Blog Series: Parents, pressure and passing on faith (or not)
This blog post is part of a series designed to spark conversation! To read future posts in the series, you can view all ELCA Innovation Blog posts here. Parents under pressure This past summer, the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released an advisory on the mental health and well-being of parents. A Surgeon General’s Advisory is “a public statement that calls the American people’s attention to an urgent public health issue and provides recommendations for how it should be addressed. Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action.” In short, an…
A Brief Soliloquy on the Phantom of the Lesser of Evils
The “lesser of two evils”–on a slippery slope–reduces to utter chaos and travail. At some point on that slope, the Christian in particular, must step off before oblivion hits. At some point the realization must hit that within the current framework–whatever that is at the time–there must be a “redline,” which indicates that the most prudent thing to do is to jump off the slippery slope onto the solid ground of Christ’s kingdom. Canaan kept devolving, devolving, devolving, and on the logic of the “lesser of two evils” Christians would continue on with compromising, compromising, compromising, to the point that…
Honoring Indigenous Peoples and Alaska Natives in November
In the United States, November is Native American Heritage Month. Racial Justice Ministries would like to elevate the voices and work of our Indigenous siblings by bringing attention to the multitude of events by the ELCA’s Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations. A full list of offerings for this month can be found here, but there are three events that we would especially like to highlight: Toward Truth and Healing: How Churches Face Accountability for their Indian Boarding Schools Sunday, November 10, 2024 – ONLINE 7 – 8:30 p.m. Central time Hosted by the Quaker Church’s Friends Peace Teams, Vance Blackfox…
November 3, 2024–Do This to Remember
Warm-up Question What are some of the easiest things for you to remember? This might be something like information on a certain school subject, pop culture trivia, or peoples’ names. Why do you think you remember these things so easily? Practicing Remembering There’s a glut of information online about memory improvement. Some articles, like this one, detail the value of certain games to increase your brain’s health. At other times, phone applications promise a boost in your capacity to remember information. Websites like Quizlet offer resources to reinforce data memorization for school or work. Everyone, it seems, knows that memory…
The Bible’s Meaning as Near as Your Next Prayer: On a Biblical Hermeneutics
For some reason there are many Christians, through the centuries even, who want to make an attempt at reading Holy Scripture without reading it from its God-given context in Jesus Christ. That is to say, there are Christians who want to read the Bible from a christologically contextless frame wherein the Bible becomes a wax-nose given shape by their wits and capacity to marshal the latest reading strategies of the day. But the Bible isn’t a book like that. It isn’t open to naturalist or immanentist frames of reference. It has its whole and its parts altogether, in regard to…
**TOMORROW** Free Class: Indigenous Thought & Theology
Class: Indigenous Thought & Theology Indian people have unique and beautiful ways of understanding the world. Indigenous wisdom – as it relates to living in relationship with the Creator, Mother Earth and other created beings – should be centered if we want to provide better care for our home and all our relatives. Indigenous Thought & Theology introduces participants to this wisdom and examines Indigenous ways of understanding, respecting and interacting with this wondrous world we inhabit. No pre-registration is required to participate. Just click “join the class” to attend. Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 Class: Indigenous Thought & Theology 2…
October Updates – U.N. and State Edition
Following are updates shared from submissions of the Lutheran Office for World Community and state public policy offices (sppos) in the ELCA Advocacy Network this month. Full list and map of sppos available. UN | ARIZONA | COLORADO |MINNESOTA | OHIO | PENNSYLVANIA | TEXAS | VIRGINIA | WISCONSIN Lutheran Office for World Community, United Nations, New York, N.Y. – ELCA.org/lowc Christine Mangale, Director Summit of the Future/Pact for the Future: Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC) was a strong presence at the Summit of the Future, which occurred in September, where a Pact for the Future was produced. The Pact…
On Living the ‘Confessional Life’ from the Life at the Right Hand
Being a confessional Christian is the way. Some might read this and think I am referring to being ‘Reformed.’ But that would be mistaken; the Reformed might think they have a corner on this language, but they don’t. What I mean when I say ‘confessional’ is being a Christian in the Christian existence who lives and breathes and does theology based on the confession that Jesus is Lord. Doing theology based on the premise that God has spoken (‘Deus dixit’), and only after that fact, that reality can a genuinely Christian theology obtain. Being confessional is to live life in…
Hunger Advocacy Fellows Serving with ELCA Witness in Society
By Joey Chin, ELCA Hunger Advocacy Fellow ELCA Witness in Society is excited to introduce the six members of the 2024-2025 Hunger Advocacy Fellows cohort. The year-long fellowship integrates professional development with faith formation and offers fellows the unique opportunity to address issues at the state and national level. Engaging in the work of advocacy remains integral to the life of faith and essential to our present witness. We look forward to the work ahead as we participate in the development of a more just world. Emily Ahren (D.C. Policy) Emily Ahern (she/her) is originally from Allentown, Pennsylvania, and…
October 27, 2024–Justification by Grace through Faith!
Chris Heavner, Clemson, SC Warm-up Question At what point did you realize that this week is Reformation Sunday? Have you been planning for weeks? Did you make sure your red clothing was washed and ready? Is this devotion your first reminder? Reformation? Renewal? Realignment? Reformatting? “Reformation” is one of those words which can refer to a general reforming of “an institution or practice,” or it can refer to the events which began in Wittenberg, Germany in the 16th century. Which reference is best known in your community? I had opportunity to be in Wittenberg, Germany on Reformation Day in 2022. …