a process involving moral and spiritual transformation. "This process might involve persons accepting Jesus Christ as a redeemer who calls persons to a radical life of loving compassion, even the loving of our enemies. By willfully subjecting oneself to the commanding love of God, a person in this filial relationship with God, through Christ, may experience a change of character (from self-centeredness to serving others) in which the person's character (or very being) may come to serve as evidence of the truths of faith."


title: Christian ethics

text: According to Gustafson, Christian epistemology is built on different assumptions than those of philosophical epistemology. He says the Christian ethic assumes either a condition of piety, or at least a longing for piety. He defines piety as an attitude of respect evoked by "human experiences of dependence upon powers we do not create and cannot fully master". Gustafson adds that such piety must be open to a wide variety of human experiences, including "data and theories about the powers that order life..." He says this Christian knowing engages the affections, and takes the form of a sense of gratitude. Gustafson sees trust as an aspect of such knowing: underneath science is a trust that there is an identifiable order and discoverable principles beneath the disarray of complex data; this is comparable to the trust of the Christian faith that "there is unity, order, form and meaning in the cosmos ...of divine making". Gustafson adds that: "Knowledge conditions are relative to particular communities" and all human knowledge is based on the experiences we have in the cultures within which we live.


title: Christian ethics

text: The Christian ethic asserts the ontological nature of moral norms from God, but it is also accountable to standards of rationality and coherence; it must make its way through both what is ideal and what is possible. Thus, Beach asserts that some principles are seen as "more authoritative than others. The spirit, not the letter, of biblical laws becomes normative."


title: Christian ethics

text: The diversity of the Bible means that it does not have a single ethical perspective but instead has a variety of perspectives; this has given rise to disagreements over defining the foundational principles of Christian ethics. For example, reason has been a foundation for Christian ethics alongside revelation from its beginnings, but Wogaman points out that Christian ethicists have not always agreed upon "the meaning of revelation, the nature of reason, and the proper way to employ the two together". He says there are at least seven ethical principles that Christian ethicists have perennially reinterpreted.


title: Christian ethics

text: Since the Christian ethic begins with God as the source of all, and since God is defined as the ultimate good, the presence of evil and suffering in the world creates questions often referred to as the problem of evil. Philosopher David Hume summarizes: "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then from whence comes evil?" Addressing this requires a theological and philosophical response which John Hick thinks is the Christian ethic's greatest challenge.


title: Christian ethics

text: Todd Calder says there are at least two concepts of evil applicable to this question: a broad concept and a narrow one. A broad concept of evil defines it as any and all pain and suffering, but this quickly becomes problematic. Evil cannot be correctly understood on a simple scale of pleasure vs. pain, since the National Institute of medicine says pain is essential for survival. Marcus Singer says that a workable definition of evil requires that: "If something is really evil, it can't be necessary, and if it is really necessary, it can't be evil." The Christian story "is a story of the salvific value of suffering", therefore the Christian ethic, while assuming the reality of evil and recognizing the power of suffering, does not support the view that all suffering is evil. The narrow definition of evil is used instead. It is defined as the attempt or desire to inflict significant harm on a victim, without moral justification, perpetrated only by moral agents capable of independent choices.


title: Christian ethics

text: The Christian ethic offers three main responses to the problem of evil and a good God. The freewill defense by Alvin Plantinga assumes that a world containing creatures who are significantly free is an innately more valuable world than one containing no free creatures at all, and that God could not have made such a world without including the possibility of evil and suffering. The soul-making theodicy advocated by John Hick (Irenaean theodicy) says God allows suffering because it has value for building moral character. Christian ethicists such as David Ray Griffin have also produced process theodicies which assert God's power and ability to influence events are, of necessity, limited by human creatures with wills of their own.


