Items included for this subject area 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.
Americans may be getting less religious, but feelings of spirituality are on the rise: The growth of the unaffiliated population and their decreasing religiosity have been the main factors behind the emergence of a less religious public overall. But, interestingly, the rise in spirituality has been happening among both highly religious people and the religiously unaffiliated.
Authority, Given and Received: The nature, source, and role of authority is a theme every student needs to consider. This essay approaches the topic in terms of whether authority is conferred or is claimed. “Like most everything else, the question of authority comes down to an issue of theology proper. In the biblical perspective, all […]
DOE on Anti-LGBT Religious Exemption: Over the last two years the Dept. of Education has granted a number of religiously-controlled colleges an exemption from Title IX where full compliance would conflict with their religious tenets. With the exemption, the schools may continue to receive federal funds even though they discriminate in various ways on the […]
Alberta Gets Transgender-friendly Schools: What can parents expect from new laws in Alberta, Canada, about accommodating the needs of transgender people? Will they affect primary and secondary education? Because the provincial government pays the bills for all public, charter, and religious schools, it also calls the tune.
US Supreme Court agrees to tackle religious hostility by states: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case that addresses the question of whether states can exhibit hostility to religion by prohibiting churches and church-run organizations from participating in state programs solely because the groups are religious. “No state can define religious neutrality […]
The Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 30, No. 3 October 2015 is now available online with work from John Witte, Jr., Desmond Tutu, and Stanley Hauerwas.
The Becket Fund has launched a site for understanding the various RFRA laws, cases, and issues. The site represents the Becket Fund’s views and case load with attention to religious minorities such as Native Americans, Sikhs, Muslims and Buddhists. Students can examine the contents, pro and con, for perspective and case studies.
Students and instructors can examine these views, recommendations, and the framing of topics as a way to assess–pro and con–many of the transgender issues. The author, Austen Hartke, is a graduate of Luther Seminary’s Master of Arts program and a writer, speaker, and creator of the YouTube series Transgender and Christian, “which seeks to understand and […]
Let Us Reason Together, Please: Mark Galli, the editor of Christianity Today, offers this evaluation of the case of the Wheaton prof involving the hijab and whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God. He itemizes eight complications and recommends a way for Christian universities to avoid polarization, gridlock, and outcomes that fall far short of […]
George Yancey: From Racial to Religious Bias — This 10 item Q&A from George Yancey (So Many Christians, So Few Lions, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014) provides a starter piece for students on why academia and pop culture recognize some forms of bias and are blind to others. WM: Many secularists want to exclude Christians from the public […]
