http://lutheranforum.org daily 1 2007-08-15T18:07:56Z http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/mormonism I was embarrassed for them. In this equatorial country where the only time neck-ties are worn is when you are in court as a defendant, the Mormon missionaries stood out painfully with their long pants, long shirts, ties and name tags. It was almost as if they went out of their way to not fit in. At present there are about 51,000 Mormon missionaries around the world. They are volunteers working without pay and traveling at their own family’s expense in a place they have not chosen. They simply submit their names to the church and then the leadership of the church sends them out. They have no say, they simply obey... No publisher Paul Sauer blog 2008-09-26T18:05:25Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/two-intra-ecumenical-proposals The ecumenism of the past century has enabled a level of respectful, compassionate dialogue that is without precedent in the history of the church. Who would have thought five hundred years ago that Lutherans and Catholics could sit down to discuss justification without an army in sight? Or Lutherans and Mennonites could talk about public office without the former dragging out burlap bags in case a few strategic drownings of the latter were in order?... No publisher sarah blog 2008-08-26T20:33:16Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/unforgivable This month it was announced through his publicist that actor David Duchovny had entered rehab for sex addiction. Specifically it was disclosed that he struggled with internet pornography. The good news for Duchovny is that now that he is on the road to recovery, and as such he is in a better position than the estimated 37 percent of pastors who said in a 2001 Leadership Journal survey that pornography was a struggle for them. Even if that number seems high, Focus on the Family reports that 25% of their clergy support calls are from pastors who are addicted to pornography... No publisher Paul Sauer blog 2008-09-18T13:23:11Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/one-last-word-on-bad-preaching This one is the most disturbing of all. I have heard this sermon a few times now. It goes something like this... No publisher sarah blog 2008-08-26T20:33:02Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/speaking-of-bad-preaching My last post on the dangers of the family anecdote and the philosophical introduction jogged memories of other bad homiletical approaches, so while I’m at it, here are three more... No publisher sarah blog 2008-08-26T20:21:00Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/a-pk2019s-plea I’m a preacher’s kid who grew up to be a preacher herself, and the experience of being a PK taught me a valuable lesson about using family anecdotes in preaching: don’t! ... No publisher sarah blog 2008-08-08T14:03:02Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/the-way-to-end-abortion-is-through-adoption I have always been pro-life, in the sense that I have always believed that each human life is God’s precious creation, from the minute-old blastocyst to the last gasp of the elderly. Theologically, this is a no-brainer. As for politics, I have long been of the mind of Plato—people less than fifty probably don’t understand the world well enough to make political proposals, and, as I’m a ways off from that venerable age yet, I will remain wisely reserved on the subject... No publisher sarah blog 2008-07-17T13:20:34Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/the-value-of-values Talking about values rarely leaves one feeling indifferent to the conversation. Perhaps that is why, with few notable exceptions like Robert Benne or Gilbert Mailander, Lutheran theologians have shied away from the political minefield of ethics in favor of safer fields like history. It is far easier to list prominent Lutheran historians than it is to compose a similar list of ethicists... No publisher Paul Sauer blog 2008-07-28T01:40:54Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/the-argument-from-antiquity Every so often you hear in the church the argument: “We’ve never done that before, so we’re not going to start now.” Nowadays this argument is generally invoked against things like the ordination of women or of homosexuals. It has a converse expression, too: “We’ve always done it this way,” and therefore to do otherwise is wrong. This I will term the “argument from antiquity” and honestly I find it quite baffling that pastors (or any other Christians, for that matter) ever use it... No publisher sarah blog 2008-07-15T19:51:31Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/mark2019s-indirect-christology My brother Will once had the misfortune of taking a New Testament class with one of those professors whose chief joy seems to be the destruction of youthful faith for reasons that are more psychological than intellectual. Among other things this professor claimed that “Mark did not believe Jesus was divine in the ontological sense.” Quite apart from the obvious and gleeful departure from Christian dogmatics in a statement like this, the professor was just being an idiot. If you are looking for a full-blown Platonic or other such theory of divinity developed by Mark in which Jesus is subsequently forced to fit, then you will certainly be disappointed. But that says far more about your own preconceptions of divinity than anything else. And if there is one thing all the gospels are determined to do, it is to demonstrate the falsity of your preconceptions of divinity... No publisher sarah blog 2008-06-25T17:11:39Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/practical_mass Though mildly irreverent in its portrayal of Roman Catholicism and Christianity in general, I have found the now decade-old British television program Father Ted to be an insightful critique both of Christianity and of human nature in general... No publisher paul blog 2008-06-28T13:36:34Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/a-sort-of-kind-of-cosmological-variant-of-the-ontological-argument Hear me now: I am no fan of natural theology. Nein! God considered as a proposition strikes me as laughably implausible. I believe in God because I believe in the incarnate Son, not the other way around. But then, since the Son implies God in the more familiar divine-attribute guise, I do occasionally have to consider God in this form. I’m OK with all the usuals. Immortal, invisible, God only wise, omniscient, omnipotent. I recently discovered, however, a divine attribute that I could not wrap my mind around. This one: God is big. No publisher sarah blog 2008-06-18T13:09:41Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/summer-reading With the arrival of summer hopefully your schedule allows you a little more free time for the simple joy of reading. The challenge of course is that it is summer and your brain doesn’t want to be bogged down by heavy theological discourse, it wants to be entertained. Yet at the same time you are aware of your God-given responsibility for life-long learning. The solution, two books which provide the best of both worlds, in depth education coupled with lively and entertaining writing styles... No publisher paul blog 2008-06-14T11:55:04Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/ecclesiastical-eavesdropping Recently I had reason to attend a nondenominational Reformed evangelical church on a Sunday morning. In a previously held theological attitude, I would have spent the time tallying all the ways it did things wrong—in other words, all the ways it didn’t do things like an LBW-toting Lutheran church would have. Nowadays I find myself more in a place I have come to call “post-tribal Lutheranism,” wherein my passion for Lutheran theology has turned from judgment to generosity. I am more glad to find the gospel preached in word and sacrament, wherever I may find it, than I am to see institutional success for my tribe... No publisher sarah blog 2008-05-29T20:12:19Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/blogs/Clash-of-Cultures The release of Prince Caspian in theaters, as with The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe before it, has once again presented the opportunity of using modern film to teach elements of the Christian faith. It is a tactic that seems to have value within the entertainment driven cultural context in which churches minister today. Oddly, one of the best films that I have seen in recent years, a film which really gets at the heart of the challenge facing contemporary Christianity, is not a “Christian film” at all... No publisher paul blog 2008-05-31T20:49:12Z News Item