The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed back in 1997. Liberal Democratic Senator from New York Chuck Schumer introduced it, the House passed it unanimously and the Senate voted for it 97-3, and President Bill Clinton signed it into law.
But now the Freedom from Religion Foundation is asking the Supreme Court to declare it unconstituional. [Read more…]
Yet another definitive answer to the question, Why not Lutheranism?, has been written. This one is by Anthony Sacramone and you simply must read all of it. It is both humorous and profound. He says that Lutherans are essentially boring, both in a bad and a good way. He shows why Lutheranism doesn’t show up in pop culture–so therefore it doesn’t exist for many people, especially Millennials. He cites other things that come across as boring, including the fact that Lutheran churches can’t seem to get their liturgical act together.
But then he concludes with a rousing case for Lutheranism and how to get people to try it. I’ll give you a sample of that after the jump, but, please, read the whole thing, not just the happy ending.
For me, growing up in perhaps the blandest version of mainline liberal Protestantism, Lutheranism, far from being boring, seemed wonderfully exotic. All of that medieval-style chanting; people thinking they were eating Jesus’ body and drinking His blood; having beer at church dinners. On that last point, both the liberal Christianity I grew up with and the conservative Christianity of some of my friends tended to see smokin’ and drinkin’ as the prime example of sins. But Lutheranism cared little for these little life-style issues (indeed, seeming actually pro-alcohol). That blew my mind, as we said back then.
But I think I know why people might think Lutheranism is boring. It’s the Lutheran doctrine of vocation.
A Hollywood heavyweight weighs in on the “Alone Yet Not Alone” controversy. From the Hollywood Reporter:
Gerald Molen, an Oscar-winning producer of Schindler’s List, is accusing the Academy of discriminating against a religious movie in revoking its nomination in the best song category. [Read more…]
The House of Representatives passed a bill that bans the use of tax-payer money to pay for abortions. (I thought something like that was already in place, but this law is apparently stronger.) Of course, it will never get past the Democratic-majority Senate or the President’s veto pen–the current Democratic party being compassionate to everyone except the unborn–but still. . . . [Read more…]
God becoming man involved more than just His assumption of a human body, but his entry into all of the elements of human life.
So observed Dr. Joel Lehenbauer, the Executive Director of the Commission on Theology & Church Relations of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, in a sermon I heard last week in the chapel at the church headquarters in St. Louis. He was preaching about Jesus at the wedding at Cana. That God became man meant that He went to weddings, that He had obligations to His mother, that He feasted and drank wine. That got me thinking. . . [Read more…]
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