Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
During this series, readers reported on the loss of civility in driving, sports, and especially, social media. Last week I focused on public and private conversation. All observed that a change had taken place. There is less decency today than there used to be. We have to ask what happened. My personal experience attributes it […]
The closest thing to the “Rules of Civility” in the Bible is the Book of Proverbs. The “Rules” are supposedly the guidelines for success that George Washington used. Proverbs are purportedly those recorded by King Solomon from his experience. The two documents share many of the same guidelines, such as taking the lower seat, letting […]
The first and the last of George Washington’s “Rules for Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation” pretty much capture the spirit of the other 108. Number 1 is “Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present.” Number 110, “Labor to keep alive in […]
I became fascinated with rules of civility when reading Amor Towles’ book of the same name. One of the main characters tries to make it in Manhattan by using George Washington‘s “Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.” Apparently, our first president wrote this down when he was a teenager, perhaps simply […]
Let me end this series using immigration to illustrate what I’ve found. I chose the topic after a number of you said you would appreciate a theologically informed evaluation of the Trump administration. It seemed that repentance, viewed as rethinking, might do that. What started out as an examination of current events always developed into […]
One of the reasons I chose to write about repentance was the fear that we would hear a lot of bad theology as we celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary. Most of those planning and participating in the religious events are prosperity gospel preachers. One of them is President Trump’s personal adviser, Paula White, whom he […]
In a modern technological society, rethinking our relationship with nature is critical. Living most of the time in an artificial world, we tend to lose contact with our natural environment and with that, an appreciation of our dependence. In the past, technology provided tools that helped us live in harmony with nature. Tools protected us […]
A major factor in our present inability to establish a common understanding of truth is certainly globalism. In the past, geographic separation resulted in different lifestyles developing in the eastern and western worlds. You see that in their religions: Judaism and Christianity in the west, Hinduism and Buddhism in the east. It was also apparent […]
We are looking at Jesus’ observation that those who want to follow him have to repent. Becoming a disciple entails rethinking the way you’ve been living. This series explores various ways we can rethink what’s going on around us. Certainly, one of the issues where we see a lot of rethinking these days is truth. […]
from John 13: 1-17, 21b-35 Very early in my ministry, I learned that many people have great trouble with the kind of confession we used tonight. They reported that when they were teenagers, facing all sorts of questions about self-worth and having sexual thoughts and feelings that made them uncomfortable, confessing that they were by […]
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