So, I’ll pick up a hot potato: In what seems like it is becoming a typical 5-to-4 decision last week , the Supreme Court decided in Salazar v. Buono that the World War I memorial—or more precisely, the cross that is part of the memorial—that stands in the Mojave National Preserve is not unconstitutional and does not advance a particular religion….

Getting ready to plant 75 trees at Concordia Seminary. Credit: Diane Meyer/Respublica “Christ is risen! Christ will come again! Let’s go plant some trees!” Which is exactly what we did at Concordia Seminary today. 75 of them. Our chapel preacher, Chuck Arand , summoned us to the stewardship of creation with the words above

I blog elsewhere about the adventures (and misadventures) of trying my hand with a small hobby farm. Most of the time, the joys and struggles of that life with some land do not intersect in any …

María Teresa Dávila Noted ethics scholar Dr. María Teresa Dávila will speak at Concordia Seminary tomorrow night, Thursday, March 18, at 7:00PM. A professor at Andover Newton Theological School, she will be giving the fifth Annual Lecture in Hispanic/Latino Theology and Missions of Concordia’s Center for Hispanic Studies (CHS). The theme for Dr. Dávila’s lecture is “ Unión, Reunión y Comunión : Latino/a Religious Diversity and the Wager of Ecumenical Communion.”…

A recent story in The Economist caught my eye, because it describes a very rare phenomenon: a church in Africa which openly welcomes homosexuals. “House of Rainbow” is an independent Nigerian church, founded in Lagos …

An Oregon case spotlights the legal conundrum of charting the legal limts of religious faith and practice in America. The facts are as follows:a jury has convicted an Oregon couple of criminally negligent homicide after …

Image credit: Mark Peterson/Redux. From the Atlantic Monthly. I’ve been thinking about this question ever since I ran across Hanna Rosin’s article on the topic in The Atlantic .

Andre Agassi’s honest attempt at “atonement,” in book form Will he talk or won’t he? Itis a question St.

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Vaclav Havel, center in red scarf, placing a candle at a Prague commemoration of the Velvet Revolution (Petr David Josek/AP) The New York Times did a nice retrospective yesterday on Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution on its 20th anniversary. I was 15 years old when the Berlin Wall fell along with all the other Eastern European dominoes that fell in its wake.

"The Risen Lord" by He Qi When the artist He Qi visited the Concordia Seminary campus recently, he told the following story about the artwork above, “The Risen Lord.” A church in China commissioned the work from He Qi for their sanctuary without any strings attached.