Articles

[1] Across the U.S. we struggle to talk with neighbors, family, and strangers about the things that matter most. Our modes of social engagement have narrowed, for many of us; disengagement or debate feel like the only options remaining. Amid increasingly contentious public discourse our personal relationships also bear the strain. For those of us […]

[1] Interreligious engagement belongs to the same set of activities undertaken by an assembly as gathering offerings for food-shelves, or pleading for the cleaning up of highways.  These activities are often the same thing because a somewhat ordinary kind of interreligious engagement takes place in the interaction of many peoples to redress problems they share.  […]

[1] What is Christian unity in the Biblical sense? Is it merely two neighboring congregations of the same denomination sponsoring a joint meal? Or two congregations of different denominations doing so? Intercommunion agreements? Co-operation in the World Council of Churches, and similar national and local organizations? Or did Jesus and His first followers mean nothing […]

[1] A preacher who is proclaiming the Word on International Transgender Day of Visibility, faces ethical decisions. Ethically, there are considerations of whether to address the significance of the day and how a cisgender preacher might authentically incorporate transgender voices without appropriation.[i] In addition, there is the considerable challenge of whether to explicitly reference trans […]

[1] After years of activism and protests, the simple statement “Black Lives Matter” became more than a hashtag or a chant. It made the leap from the streets to homes, offices, and institutions. It became part of our personal conversations and our national conversation. Even those who react negatively cannot deny it or make it […]

[1] The summer of 1939 afforded Stewart Herman Jr. his last idyll as a pastor of the American Church in the heart of Nazi Germany, little though he knew it at the time. An opportunity to travel for six weeks through Scandinavia and the Baltic states, heading northward beyond the Arctic Circle, proved an invigorating […]

This month we cover recent books that range from the historical to the contemporary in their focus – from Nazi Germany to the current movement to abolish the prison system.  Michael Pickett reviews Break Every Yoke: Religion, Justice and the Abolition of Prisons by Joshua Dubler and Vincent Lloyd.  Michael Birkner reviews one of several volumes […]

[1] The April issue of JLE publishes the papers and proceedings from The Lutheran Ethicists’ Network Gathering that was held in January. The conference topic in 2023 was “Guns, Violence, Security in the U.S.: What Might the ELCA Say Now?” [2] This issue is released the same week as the mass shooting at The Covenant […]

[1] As the ELCA urges congregations to host  open discussions on issues such as gun violence prevention, the following discussion guide gives readers a list of questions to discuss as a group after looking together at the “Notes from the Discussion” in this issue. [2] Considering the nine ideas generated at the Lutheran Ethicists’ Gathering, […]

American gun violence today [1] On an average day, gunshots injure more than 300 Americans. 200 survive while more than 100 perish. In 2021, 47,000 Americans died from guns, an increase of 44% over the last decade. This loss exceeds record highs in the 1990s, although death rates today remain slightly lower. Males account for […]