title: Christian ethics

text: Nicola Hoggard Creegan says natural evil exists in the form of animal suffering, and she offers a theodicy in response that is based on the parable of the wheat and the tares (). She argues that nature can be understood as an intertwined mix of the perfect and the corrupted, that God could not have made one without allowing the existence of the other, and that this is because of the natural laws involved in creation. Christian ethicists such as Christopher Southgate have also produced evolutionary theodicies which use evolution to show that the suffering of biological creatures, and belief in a loving and almighty God, are logically compatible.


title: Christian ethics

text: Generally, Christians ethicists do not claim to know the answer to the "Why?" of evil. Plantinga stresses that this is why he does not proffer a theodicy but only a defense of the logic of theistic belief. The approach of Christian ethics to pain and evil is summarized by Sarah Pinnock who asserts that: "Direct contact with God does not answer Job's questions, but it makes meaning, and the acceptance of suffering, possible."


title: Christian ethics

text: There is an inherent tension between inclusivity and exclusivity in all the Abrahamic traditions. According to the book of Genesis, Abraham is the recipient of the promise of God to become a great nation. The promise is given to him and his "seed", exclusively, yet the promise also includes that he will become a blessing to all nations, inclusively (). The God of the Bible is the inclusive God of all nations and all people (), and the Great Commission () is a command to go to all nations, yet Wogaman points out that Christians are referred to in the New Testament as the "elect" ( ) implying God has chosen some and not others for salvation. Christians and non-Christians have, throughout much of history, faced significant moral and legal questions concerning this ethical tension. During the Reformation, Christians pioneered the concept of religious freedom which rests upon an acceptance of the necessity and value of pluralism, a modern-day concept often referred to as moral ecology.


title: Christian ethics

text: Christian ethics emphasizes morality. The law and the commandments are set within the context of devotion to God but are deontological standards defining what this morality is. The prophets of the Old Testament show God as rejecting all unrighteousness and injustice and commending those who live moral lives. In tension with this, there is also "a deep expression of God's love for undeserving sinners". Wogaman says the apostle Paul refers to this as grace: "being treated as innocent when one is guilty". Wogaman argues that: "Part of the biblical legacy of Christian ethics is the necessity somehow to do justice to both" law and grace. Author Stanley Rudman asserts that human rights (as defined post–WWII) is the language through which the Christian ethic is able to relate these concepts to the world. In a convergence of opinion among Catholics, Lutherans, Reformed, and others, this has led to a support of human rights becoming common to all varieties of Christian ethics.


title: Christian ethics

text: Wogaman asserts that "love is, and must remain", the foundation of the Christian ethical system. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus summarizes his ethical teachings to those who would follow a new path that diverged from established law: "turn the other cheek" , "love your enemies" , "bless those who persecute you" . Jesus' followers must not murder, as the law says, but they must also not hold the kind of hatred that leads to it, but must forgive instead. Wogaman adds that, "justice, as the institutional structure of love, is inevitably dependent upon other incentives, including, ultimately the use of force". Both the Old and the New Testaments give explicit commands to respect the state's authority to "carry the sword" (Romans 13:4). Christian ethics is, and has been repeatedly, divided over this interaction between obedience to authority and authority's power to enforce that obedience in contrast with one's personal responsibility to love and forgive.


title: Christian ethics

text: According to the book of Genesis, God created and declared creation, including humans, good (). The Song of Songs depicts sensual love as good. Other parts of the Old Testament depict material prosperity as a reward. Yet, the New Testament references the life of the Spirit as the ultimate goal, and warns against worldliness. In the traditional view, this requires self-sacrifice, self-denial and self-discipline, and greatness lies in being a servant to all (). Yet according to ethicist Darlene Weaver, "there is no ontological split between self/other; there is no monolithic polarity of self-interested action versus other-regardingness". Christian ethics has not traditionally contained concepts of self-love as a good. However, Koji Yoshino asserts that, within the Christian ethic, "altruistic love and self-love are not contradictory to each other. Those who do not love themselves cannot love others, nevertheless, those who ignore others cannot love themselves."


