Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
My life has paralleled the growth of the modern Evangelical movement. I heard the canned introduction of so many of their spokespersons so many times, I would mouth it as they began their pitch. “I am not educated, but I know what the Bible says…” From their point of view, the Bible is God’s voice […]
Who speaks for the church in society? If you are a Roman Catholic, you might point to the leadership, if a Lutheran the scriptures, and if a Quaker the community. Even Pope Benedict, a pretty conservative Roman Catholic, acknowledges different voices speak for God in different historical periods. He thinks it is the hierarchy’s responsibility, […]
I was standing at a rest stop on I-95 south of Washington, watching six lanes of traffic zooming at 70 miles per hour. When I asked my wife what people who lived 100 or 200 years ago would think if they could see this, she suggested people living 50 years ago would be overwhelmed. We […]
One way to understand the relationship of state and church is to look at what Paul says about Principalities and Powers. We usually dismiss this, because it employs strange words that seem to speak about ancient ideas. In the first chapter of Colossians, he speaks of Christ as “the image of the invisible God, the […]
No matter how many traditional religious and ethical arguments one group makes, a second group maintains the primary function of both ethics and religion should be reducing and eliminating suffering. If technology offers us a way to do that, we should use it, they suggest.
Remember when I announced I was going to do something on church and society, Lupe and Myron offered some examples that have to be addressed. Lupe pointed to the death of hundreds of people in Pakistan who died of thirst during the Ramadan fast. Myron sent a New York Times article about India’s prime minister […]
Certainly a major factor Christians have to consider when making decisions in our modern world is the global economic system. Electronic media and computing enable us to engage with people we do not know on the other side of the earth, and we have used this primarily for economic transactions. This has brought new challenges […]
Lupe mentioned the situation her son faced when on assignment for the World Bank in Pakistan during Ramadan. With extremely high temperatures, over 700 people died observing the fast that includes not drinking water during daylight hours. Does following God’s will include this kind of renunciation?
Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment introduces a new stage in the ongoing conversation between Church and Society.
Boy, this one has some catchy adjectives. We are not to join just any church, but a “real” one that is relevant to the “contemporary” situation. In fact, it replaces “church” with “community,” implying it should not simply be a place where people go to worship but a gathering of persons who interact with one […]
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