Items included on this page come from a variety of sources. The perspectives conveyed may or may not express a Lutheran ethos. They can serve our instruction as discussion-starters, examples (positive and negative), and illustrations of intersections between God’s two kingdoms, intersections sometimes characterized by tension, sometimes by congruence. Inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Christian Bakers, Gay Weddings, and a Question for the Supreme Court: This readable article provides a succinct and balanced summary of the small business issues of religious freedom and civil rights–mom-and-pop stores, artistic liberty, corporate regulation, and competing goods in the commonwealth. It can serve as an introduction to the court cases, arguments, and principles at […]
Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life by Makato Fujimura (IVP, 2017) — In Culture Care, artist-author Fujimura issues a call to cultural stewardship, in which we become generative and feed our culture’s soul with beauty, creativity, and generosity. We serve others as cultural custodians of the future. This book on cultural stewardship is […]
The Catholic Schools Saved by Vouchers: In Milwaukee, Catholic churches have kept their schools alive with the help of vouchers. A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper explains that vouchers actually staved off imminent school closures in Milwaukee, though they did not improve the church’s overall finances. The research shows that vouchers can both help and hurt […]
Assessing the Faith-Based Response to Homelessness in America: Findings From Eleven Cities — From the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, the report was undertaken to provide an estimate of the impact, socially and economically, of FBOs in eleven cities across the country in responding to homelessness. Almost 60% of the Emergency Shelter Beds, what many […]
Rick Steves’ Luther and the Reformation: The popular travel guide, author, and TV host has produced a program on the sites that take us to Luther’s complicated political world of the 16th century. The package includes slides, discussion, Q&A, travel information, and kit for presenting the video. For the online material, go to https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/tv-specials/luther
What Churches Can Bring to the Battle Against Servitude: This report concerns the multitude of scourges now described as modern slavery: bonded or indentured labour, human trafficking, prostitution rackets involving trafficked persons, and the criminal exploitation of vulnerable people on the move, and that anybody who consumes a product made with bonded labour, or patronises a business […]
The Big Thieves Hang the Little Thieves — Luther on a Market Economy: This video presentation from Luther scholar Carter Lindberg, given at Concordia Theological Seminary in January, 2016, examines the various views about Luther’s positions regarding a profit economy, feudal assumptions, and the onset of the modern age, and how many views fail to […]
Radio Lab on Blood: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Lev. 17:11). This 1 hr. program offers a variety of vignettes on blood with […]
Investments for the Kingdom: Eventide Funds has confounded the investment world with its success—and its biblically based principles. The murmurs have faded: since its launch in 2008, Eventide’s flagship mutual fund, the Gilead Fund, has given shareholders a 13.70 percent annualized return.
Hollywood discovers God! Again! — New York Times headline the other day: “Secular Hollywood Quietly Courts the Faithful.” The basic message of this in-depth business feature was that this is a topic that is not new and that it is not going away, in part because Hollywood has entered an era in which making profitable […]
