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.
The War on Tenure: Universities are supposed to be institutions dedicated to the pursuit of truth as a common good, and faculty, given their training, ought to be accorded a certain deference as leaders in that pursuit. Administrators only exist to facilitate the necessary work to secure this common good as the basis of university […]
Moral Outrage in America Is Now for Everybody: In a recent poll, Gallup found a widening embrace for more than a dozen moral issues, including record-high acceptance for gay relationships, divorce, pornography, polygamy, and physician-assisted suicide. The church today finds itself in a precarious position, as an ethical shift pushes public opinion in favor of stances that […]
New Study Analyzes Impact of Tax Reform Proposals On Giving To Religious Organizations: The Lily School of Philanthropy at IU/Purdue has released a study that estimates the impact on charitable giving of the tax reform proposals by the White House and House of Representatives. See links to the summary, full report, and the RNS news report […]
Pastors Frequently Preach Politics. But the IRS Rarely Goes After Them: In this 30 min. audio programs, religious liberty scholar Thomas Berg explains that churches can legally function in politics and often do. Berg also discusses how the Johnson Amendment does proscribe specific candidate endorsement from the pulpit, but why the IRS largely ignores this […]
Can Christians Affirm Transhumanism? This 30 min. audio program discusses just how fast technology is changing, why Christians may be willing to genetically modify their children, and the best way to understand transhumanism. “It seems to me that the biggest misunderstanding of Christians for transhumanism is that they think that it’s just science fiction, that’s it’s some […]
Faith, Football, and the First Amendment: Threading the Needle between Establishment and Free Exercise — Courts are being faced with determining when a coach’s expressive conduct around the football field is “private” speech expressing the views and emotions of the individual, or “public” speech expressing the views of the school and the state. This paper sheds […]
Gordon College’s Entire Faculty Senate Resigns: All seven professors on a Gordon College committee in charge of recommending faculty promotions and tenure resigned last week, believing the evangelical school’s administration had started to ignore their suggestions. The issue appears to revolve around a faculty promotion issue. See also All seven members resign from Gordon College faculty […]
Read, Rise, Soar: The April 29, 2017, edition of World Magazine includes a spread on child lit and children’s books. See the five articles, Life beyond looks, Ends of the beginnings, A hero’s humility, and Bad words.
British Court Denies Transgender Parent Contact With Children Because of Religious Community’s Reaction: The court’s reasoning is interesting — a British Family Court in J v. B and the Children, (EWFC, Jan. 30, 2017), has rejected the petition of an Orthodox Jewish father, a member of the Manchester Charedi community who left home to live as a […]
The Joy of Things and the Trap of Excess: An ethicist and an anthropologist ask, How much is too much? This article reviews two new books on whether we own our possessions or they own us. Both understand material goods and consumption as not inherently evil. Our things can be a means of encountering the divine, “the […]
