Today the conservative, traditionalist, and dissident group Lutheran CORE released it’s vision for what the group’s press release called “the reconfiguration of Lutheranism in North America.” It calls for the establishment of a new church body with the suggested name of the[...]
Holy Places
Yesterday’s post responded to certain streams of thought in the church about it’s future and the needs for reform and change in our life together. As a starting point, it used Walter Russell Mead’s blog entry called The Holy Crap Must Go. In that essay, Mead says that the church is[...]
Identity Crisis, Not Structural Crisis
A couple of friends pointed out an interesting blog entry by Walter Russell Mead (son of Loren Mead) titled The Holy Crap Must Go. Mead notes the troubled finances and struggles for existence of many congregations, church bodies, and seminaries. Seminaries have been closing. Regional and national ch[...]
January 11th, 2010 - 5:46 pm § in Church
The ELCA’s Late Entry on Ugandan Anti-gay Law
By now you may have heard something about the anti-gay bill that’s been introduced into the parliament of Uganda. It offers severe penalties for the offense of “homosexuality,” up to and including death. For background on the bill, you might look here and here, and extensive covera[...]
November 23rd, 2009 - 11:24 pm § in Church
Setting Aside Good Order in the ELCA?
Life in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) these days is anything put peaceful and easy. Since the Churchwide Assembly in August passed a social statement on human sexuality (here, PDF) and resolutions to allow gay and lesbian individuals who are committed and monogamous same-sex rela[...]
Believing and the Creed
I picked up Karen Armstrong’s latest book The Case for God this weekend. While paging through the book at the bookstore, I found a discussion of the English word “believe” and it’s development of meaning. “In Middle English,” Armstrong notes, “bileven meant [...]