heatherdean

Your skin is the most beautiful color of black sand from Africa and your hair is as wild and free as the lion that roams the jungle, for truly I tell you that it is indeed a blessing to be born black.   Though some might try to deceive you and tell you that your […]

[1] As part of our issue on “The Ethics of Raising Healthy Children,” I interviewed activist Deanna Branch.  Branch has been gaining national attention for her work.  She appeared at the State of the Union Address in January of 2024 and at the Democratic National Convention in August of 2024.   I started with the question, […]

[1] Maternal health, a vital component of public health, encompasses the physical, mental, and social well-being of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. Effective maternal health services, which include access to prenatal care, nutritional support, mental health resources, and postpartum care, are essential for reducing maternal mortality and fostering healthy outcomes for mothers […]

[1] In Martin Luther’s Christmas sermons, he used all his rhetorical gifts to paint with words the images of a tiny and fragile baby nosed by animals looking in their feed box, a poor mother forced to give birth in the dark and in the cold because no one would help her, a father wrapping […]

[1] This year, 2025, marks the 500th anniversary of Katie and Martin Luther’s wedding.  Notably, Martin Luther wrote in 1519 (six years before his own marriage and seven years before the birth of his first child) that raising children is a parent’s highest calling.  In 1520, in his Letter to the Christian Nobility, he tells […]

[1] Karen L. Bloomquist’s latest book, Moving Beyond: Toward Transformative Theologizing, is not intended to be a scholarly work; it is a call to reevaluate traditional approaches to God-talk in an attempt to create a more engaging and transformational model. Building on her previous work[i], Bloomquist draws on her personal journey in order to present […]

[1] In the aftermath of the 2024 United States Presidential Election, Christians are wrestling with more constructive ways of living out their faith-life and civic duties. Unfortunately, political discourse of late has created a gulf within the church catholic in the United States as Christians are drawn into the culture wars and hyper-partisan politics. There […]

[1] No doubt economics plays a role in our polarization and social fragmentation.  Harvard Law School Deputy Dean John Coates has authored a cutting edge book on economic trends that Lutheran ethicists need to address and that we all need to master in order to educate the Lutherans we serve to the new realities of […]

[1] Esteemed readers of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics, it is my pleasure and privilege to introduce myself as the new Book Editor. I have been teaching ethics at Bethune Cookman University for over 18 years and have been actively involved in the work of this church. I hope to continue the legacy of quality […]

[1] What does it mean to have a calling—to live out vocation—if human civilization is headed for extinction?   Extinction, after all, is absolute in its finality.  Theologically, it is the unraveling of Creation.  It voids the relationship between God and God’s people, effectively terminating the Genesis injunction to “be fruitful and multiply” and “fill the […]