Happy Lutheran

Like most of us, my thoughts have been consumed this past week by racism, violence, grief and frustration.  It has been a terrible week of tragedy–Sterling, Castile, and the police officers in Dallas–terrible not because fatal shootings are so rare in this country (they most certainly are not), but terrible because of the shocking nature and scale of them. As…… Continue reading Seeing the "Strangeness" of Others, and taking off the Binoculars

I am here at the Association of Theological School Biennial, and we are in the middle of a great panel on “Theological Education after Ferguson.”  (Did you know Ferguson is basically a suburb of St. Louis?  I didn’t.)  The moderator is NPR host Michel Martin, and the panelists are: Leah Gunning Francis, dean at Christian…… Continue reading Insights from an ATS Panel on "Theological Education after Ferguson"

Do you recognize this skater?  Her name is Surya Bonaly and she was an elite figure skater during the late 1990s.  And, as you might have noticed, she also was black.  I hadn’t thought about her in awhile, but then I heard this interesting RadioLab podcast:  “On the Edge” [it is #5, released April 22, 2016].…… Continue reading What’s Wrong with Being Powerful?

Like everyone else this week, I was saddened and discouraged by the tragic death of Harambe, a silverback Western lowland gorilla, who was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo.  Even without making a judgement about the actions of the zoo officials, the parents or the child, it is impossible not to wish there had…… Continue reading Tigers, Gorillas and Humans

It all started with a conversation I was having with my good friend the other day.  She mentioned a post from a former student she had seen on Facebook:  the student was asking for prayers for their family as their young child had just been diagnosed with Rett syndrome. I had never heard of it,…… Continue reading Growth-Attenuation Therapy: A Theological View

H. L. Mencken once defined Puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”  In her book, “Walking a Literary Labyrinth,” Nancy Malone uses this quote to remind us how so many Christians associate religion and spirituality with “asceticism, duty, hard work, suffering, earnestness of purpose, solemnity, and only occasionally with gladness, delight.”Malone…… Continue reading Wasting Time for God

The May 13th issue of The Chronicle Review had a very interesting piece titled “Two Spirits of Liberty.”  The article discussed two very, very different personalities:  firebrand author and social critic Christopher Hitchens, and the liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin.  It begins with the excoriation Hitchens made of Berlin after his death, arguing that Berlin was “simultaneously pompous…… Continue reading Two Spirits of Liberty: Balancing Courage and Tolerance

If you haven’t seen this video yet, you need to–#MoreThanMean.  But, be warned:  you aren’t going to like it.  The language is brutal, and the “c” word figures prominently–and I don’t mean “cancer.”  Maybe you have heard about it before–it went up on YouTube at the end of April:  ordinary guys come in and sit…… Continue reading #MoreThanMean

Last night I finally got through the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, “the joy of love,” and I wanted to share some reflections.  To be clear, there are many more people more qualified than I to make official theological pronouncements about this particular document, specifically how it resonates within the broader field of Catholic theology. …… Continue reading Reflections on Amoris Laetitia: I read it so you don’t have to

If you don’t live in Gettysburg, you might imagine that a small town in Adams County Pennsylvania wouldn’t have much to offer by way of religious diversity.  And, if you compare Gettysburg to a place like Washington D.C., or even Harrisburg, you would be right.  But, in addition to other factors, the presence of both…… Continue reading A "Model" Seder