title: Christian ethics

text: There are a variety of Christian views on poverty and wealth. At one end of the spectrum is a view which casts wealth and materialism as an evil to be avoided and even combatted. At the other end is a view which casts prosperity and well-being as a blessing from God. The Christian ethic is not an opponent of poverty since Jesus embraced it, but it is an opponent of the destitution that results from social injustice. Kevin Hargaden says "No Christian ethic can offer a consistent defense of massive wealth inequality." Some Christians argue that a proper understanding of Christian teachings on wealth and poverty requires a larger view where the accumulation of wealth is not the central focus of one's life but rather a resource to foster the "good life". Professor David W. Miller has constructed a three-part rubric which presents three prevalent attitudes among Protestants towards wealth: that wealth is (1) an offense to the Christian faith (2) an obstacle to faith and (3) the outcome of faith.


title: Christian ethics

text: Classicist Kyle Harper writes that sexuality was at the heart of Christianity's early clash with its surrounding culture. Rome's concept of sexual morality was centered on social status, whereas the Christian ethic was a "radical notion of individual freedom centered around a libertarian paradigm of complete sexual agency". This meant the ethical obligation for sexual self-control was placed on the individual, male and female, slave and free, equally, in all communities, regardless of status. In Paul's letters, "porneia" was a single name for the array of sexual behaviors outside marital intercourse that became a central defining concept of sexual morality, and shunning it, a key sign of choosing to follow Jesus. For Paul, "the body was a consecrated space, a point of mediation between the individual and the divine".


title: Christian ethics

text: Views on sexuality in the early church were diverse and fiercely debated within its various communities, and this continues. In contemporary Christian ethics, there are a variety of views on the issues of sexual orientation and homosexuality. The many Christian denominations vary from condemning homosexual acts as sinful, to being divided on the issue, and to seeing it as morally acceptable. Even within a denomination, individuals and groups may hold different views. Further, not all members of a denomination necessarily support their church's views on homosexuality.


title: Christian ethics

text: Christian involvement in politics is both supported and opposed by the different types of Christian ethics. Political scientist Amy E. Black says Jesus' command to pay taxes (Matthew 22:21), was not simply an endorsement of government, but was also a refusal to participate in the fierce political debate of his day over the poll tax. Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham says: Jesus' response "implied loyalty to a pagan government was not incompatible with loyalty to God".


title: Christian ethics

text: The Christian ethic addresses warfare from the differing viewpoints of pacifism, non-resistance, just war, and preventive war which is sometimes called crusade. Where pacifism and non-resistance can be seen as ideals in action, evangelical theologian Harold O. J. Brown describes just wars, preventive wars and crusades as "actions in support of an ideal". In all four views, the Christian ethic presumes war is immoral and must not be waged or supported by Christians until certain conditions have been met that enable the setting aside of that presumption.


title: Christian ethics

text: Pacifism and non-resistance are opposed to all forms of physical violence based on belief that the example of Christ demonstrates it is better to suffer personally than to do harm to others. Non-resistance allows for non-combatant service where pacifism does not. They both presuppose the supersession of the New Testament over the Old, and believe in the separation of church and state to the degree the Christian does not owe obedience and loyalty to the state if that loyalty violates personal conscience. Both pacifism and non-resistance are interpreted as applying to individual believers, not corporate bodies, or "unregenerate worldly governments". Mennonite minister Myron Augsburger says pacifism and non-resistance act as a conscience to society and as an active force for reconciliation and peace.


title: Christian ethics

text: Preventive war, also sometimes referred to as crusade, and just war recognize that harm can result from failing to resist a tyrannical enemy. Preventive war is waged in anticipation of an act of aggression that would violate ideals of human rights, decency, and a sense of right and wrong. Counter-terrorism is a kind of preventive war. Preventive war/crusade can also be seen as an attempt to set right a past act of aggression that was not responded to at the time it occurred. It is not necessarily religious in nature or focus, but "attempts to undo what no one had the right to do in the first place": the First Crusade of the Middle Ages, the First Gulf War, and World War II. Supporters of Just War theory say war can only be justified as self-defense or the defense of others. The biblical provisos for these types of war are not supersessionist, and therefore are more from the Old Testament than the New.


