Looks that way, anyway. From Beliefnet: The nation’s largest Lutheran church on Friday upheld a policy that frowns on blessing same-sex unions, but left the door open for pastors to provide “faithful pastoral care” to all parishioners as they see fit.Delegates from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted 670-323 to uphold a 1993 statement…

Despite the fact that increasing numbers of Americans (and disproportionate numbers of Democratic voters, one suspects) are disenchanted with the war in Iraq, the Democratic leadership remains steadfastly hawkish. The names most frequently mentioned as possiblities in ’08 (Clinton, Biden, etc.) are invariably national security hawks who continue to support the war. Why is this…

In his article on the Atonement Gerhard Forde makes some of the more common charges against Anselm’s theory of the Atonement (or at least certain “Anselmian”type theories). Whether Forde intends his criticisms to apply to Anselm himself or just some of the cruder later versions of his theory isn’t entirely clear. I’ve defended Anselm on…

Good article from Roberto Rivera on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (via Thunderstruck). While relatively few Americans can bring themselves to say that the deliberate targeting of non-combatants during World War II, regardless of the physics involved, was immoral, our commitment to jus in bello has grown to make the avoidance of “collateral damage” official…

The Churchwide Assembly just voted overwhelmingly to approve a recommendation to enter into “interim eucharistic sharing” with the UMC, which is short of the “full communion” we enjoy with other churches (go here for more info). The difference is explained thusly elsewhere: With an interim commitment, congregations and judicatories of both churches will be encouraged…

One of Gerhard Forde’s distinctive contributions was his thinking on the work of Christ. His essay by that name appears in Braaten and Jenson’s Christian Dogmatics. He also discusses it in several essays in the collection A More Radical Gospel. His essay “Caught in the Act: Reflections on the Work of Christ” can be found…

Prolific Lutheran theologian Gerhard O. Forde has died. Forde’s signature theme was to call for a return to the “radical gospel” of the Reformation, especially as found in Luther – that is, the Gospel proclaimed as an unconditional promise of pardon for sinners. Prof. Forde taught for many years at Luther Seminary in St. Paul.…

Christianity Today has launched a new weblog written by bioethicist Nigel M. de S. Cameron that will focus on “issues of life: creating it, ending it, enhancing it, and treating it properly.”

To say that religion and science can’t come into conflict should not, in my view, be taken to mean that there are “two truths” or that science deals with the world of “facts” while religion deals with “values” or “meaning.” Both purport to give us information about the world; that is, both make truth claims.…

Salon has an interview with philosopher Michael Ruse, an agnostic with a keen interest in the evolutionism-creationism debate. While thinking the creationism (and Intelligent Design) is bunk, Ruse nevertheless thinks that “evolutionism” (the materialistic worldview, as distinct from evolution or scientific theories about evolution) has become a kind of psuedo-religion in its own right. Ruse…