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.
Few Pastors Say Adulterous Ministers Should Face Permanent Ban From Pulpit: Half of Protestant pastors say their colleagues should step down from the pulpit for a time if they are accused of misconduct. Most say such accusations should be kept in confidence until proven. And few think pastors who commit adultery should be permanently banned from ministry.
The New Scientism: Still Fighting the Phantom War — This review of Excellent Beauty: The Naturalness of Religion and the Unnaturalness of the World by Eric Dietrich (Columbia University Press, 2015) can help students consider the claims about science explaining religion and whether awe, wonder, and beauty are adequate replacements for a coherent faith tradition.
A university moved to fire a professor after he defended a student’s right to debate gay marriage. Now he’s suing: A tenured professor and a legal institute are suing Marquette University, claiming a breach of contract for the suspension imposed after he publicly criticized an instructor for stifling debate in class.
The Logic of God and Why Metaphysical Proofs Still Matter: A helpful article to take students through the basic discussions they find in popular claims about God, arguments, and proofs. The piece may be helpful for courses in science, rhetoric, logic, writing, apologetics, journalism, and culture.
Scientific Regress: The problem with science is that so much of it simply isn’t. The Open Science Collaboration announced that it had tried to replicate one hundred published psychology experiments sampled from three of the most prestigious journals in the field. Of the studies that had originally reported positive results, an astonishing 65 percent failed […]
Here’s how it works when a couple adopts through our Christian embryo bank: This brief article explains embryo adoption and the National Embryo Donation Center, a Christian IVF clinic. Also addressed her is the dilemma of what to do with the embryos that remain?
What Christians Have in Common with LGBT Activists: In this 30 min. audio interview, Thomas Berg, a religious liberty scholar at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, shares his thoughts on legislative cultural and legal contexts, the significance of non-discrimination ordinances, why LGBT activists feel especially threatened by much of the recent legislation, and why he […]
Waiting Till the Wedding: Despite decades of statistics that link cohabitation to high rates of divorce and instability, the practice continues to grow and more are viewing it as a precursor to marriage. The majority of couples have now lived with a significant other before they wed. Nearly 7 in 10 teens, and almost half of […]
What Some Demographers are Studying Now: As marriage declines in popularity and other kinds of relationships replace it, a category of couple known as Living Apart Together is the focus of new research in the U.S. These LAT couples, whether opposite-sex or same-sex, say they are in a long-term relationship but do not live together.
Christian Therapists Push Back Against Tennessee Counseling Bill: There is significant opposition from the very group of Christian counselors this state bill aims to protect. Several Christian counseling networks and pastoral counselors in Tennessee claim such protections are unnecessary. Chris O’Rear, president of the Tennessee Association of Pastoral Therapists (TAPT), says he is not personally supportive of […]
