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.
God, Cancer, a Videogame: This case involves the arts, journalism, health concerns, the problem of evil, addressing grief, and mediums for Christian outreach. The linked article is a commentary on the story of the case in Wired, January 2016. The instructor will need to determine whether and how to adapt the case to course content.
The Church Collection Plate Goes Digital: Using the Tithe.ly app takes fewer than five taps, and its built-in geolocation enables contributions at any of the 1,000 churches that subscribe—a feature that’s especially useful around holidays like Easter, when many people travel. Tithe.ly also lets worshipers set up automatic recurring payments.
Canada, Complicity, and Coercing Christian Medical Care: A federal panel has recommended that the Government of Canada “establish a process that respects a health care practitioner’s freedom of conscience while at the same time respecting the needs of a patient who seeks medical assistance in dying. At a minimum, the objecting practitioner must provide an effective […]
Churches Twice as Likely to Fear Refugees Than to Help Them: Churches and their pastors are often separated by faith and fear. Most Protestant pastors say Christians should lend a hand to refugees and foreigners, and believe caring for refugees is a privilege. But pastors say their churches are twice as likely to fear refugees as they are […]
Should Christians Vote for the Lesser of Two Evils? Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, asks what happens in a race where Christians are faced with two morally problematic choices. Should voters cast a ballot for the lesser of two evils? “When Christians face two clearly immoral options, we […]
Nathan Deal makes a forceful, biblical case against Georgia’s ‘religious liberty’ bill: Students can evaluate the journalism, theology, and politics conveyed by this report on a bill moving through the Georgia state legislature.
From Douglas Laycock who argued the Hosanna-Tabor Case: It is one thing if religious believers change their minds about a moral issue. It is a very different thing if those who cannot change their mind are sued, fined, forced to violate their conscience, and excluded from occupations if they refuse. The increasing public perception that […]
Family Phases: The History of Family Strength in America May Reveal Good News — This article by Allan C. Carlson cites three interpretations of the history of the family in America. Carlson then offers a fourth view: four distinct cycles or periods of a “strengthening” or a “weakening” of American family systems around a single, normative model. […]
Christian but Not Religious: “’Spiritual but Not Religious’ is a phrase many young Evangelicals now use to describe themselves, in order to highlight their personal relationship with Jesus. As someone who studies law and religion in America, I’m embarrassed to say that this was new to me.” The writer, Mark Movsesian, co-directs the Tradition Project at the St. […]
Why Global Churches Struggle Over LGBT Rights: Some African church leaders who refuse to accept gay rights have described the assumption that they’d fall in line with American and European evolving understandings of sexuality as being akin to a colonial-era decree to “civilize” the benighted darker races. The debate over whether to accept LGBT Christians as full […]