title: Christian ethics

text: The last 200 years have seen a shift toward just war in the moral focus concerning the state's use of force. Justification for war in the twenty-first century has become the ethic of intervention based on humanitarian goals of protecting the innocent.


title: Christian ethics

text: Early criminal justice began with the idea that God is the ultimate source of justice, and is the judge of all, including those administering justice on earth. Within Christian ethics, this view places the greatest responsibility for justice on judges with moral character, who are admonished not to lie or be deceptive, not to practice racial prejudice or discrimination, or to let egoism lead them to abuse their authority, as central to the administration of justice. Biblical ethicist Christopher Marshall says there are features of covenant law from the Old Testament that have been adopted and adapted to contemporary human rights law, such as due process, fairness in criminal procedures, and equity in the application of law.


title: Christian ethics

text: How justice is defined has varied. Aristotle's classic definition of justice, "giving each their due", entered into Christian ethics through scholasticism and Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages. For Aristotle and Aquinas that meant a hierarchical society with each receiving what was due according to their social status. This allows for the criminal justice system to be retributive, to discriminate based on social standing, and fails to recognize a concept of universal human rights and responsibilities. Philip Wogaman says that after Aquinas, the Radical Reformation, the social gospel and liberation theology redefined getting one's due into what became the Marxist formula: "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Along these lines, justice had an egalitarian form while retaining male domination, and defining justice for slaves as paternalistic care. Wogaman says that these issues will "continue to occupy Christian ethics for years to come".


title: Christian ethics

text: In Christian ethics of the twenty-first century, capital punishment has become controversial, and there are Christian ethicists on both sides. Biblical ethicist Christopher Marshall says there are about 20 offenses that carry the death penalty in the Old Testament. He adds that "contemporary standards tend to view these laws of capital punishment as cavalier toward human life", however, the ancient ethic of "covenantal community" suggests the value of life was as much communal as individual. In contemporary society, capital punishment can be seen as respect for the worth of the victim by calling for the equal cost to the offender; it can also be seen as respect for the offender, treating them as free agents responsible for their own choices who must bear the responsibility for their acts just as any citizen must.


title: Christian ethics

text: According to Jeffrey Reiman, the argument against capital punishment is not based on the offender's guilt or innocence, but on the belief that killing is wrong, and is therefore never a permissible act, even for the state. G. C. Hanks argues against the death penalty by saying it "is not effective in fighting crime, costs more than life sentences, reinforces poverty and racism, and causes innocent persons to be executed". He argues that it interferes with creating a just and humane society, negatively impacts the families of victims, and race issues, and can be seen as "cruel and unusual punishment". These arguments leave retribution as the primary supporting argument in favor of capital punishment, and Professor Michael L. Radelet says retribution's moral base is a problem for a Christian ethic.


title: Christian ethics

text: The Catholic Church has historically taught that capital punishment is permissible, but during the twentieth century, popes began to argue that it could not be justified under present-day circumstances as there were other ways to protect society from offenders. Capital punishment has been abolished in many countries, and Radelet predicts that increasing opposition from religious leaders will lead to its abolition in America as well.


title: Christian ethics

text: In most ancient religions the primary focus is on humankind's relationship to nature, whereas in the Christian ethic, the primary focus is on relationship with God as the "absolute moral personality". This is demonstrated as a focus on relationship itself as a primary concern in all Christian ethics.


