The Church and the World: Are There Theological Resources for a Common Conversation?

Abortion is an especially salient issue for considering thegeneral problematic of religiously based conversation in thepublic square. It remains deeply divisive, fully thirty-fouryears after Roe v. Wade. Such divisiveness cannot be interpretedas merely an expression of profound differences between "secular"and "religious" voices, because differences also emerge amongChristian denominations, reflecting different sources of moralauthority, different accounts of moral discernment, and differentjudgments about the appropriate relations between law and moralityin the context of pluralism. As this paper explores, however,despite those differences, a generally identifiable "Christian"position concerning the moral status of abortion can be distinguishedfrom secular philosophical judgments on the issue, which isimportant for Christian engagement with public policy debate.     

儒学的一种缺弱:私德与公德

In a society dominated by Confucian ethics, a spirit of Confucian public morality can be seen in the Confucian debate over publicness and privateness, but it is usually activated in circumstances of large ethical crisis. Confucian theory mainly uses ethical relationships to create self and social identities, causing problems of identification in the public life and hindering the expression of moral feelings and actions, thus revealing a weakness in public morality. This is a space that Confucianism has not yet been able to cover, and also where it has room for growth. Translated by Huang Deyuan from Wen Shi Zhe 文史哲 (Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy), 2006, (1): 30–36     

Etiology and Management of Elder Self‐Neglect

This article addresses the challenges of defining and accurately identifying elder self‐neglect and explores an interdisciplinary team model, including counselors and mental health professionals, designed to implement prevention and intervention strategies. The challenge of striking a balance between the need to respect the individual elders' autonomy and the need to attend to their health care needs is underscored.     

PHILOSOPHICAL THEORIES OF PRIVACY: IMPLICATIONS FOR AN ADEQUATE ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY

Abstract: This essay critically examines some classic philosophical and legal theories of privacy, organized into four categories: the nonintrusion, seclusion, limitation, and control theories of privacy. Although each theory includes one or more important insights regarding the concept of privacy, I argue that each falls short of providing an adequate account of privacy. I then examine and defend a theory of privacy that incorporates elements of the classic theories into one unified theory: the Restricted Access/Limited Control (RALC) theory of privacy. Using an example involving data‐mining technology on the Internet, I show how RALC can help us to frame an online privacy policy that is sufficiently comprehensive in scope to address a wide range of privacy concerns that arise in connection with computers and information technology.     

A Muslim President? Misperceptions of Barack Obama's Faith in the 2008 Presidential Campaign

Rumors that President Barack Obama is a Muslim were rampant during the 2008 presidential campaign and continued well into his presidency. These rumors were widely believed, were electorally consequential, and are part of a growing trend of politically motivated misconceptions. Thus, relying principally on the theory of motivated reasoning, we examine the factors that shaped citizens’ beliefs about and responses to messages about Obama's faith. Using an original survey experiment and data from the 2008–2009 American National Election Study panel, we show that citizens’ responses to rumors about Obama's religion were shaped by political predispositions, political awareness, and their interactions. Identification of Obama with Islam was most widespread, and the cues encouraging such identification were most successful, among individuals with low levels of political awareness, conservative and Republican identifications, and negative views of cultural out‐groups. Viewing Obama as Muslim was significantly less prevalent among people with high levels of awareness and with the opposite set of predispositions.     

GM Crops in Hungary: Comparing Mass Media Framing and Public Understanding of Technoscientific Controversy

In Hungary, there has been limited public debate about genetically modified crops, unlike in some Western countries. The mass media has published little to inform Hungarian lay people about genetically modified (GM) crops or their relevance to the country. Nevertheless, the media did convey some general impressions, mainly from within an Anti-GM Threat framing of the issue. This mass media frame was evident in lay focus group discussions—e.g. GM crops branded a food risk, general focus on risks, health risk identified as important risk, foreign companies regarded as source of the problem and as being ‘just out for profit’, image of corn, rhetoric of deterioration, etc. This overlap supports theories which suggest that media framings provide a resource which can be appropriated for public understanding. At the same time, however, dominant media framings were also mentioned only vaguely or in a somewhat modified way. Other issues raised in the media framing, not resonating with wider cultural themes, were absent from focus group discussions (e.g. environmental concerns). And participants were also able to rely on other conversational resources (analogous reasoning and cultural themes) to formulate some additional issues beyond the media reportage.     

