Robert Benne

Christian sexual ethics, the sanctity of life, and evangelism are core commitments of Christian faith and life. They are main things. Let us keep them main things. Continue Reading »

The story of the last fifty years is a lot more complicated than the narrative of oppression and systemic racism. Continue Reading »

In 1869, the faithful of what was to be the Lutheran Free Church named their seminary and college in Minneapolis after the Augsburg Confession, because they believed the Confession aligned with biblical truth. They were shaped by a Lutheran pietism that emphasized conversion, service to the church, . . . . Continue Reading »

Those concerned about the reality TV-star in the White House should be even more alarmed at the popularity of Bolz-Weber, the celebrity theologian. Continue Reading »

Schism is a serious matter. Even though the leaders of the congregations that left the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to establish the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) in 2010 considered the ELCA to be the schismatic party, having broken from the apostolic tradition, they . . . . Continue Reading »

Last spring I attended a conference at the newly established St. Olaf Institute for Freedom and Community, which is dedicated to “free inquiry and meaningful debate of important political and social issues.” The institute invited four professors to talk about religious conflict: a well-known . . . . Continue Reading »

 
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The more I am hit by the decadence and vulgarity of American culture, the more I return to the thought of Pitirim A. Sorokin (1889-1968). Now out of favor in spite of his enduring scholarship and his central role in the development of academic sociology, Sorokin was already beginning to fade when I entered graduate school in the late-1950s. His stout anti-communism, critique of loosening sexual mores, and cultural conservatism ran squarely against the academic trends of the time. And it didn’t help that his life story gave him far more credibility than his colleagues to discuss the great ideological debates of the Cold War. Continue Reading »

“Pray for us,” asked a classmate from our long-ago college days who is awaiting a signal from his gay son that his artificially inseminated twins are born in Thailand. Even though I knew Dan and his wife, Jan, were strong supporters of their gay son’s wishes, I was shocked by how far they would go to pursue them. Other acquaintances of the couple were as stunned as I was. . . . Continue Reading »

The two largest Lutheran churches in America have now broken up: the Lutheran Church“Missouri Synod (LCMS) in the 1960s and 1970s after a brutal conflict between insurgent conservatives and complacent liberals, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) in the last few years, as the . . . . Continue Reading »