Articles

[1] The “God Bless the USA Bible,” featuring the King James Version, includes within its covers a copy of a handwritten chorus to “God Bless The USA” by Lee Greenwood, the U.S Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance.[i]  Licensed in 2021, this Bible was met with some […]

[1] In the glossary of the draft of the proposed ELCA Social Statement on Civic Life and Faith, Christian Nationalism is said to be: A cultural framework that idealizes and advocates fusion of certain Christian views with American civil life.  This nationalistic ideology believes, among other things  that the U.S. Constitution was divinely inspired, that […]

[1] In keeping with the theme of this journal issue, the books section consists of an annotated list of resources for further study on the important topic of Christian nationalism.  The resources are diverse and cover a range of perspectives and angles on the topic.  The first section addresses White Christian Nationalism in the United […]

[1] This issue of JLE showcases three excellent articles about Artificial Intelligence.  These articles explain how generative Artificial Intelligence works, some of the current ethical challenges, and some frameworks for building a set of guidelines for our use of this new technology. [2] The first essay, written by William Rodriguez, begins with a calming introduction […]

The AI Revolution [1] The ELCA Social Statement on Genetics establishes that [scientific and technological] developments “illustrate the abundant gifts of God’s creation” but cautions that “these developments also exemplify how contemporary human knowledge and technology are causing a different relationship between human power and life.”[i] Our church also teaches that “the Gospel does not […]

Introduction [1] Anyone who has interacted with generative models like ChatGPT or Midjourney knows that their responses can sometimes be deeply flawed. Large language models (LLMs) will sometimes confabulate[1] factual errors. They can also respond in manners that are biased, racist, sexist, or explicit.[i]  Text-to-image diffusion models can make relatively harmless errors like misspelling image […]

[1] Article XVI of the Augsburg Confession affirms the responsibility of Christians to engage in civil affairs. However, engaging well and faithfully requires Christians to understand the civil and political contexts in which they are embedded. Many recent works in political theory have described various contemporary political crises and challenges: social fragmentation at global, national, […]

[1] Quite often church leaders and academics find themselves challenged to interpret the theological dialogue on vocation to their colleagues or students. Some theologians make painstaking attempts to bring abstract theological concepts into modern contexts and everyday parlance.  Andrew Tucker is one of those theologians. When I learned that his book 4D Formation: Exploring Vocation […]

[1] This issue of JLE, which publishes the papers given at this year’s Gathering of Lutheran Ethicists, is a call to action to the ELCA on behalf of children.  We feature two renowned experts on this topic, Victor Vieth and Marcia Bunge, who were the speakers at the gathering in January. [2] In December, our […]

 “Why did God let me suffer the agonies of [child abuse]? Why did God not intervene when I cried out to him night after night for relief? I have imagined at times my guardian angel pulling on God’s sleeve and saying ‘Don’t you hear little Wesley? Don’t you see his pitiful tears? Can’t you do […]