A comparative analysis of perceptual and demographic predictors of sense of place dimensions in the State Mosques of Malaysia

The study in this article is part of a more in‐depth research investigating the architectural and physical design influences on sense of place dimensions in the context of contemporary mosques in Malaysia. The focus of this paper is human–place bonding in sacred and religious settings, based on a framework including aspects of sociality, physicality and spirituality, in addition to demographic variables such as ranges of length of experience with, and frequency of presence in, the environment of the studied mosques. The effects of the perceptions of architecture and physical design, social environment, and spiritual atmosphere on dimensions of sense of place were studied using a structural equation modelling analysis based on 302 questionnaires completed in seven state mosques across the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia. Meanwhile the socio‐demographic effects on sense of place dimensions were also tested based on several analyses of variances (ANOVA) in various demographic groups through sense of place dimensions. In doing so, we adopted the multi‐dimensional approach towards sense of place consisting of cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions. As major findings, this research provided empirical evidence for the existence of direct relationships between perceptions of the key environmental factors studied and the sense of place dimensions in contexts with extensive religious and sacred attributes; on the other hand, no interactive relationship was found between most of the socio‐demographic variables and those dimensions. This article discusses in detail each of those approved and rejected relationships.     

Public Responses to Community Compensation: The Importance of Prior Consultations with Local Residents

A company that wants to implement an industrial project with adverse local impacts can offer the members of the affected community compensation for bearing the burdens associated with the project. In the current study, participants evaluated such a situation from the perspective of observer. Depending on experimental condition, they learned that a company either had or had not consulted members of the affected community prior to deciding on the compensation offer. The compensation offer was either public goods compensation or individual monetary compensation. We hypothesized and found that the decision‐making process was considered fairer and the company was perceived as more concerned with the local public interest when the company had consulted local residents prior to deciding on the compensation offer. Also, the company was believed to be more concerned with the local public interest when it offered public goods compensation instead of individual monetary compensation. Perceived concern and perceived fairness predicted the perceived trustworthiness of the company, and this, in turn, predicted how participants anticipated the members of the affected community to react to the compensation offered by the company. The study thus demonstrates the importance of consultations with local residents in the process of deciding on compensation measures. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Editing” Genes: A Case Study About How Language Matters in Bioethics

Metaphors used to describe new technologies mediate public understanding of the innovations. Analyzing the linguistic, rhetorical, and affective aspects of these metaphors opens the range of issues available for bioethical scrutiny and increases public accountability. This article shows how such a multidisciplinary approach can be useful by looking at a set of texts about one issue, the use of a newly developed technique for genetic modification, CRISPRcas9.     

An Investigation of Psychology Staffing in Australian Metropolitan Acute Public Hospitals

Psychology is one component of the multidisciplinary services provided to patients in acute public hospitals, with research demonstrating that psychological intervention significantly enhances clinical outcomes for patients across a range of health issues. Despite the increasingly important role that psychologists play in Australian hospitals, there remains a lack of information available about staff levels, discipline structures, and clinical activity for psychological services within acute hospital settings. The most recent Australian data about hospital‐based psychology services was collected 20 years ago. The current study provides updated information from a survey of 15 Australian metropolitan, acute public hospitals: presenting and critically reviewing staffing configurations and models of service delivery. Results suggest that: (a) hospitals employ a highly skilled workforce at a rate of 0.16 full‐time equivalent psychology staff for every 10 hospital beds; (b) psychologists have a viable career pathway within the hospital‐based health sector; (c) role diversity is common, with the primary focus varying as a function of position level; (d) neuropsychology staffing requires urgent attention to address significant delays in access to services; and (e) public hospitals actively contribute to current and future workforce development through supervision, research, and training. The implications of these results for the future of psychological services in Australian healthcare are discussed.