Issue: Journal of Lutheran Ethics April 2021: Lutheran Ethicists’ Gathering Part 1

[1] Christ is Risen, Christ is risen indeed.  Hallelujah. [2] Never before in my life have I felt so palpably the national and global need for the good news of Easter.  This is the good news that God has faced all that we face, suffered all that we suffer, died as we will die and […]

[1] We did it.   We crossed the quarter million mark in numbers of deaths due to Covid 19 in the United States.  And just before Thanksgiving.  Estimates now include being at over four hundred thousand by Inauguration Day.  Someplace in the middle for when Lutheran Social Ethicists gather?[1] [2] With over a hundred and eighty […]

[1] We’ve all seen them.  Those oh-so-charming news segments in which the expert is holding forth on international relations and in barges a rogue child.  In the viral video of the BBC interview with Professor Robert Kelly first one then a second child bursts in followed by a frantic woman ushering them back behind the […]

  This ‘think piece’ is dedicated to the Rev. Dr. Cheryl Stewart Pero, PhD, child of God, friend, colleague, theologian, and advocate for justice in the church and world.[1] “Our hope for creative living in this world house that we have inherited lies in our ability to re-establish the moral ends of our lives in […]

[1] The February 2021 Issue of JLE was intended to create a place for diverse opinions and deeper deliberations about racism, justice, and equity in the ELCA at a time when the nation is reeling with both systemic racism and racist violence. The issue more than missed this mark.  It created a painful distraction for […]

FROM:            ELCA Authentic Diversity Advisory Team TO:                  Dr. Jennifer Hockenbery Journal of Lutheran Ethics, Editor February 18, 2021 Dear Dr. Hockenbery, I write on behalf of the Authentic Diversity Advisory Team, many of whom also served on the task force that developed the Strategy Toward Authentic Diversity which was overwhelmingly adopted by an 855-13 vote […]

[1] In its February 2021 Issue, published in Black History Month, during a time when the United States is going through yet another period of racial reckoning, The Journal of Lutheran Ethics (JLE) published five articles under the collective theme of Racism, Justice, and Mercy. Only one of these was co-written by a woman of […]

[1] Our first review launches a periodic series of reviews covering books reflecting Native American experiences and issues. Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah is reviewed in light of the ELCA’s action and inaction on these matters. The authors address the damaging theology and […]

[1] In 2016, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly overwhelmingly passed a “Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery.” [1] Yet in the intervening years I have noticed that most people I come across have no idea what the Doctrine of Discovery is, or how it affects not only the lives of Native Americans, but also the lives […]

[1] Are you looking for a book about today’s immigration issues that marries biblical texts with contemporary stories? Here it is! With chapters dedicated to the wall at the southern border,  immigration detention and other issues, Professor Lambert Fogg tells the stories of the immigrants in our communities while at the same time interweaving the […]

[1] Where do you pin your hope for the future of democratic self-governance in the US, particularly in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol?  Hope is indispensable to faithful living and enjoys a primary role in Lutheran theology.  Yet in these broken times, any hope about the future of American democracy […]