Walter Brueggemann is one of my favorite Old Testament scholars, primarily because I am not an Old Testament scholar! I find his writing very accessible, very interesting, and always thought-provoking and generative. I just finished a recent book of essays, Truth and Hope: Essays for a Perilous Age. As the title suggests, the chapters are…… Continue reading Prayer and Justice
Category: Ethics
Remember Martin Luther King, Jr.
Given that today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, perhaps you might have imagined that this post would be titled, “Remembering” MLK–you know, looking back and celebrating who he was and all he accomplished. But, that is not what I want to do today, January 20th, 2025. Today, I want to invite us to look…… Continue reading Remember Martin Luther King, Jr.
Happy St. Francis Day!
Today, Oct. 4th, is the Feast of St. Francis, the day on which many congregations have a Blessing of the Animals Service. It was a beautiful morning here at Wartburg Seminary, where we had our own service, and it was fantastic–dogs, cats, and even one very sweet bunny [MoMo!]. It was a joyous celebration of…… Continue reading Happy St. Francis Day!
Jesus & John Wayne
This book came highly recommended by several colleagues, so I finally got around to reading it. I see what the fuss is all about. The thesis is clear and straightforward: for more than a century a significant percentage of white evangelicals (especially men) have been cultivating a toxic “militant Christian masculinity” that has corrupted American…… Continue reading Jesus & John Wayne
A Fresh Take on a Traditional Confession
One of the things that I love about the Lutheran liturgical tradition is the way the language of the prayers, sung parts of the service, etc. become so familiar after years of recitation that I know them by heart. It is comforting to enter into a worship space and be carried through the service without…… Continue reading A Fresh Take on a Traditional Confession
The Maasai Girls Lutheran Secondary School
At the entrance to the school Today we spent the day at the Maasai Girls Lutheran Secondary School (MGLSS) and it was an absolutely amazing experience to hear the story of the school, the story of the graduates, and to meet some of the girls. This is where Beth first taught 25 years ago, and…… Continue reading The Maasai Girls Lutheran Secondary School
The Ethics of Doing Nothing
One of the best parts about attending the American Academy of Religion Conference is the chance to wander through the book displays. I picked up a couple new books, and read this one on the plane ride home. It was interesting, and I wanted to share a few thoughts from it. The thesis of the…… Continue reading The Ethics of Doing Nothing
The Difficulty of Expressing Nuanced Opinions
Photo by Haley Black on Pexels.com When I came home for lunch yesterday, John had the news on, and I watched a bit of a demonstration on the National Mall in support of Israel in the war against Hamas. As I was listening to the reporter describe the scene, he was mentioning the different people…… Continue reading The Difficulty of Expressing Nuanced Opinions
Memory, Identity & Storytelling
Recently, I was down in San Antonio for the annual board meeting of the Hispanic Summer Program, which is a fantastic program that will celebrate its 35th anniversary next year. Wartburg Seminary is a proud supporter of this program. This is HSP mission statement [and you can find more about it here: https://hispanicsummerprogram.org/about/%5D Founded in…… Continue reading Memory, Identity & Storytelling
Ordinary People at Auschwitz
Yesterday we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. As many of you know, Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers. Over 1.1 million men, women and children were murdered there. Auschwitz proper was actually a whole network of sub-camps, forty in all, that exploited the prisoners as slave labor. [The website, by the way,…… Continue reading Ordinary People at Auschwitz
Happy Lutheran 