Lutheran Resources For Worker Justice

Here's a pdf by IWJ about the Reformer Martin Luther's thoughts on the importance of fair economics and treating workers well, as well as the Lutheran churches advocacy for workers.

https://www.wpusa.org/Interfaith-Council/Resources_Lutheran.pdf

Luther clearly sees from the perspective of an independent producer, a small businessman, whose experience of being robbed by the powerful is primarily connected to price gouging. However, the heart of his accusations would apply equally to the modern multinational corporations that seek profit at the expense of people not primarily by raising prices but rather by lowering wages. The core violation of “using the market according to his caprice as though it were his fair privilege and right” is as characteristic of WalMart as it was of the noblemen of Luther’s time.

Churches: Put Down That Spiritual Gifts Quiz

By Christianity Today:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/april-web-only/put-down-that-spiritual-gifts-quiz.html

As I’ve spent time studying these parts of Scripture, one thing seems clear to me. Our attempts to rigidly classify and neatly identify a precise list of spiritual gifts will end in frustration. And that’s exactly the way it should be. Paul and Peter don’t encourage us to chart the gifts in our congregation or even to spend much time worrying about which ones we possess as individuals. In a sense, they want us to put down the gifts quiz—or at least to think and talk about it way less often.

I, personally, am happy that someone shares similar thoughts as me about spiritual gifts test. I hope we can see gifts in a more nuance, holistic manner, rather than in some arbitrary, rigid form.

Before the Beginning: Appreciating the Thought of an Ancient Cosmologist

Here's a biblical studies article by The Torah, discussing about the misconceived understanding about the Genesis creation story by astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss, and yet, how both the modern and ancient cosmologists are similar to each other. A fascinating reading. It may be wordy, though.

https://www.thetorah.com/article/before-the-beginning-appreciating-the-thought-of-an-ancient-cosmologist

The author of Gen 1:2 says nothing about the origin of what he inferred to be the primal stuff in the cosmos because he understood that it was always there. Some modern physicists, like Krauss, would agree on this point. Unlike a modern physicist, however, the author of Genesis 1 was not ethically neutral about the created world. He understood not that it was merely "good," but that it was "very good" (Gen 1:32).