title: Christian ethics

text: Traditional Christian ethics recognizes the command to "love thy neighbor" as one of the two primary commands called the "greatest commands" by Jesus. This reflects an attitude that aims at promoting another person's good in what Stanley J. Grenz calls an "enlightened unselfishness". When the Pharisee asked Jesus: "Who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29), Grenz says the questioner intended to limit the circle of those to whom this obligation was due, but Jesus responded by reversing the direction of the question into "To whom can I be a neighbor?". In the parable of the "Good Samaritan", the use of a racially despised and religiously rejected individual as an example of the good, defines a neighbor as anyone who responds to those in need.


title: Christian ethics

text: There are four primary views in Christian ethics on the roles of women. Christian feminism defines itself as a school of Christian theology which seeks to advance and understand the equality of men and women. Christian egalitarianism argues that the Bible supports "mutual submission". These views reflect the belief that Jesus held women personally responsible for their own behavior: the woman at the well (John 4:16–18), the woman taken in adultery (John 8:10–11), and the sinful woman who anointed his feet (Luke 7:44–50), are all dealt with as having the personal freedom, and enough self-determination, to choose their own repentance and forgiveness. The New Testament names many women among the followers of Jesus as well as naming women in positions of leadership in the early church. Biblical patriarchy upholds the view that "1 Corinthians 14:34-35", "1 Timothy 2:11–15", and "1 Corinthians 11:2–16" represent a hierarchy of male over female authority. Complementarianism contains aspects of both views seeing women as "ontologically equal; functionally different".


title: Christian ethics

text: Before the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, ordination was dedication to a particular role or ministry, and in this capacity, women in the church were ordained up until the 1200s. When theologians of this medieval period circumscribed the seven sacraments, they changed the vocabulary and gave the sacraments exclusively to male priests. In the nineteenth century, "rights for women" brought a wide variety of responses from Christian ethics with the Bible featuring prominently on both sides ranging from traditional to feminist. In the late twentieth century, the ordination of women became a controversial issue. Linda Woodhead states that, "Of the many threats that Christianity has to face in modern times, gender equality is one of the most serious."


title: Christian ethics

text: According to professor of Religion Barbara J. MacHaffie, the early church fathers treated married life with some sensitivity, as a relationship of love and trust and mutual service, contrasting it with non-Christian marriage as one where passions rule a "domineering husband and a lusty wife". In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus is seen as emphasizing the permanence of marriage, as well as its integrity: "Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so." Restriction on divorce was based on the necessity of protecting the woman and her position in society, not necessarily in a religious context, but in an economic context. Paul concurred but added an exception for abandonment by an unbelieving spouse.


title: Christian ethics

text: Augustine wrote his treatise on divorce and marriage, "De adulterinis coniuigiis", in which he asserts couples may only divorce on the ground of "fornication" (adultery) in 419/21, even though marriage did not become one of the seven sacraments of the church until the thirteenth century. Though Augustine confesses in later works ("Retractationes") that these issues were complicated and that he felt he had failed to address them completely, adultery was the standard necessary for legal divorce until the modern day. The twenty-first century Catholic Church still prohibits divorce, but permits annulment (a finding that the marriage was never valid) under a narrow set of circumstances. The Eastern Orthodox Church permits divorce and remarriage in church in certain circumstances. Most Protestant churches discourage divorce except as a last resort but do not actually prohibit it through church doctrine, often providing divorce recovery programs as well.


title: Christian ethics

text: Lisa Sowle Cahill refers to sex and gender as most difficult topics in new studies of Christian ethics. As "the rigidity and stringency of ...traditional moral representation has collided head-on with historicized or 'postmodern' interpretations of moral systems", Cowell says tradition has acquired new forms of patriarchy, sexism, homophobia and hypocrisy. Feminist critics have suggested that part of what drives traditional sexual morality is the social control of women, yet within postmodern western societies the "attempt to reclaim moral autonomy through sexual freedom" has produced a loss of all sense of sexual boundaries. Cahill concludes that, in contemporary Western culture, "Personal autonomy and mutual consent are almost the only criteria now commonly accepted in governing our sexual behavior."


