Two ELCA congregations – Roseville Lutheran (Roseville, MN) and First Lutheran (Freeport, IL) were recently honored for giving a combined total of $830,000 to the ELCA for mission. Did they increase the Global Mission budget by $830,000? Nope. Because the ELCA operates on a unified budget, it’s not possible to increase money for mission. If […]
Herbert Chilstrom is for “luv”
In a recent news report Chilstrom carries water for the ELCA once again, attacking those leaving as fixated on sex and mixed up in general. But: 1. Chilstrom equates the Gospel with tolerance, with a simplistic universalism of “luv.” He needs a theological course correction, beginning with “the cross alone is our theology” (Luther). 2. Chilstrom […]
On This Day, 1600 Years Ago, Rome Fell
On This Day, 1600 Years Ago, Rome Fell[1] And, as a consequence, Augustine wrote The City of God. Was the fall of Rome a sign of the end? Were the Christians at fault because they had rejected the religion of the City of Man, symbolized by Rome? What was God doing, anyway? “Here we have […]
World-level Luther Scholar on Key Ecumenical Questions: JDDJ and Leuenberg
Having dedicated much of his life to ecumenical exchange within Christendom through leadership at the Konfessionkundliches Institut des Evangelisches Bundes in Bensheim,[1] [Professor Hans-Martin] Barth forthrightly examines how Luther also clarifies the contributions that his latter-day adherents can make to ecumenical conversation. He notes that the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification of 1999 […]
“In the beginning was Diversity, … and Diversity was God.”
In the beginning was Diversity, and Diversity was with God, and Diversity was God. Diversity was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Diversity, and without it nothing was made that was made. In Diversity was life, and the life was the light of humankind. And Diversity shines in the darkness, and […]