Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
As soon as one of the youth said she would like to look at passages in the Bible that are hard to believe, I began to worry. Was this a way to challenge my interpretation? Would they take my views home to their disapproving parents? I was afraid they wanted the black and white positions […]
It is well worth reading John and Bob’s online comments as well as Campbell and Putnam’s research. My son and I came up with the same expectations several years ago when researching how Fundamentalism is a natural danger in a technological society. Too many people in our time think Fundamentalism is about reading the […]
Way back in 2004, the high school reading groups wanted to discuss why a number of people in our area were acting as if all Christians had to be members of the Republican Party. This is pretty significant, because most people in our county are Republicans and that includes most of their parents. The kids […]
The responses I received to last week’s lesson all characterized our present situation as fear of losing our way of life. Some spoke of the Christian nation, one of white Protestantism, and another of Roman Catholic culture. It is worth reading Bob’s comment for a fine perspective. I think the high students sensed this way […]
The youth attending our reading groups seem to find Christians groups mean-spiritedly attacking others the biggest challenge to their faith. Remember they choose the next topics at the end of each meeting. During the past two years time and again they wanted to discuss what they regarded as Christian hate groups. Most often these involved fear […]
All three of our reading groups wanted to talk about Islam. Last week I reported on the college group’s discussion of Ben Laden’s assassination. That one took place at the end of the school year. At the beginning of the year the high school group wanted to look at building a mosque near Ground Zero […]
Bob is quite right when he warns that our response to the actions of those we oppose too often plays into their hands. You see this in many of our reactions to 9/11. All three of our reading groups repeatedly brought this up. They wanted to talk about Islam more than any other subject, and […]
All three of our youth groups are very troubled with those claiming to speak for God when uttering hate messages. Twice during the last year the High School Reading Group wanted to talk about Westboro Baptist’s antigovernment protests at veterans’ funerals. I sent the following paper to start discussion for one of those. You can […]
Many years ago my daughter and son-in-law asked me to lead a reading group for a few high school students. Before long it became apparent many more were interested in discussing their faith seriously. At present 30 plus high school students meet in my home every month,12 to 20 young adults gather every other month, […]
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