title: Christian ethics

text: The gospel requires that all relationships be reconfigured by new life within the community, yet the New Testament has no systematic investigation into all facets of any moral topic, no definitive guidance for the many variations of moral problems that exist in the twenty-first century. According to Lisa Sowle Cahill, "Traditional societies place sex and gender in the context of community, family and parenthood; modern societies respect reciprocity, intimacy and gender equality." Cowell says, New Testament authors challenge that which perpetuates sin, and encourage the transformation that "embodies the reign of God".


title: Christian ethics

text: While Jesus made reference to "some that have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven," there is no commandment in the New Testament that priests must be unmarried and celibate. During the first three or four centuries, no law was promulgated prohibiting clerical marriage. Celibacy was a matter of choice for bishops, priests, and deacons. In the twenty-first century, the Roman Catholic Church teachings on celibacy uphold it for monastics and some priests. Protestantism has rejected the requirement of celibacy for pastors, and they see it primarily as a temporary abstinence until the joys of a future marriage. Some modern day evangelicals desire a more positive understanding of celibacy that is more like Paul's: focused on devotion to God rather than a future marriage or a lifelong vow to the Church.


title: Christian ethics

text: In the twenty-first century, Christian organizations reject slavery, but historically Christian views have varied, embracing both support and opposition. Slavery was harsh and inflexible in the first century when Christian ethics began, and slaves were vulnerable to abuse, yet neither Jesus nor Paul ordered the abolition of slavery. At this time, the Christian view was that morals were a matter of obedience to the ordained hierarchy of God and men. Paul was opposed to the political and social order of the age in which he lived, but his letters offer no plan for reform beyond working toward the apocalyptic return of Christ. He did indirectly articulate a social ideal through the Pauline virtues, the "faith, hope and love" of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, by designating love as the highest of all virtues; and he indirectly undermined the mistreatment of women, children and slaves through his teachings on marriage and through his own personal lifestyle. Stanley K. Stowers, professor of religious studies, asserts the view that Paul's refusal to marry and set up a household that would require slaves, and his insistence on being self-supporting, was a model followed by many after him that "structurally attacked slavery by attacking its social basis, the household, and its continuity through inheritance from master to master".


title: Christian ethics

text: In the early 4th century, Roman law, such as the "Novella 142" of Justinian, gave Christian bishops (and priests) the power to free slaves by a ritual in a church performed by the bishop or priest involved. It is not known if baptism was required before this ritual. Several early figures, such as Saint Patrick (415-493), himself having been enslaved as an adolescent, and Acacius of Amida (400-425), made personal sacrifices to free slaves. Bishop Ambrose (337 – 397 AD), while not openly advocating abolition, ordered that church property be sold to get the money to buy and free slaves. Gregory of Nyssa (–394) went further and stated opposition to all slavery as a practice. Later Saint Eligius (588-650) used his vast wealth to purchase British and Saxon slaves in groups of 50 and 100 in order to set them free.


title: Christian ethics

text: By the time of Charlemagne (742-814), while Muslims were coming onto the scene "as major players in a large-scale slave trade" of Africans, Alice Rio, lecturer in medieval European history, says that slavery had become almost non-existent in the West. Rio says criticism of the trade in Christian slaves was not new, but at this time, opposition began to get wider support, seeing all those involved in the trade as what Rio calls "symbols of barbarity". Slavery in Africa existed for six centuries before the arrival of the Portuguese (1500s) and the opening of the Atlantic slave trade in the West. Economics drove its development, but historian Herbert S. Klein adds that the trade was abolished in the U.S., Britain and Europe while it was still profitable and important to those respective economies. Early abolitionist literature viewed the abolition of slavery as a moral crusade. Churches became vital parts of that effort with abolitionists, reformers, and supporters of slavery all using Christian ethics to justify their relative positions.


title: Christian ethics

text: Racial violence over the last decades of the twentieth century and the early decades of the twenty first demonstrate how troubled issues involving race remain. Paul Harvey says that, in the 1960s, "The religious power of the civil rights movement transformed the American conception of race." The social power of the religious Right responded in the 70s by recapturing and recasting many evangelical concepts into political terms including support of racial separation. Since then, Harvey says the prosperity gospel, which has become a dominant force in American religious life, has translated evangelical themes into "a modern idiom" of "self-empowerment, racial reconciliation, and a 'positive confession'", (which Harvey defines as an amalgam of positive thinking, evangelical tradition and New Thought). The prosperity gospel's multi-cultural demographic may suggest much about the future of Christian ethics and race.


title: Christian ethics

text: Bioethics is the study of the life and health issues raised by modern technology that attempts to discover what medical ethicist Scott B. Rae and Christian ethicist Paul M. Cox call "normative guidelines built on sound moral foundations". This is necessary because the moral questions surrounding new medical technologies have become complex, important and difficult. David VanDrunen, professor of systematic theology and Christian ethics, opines that with the tremendous benefits of medical advances, have come the "eerie forebodings of a future that is less humane, not more". In what Rae and Cox describe as "a best selling exposé", Jeff Lyon in "Playing God in the Nursery" charged physicians with "prematurely withdrawing life-sustaining technology from seriously ill newborns". Remedies for infertility enable researchers to create embryos as a disposable resource for stem cells. Scripture offers no direct instruction for when a right to life becomes a right to death.


title: Christian ethics

text: The Catholic bio–ethic can be seen as one that rests on natural law. Moral decision making affirms the basic "goods" or values of life, which is built on the concept of a hierarchy of values, with some values more basic than others. For example, Catholic ethics supports self-determination but with limits from other values, say, if a patient chose a course of action that would no longer be in their best interests, then outside intervention would be morally acceptable. If there is conflict over how to apply conflicting values, Rae and Cox say that then a "proportionate reasoned decision" would be made. This is defined as including values such as preservation of life, human freedom, and lessening pain and suffering while also recognizing that not all values can be realized in these situations.


title: Christian ethics

text: The Protestant Christian ethic is rooted in the belief that "agape" love is its central value, and that this love is expressed in the pursuit of good for other persons. This ethic as a social policy may use natural law and other sources of knowledge, but in the Protestant Christian ethic, "apape" love must remain the controlling virtue that guides principles and practices. This approach determines the moral choice by what is the most love-embodying action within a situation. Rae and Cox conclude that, in this view, actions that can be seen as wrong, when they are acts of maximal love toward another, become right.


title: Christian ethics

text: New technologies of prenatal testing, DNA therapy and other genetic engineering help many, yet Wogaman asserts they also offer ways in which "science and technology can become instruments of human oppression". Manipulating the genetic code can prevent inheritable diseases and also produce, for those rich enough, designer babies "destined to be taller, faster and smarter than their classmates". Genetic technologies can correct genetic defects, but how one defines defect is often subjective. Parents might have certain expectations about gender, for example, and consider anything else as defective. In some Third World countries where "women have far fewer rights and female children are viewed as liabilities with bleak futures", genetic testing is widely used for sex selection, and some couples have terminated otherwise healthy pregnancies because the child was not the desired gender. Research into the gene for homosexuality could lead to prenatal tests that predict it, which could be particularly problematic in countries where homosexuals are considered defective and have no legal protection. Such intervention is problematic morally, and has been characterized as "playing God".


title: Christian ethics

text: The general view of genetic engineering by Christian ethicists is stated by theologian John Feinburg. He reasons that since diseases are the result of sin coming into the world, and because Christian ethics asserts that Jesus himself began the process of conquering sin and evil through his healings and resurrection, "if there is a condition in a human being (whether physical or psychological) [understood as disease], and if there is something that genetic technology could do to address that problem, then use of this technology would be acceptable. In effect, we would be using this technology to fight sin and its consequences".


title: Christian ethics

text: Stanley Rudman boils down the abortion debate by saying that "if one says that the central issue between conservatives and liberals in the abortion question is whether the fetus is a person, it is clear that the dispute may be either about what properties a thing must have in order to be a person, in order to have the right to life – a moral question – or about whether a fetus at a given stage of development... possesses the properties in question" – a biological question. Most philosophers have picked out the capacity for rationality, autonomy and self-awareness to describe personhood, but there are at least four possible definitions: in order to be a true person, a subject must have "interests"; possess rationality; be capable of action; and/or have the capacity for self-consciousness. A fetus fails to possess at least one and possibly all of these, and so it can be argued that the fetus is not a true person.


title: Christian ethics

text: Rudman points out how this approach becomes a slippery slope, as the argument can then be used to justify infanticide, which is not only not generally supported, but is defined by society as a crime. "Without assuming the Christian moral framework" concerning the sanctity of life, "the grounds for not killing persons do not apply to newborn infants. Neither classical utilitarianism nor preferential utilitarianism ... offer good reasons why infanticide should necessarily be wrong". Moral philosopher Peter Singer in "Practical Ethics" describes the Christian argument as "It is wrong to kill an innocent human being; a fetus is an innocent human being" therefore it is wrong to kill a fetus. Rudman asserts the Christian ethic is more than a simple syllogism, it is "a narrative that includes the child in God's family, takes into account the entire context surrounding its birth, including the other lives involved, and seeks harmony with God's redeeming activity through Christ. It includes confidence in God's ability to sustain and direct those who put their trust in him."


title: Christian ethics

text: The Christian ethic concerning alcohol has fluctuated from one generation to the next. In the nineteenth century, the largest proportion of Christians in all denominations resolved to remain alcohol free. While it is true that some contemporary Christians, including Pentecostals, Baptists and Methodists, continue to believe one ought to abstain from alcohol, the majority of contemporary Christians have determined that moderation is the better approach.


title: Christian ethics

text: Ethicist Christopher C. H. Cook asserts that the primary question for Christian ethics revolves around the fact that alcohol misuse is a "contemporary social problem of enormous economic significance, which exacts a high toll in human suffering". All persons must, directly and indirectly, determine their ethical response to alcohol's enormous popularity and widespread acceptance in the face of its social and medical harm. The Christian ethic takes seriously the power of addiction to "hold people captive, and the need for an experience of a gracious 'Higher Power' as the basis for finding freedom".


title: Christian ethics

text: Physician Daniel P. Sulmasy lists arguments against physician-assisted suicide (PAS): those advocating it might do so for selfish/monetary reasons rather than out of concern for the patient; that suicide devalues life; that limits on the practice erode over time and it can become over-used; that palliative care and modern therapeutics have become better at managing pain, so other options are often available; and that PAS can damage a physician's integrity and undermine the trust patients place in them to heal and not harm.


title: Christian ethics

text: In Christian ethics, responses to assisted suicide are rooted in belief in personal autonomy and love. This remains problematic as the arguments commonly used to defend PAS are concepts of justice and mercy that can be described as a minimalist understanding of the terms. A minimal concept of justice respects autonomy, protects individual rights, and attempts to guarantee that each individual has the right to act according to their own preferences, but humans are not fully independent or autonomous; humans live in community with others. This minimalist view does not recognize the significance of covenant relationships in the process of decision making. Empathy toward another's suffering tells us to do "something" but not "what" to do. Killing as an act of mercy is a minimalist understanding of mercy that is not sufficient to prevent unethical acts. Battin, Rhodes and Silvers conclude that the Christian ethic asserts "life and its flourishing are gifts of God, but they are not the ultimate good, and neither are suffering and death the ultimate evils. One need not use all of one's resources against them. One need only act with integrity in the face of them."