The Templeton Committee met for the first time on October 21, 2015. Pastor Michael Tavella had received a $5000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation through the auspices of Earl Whipple, a staff member of the organization and a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. The grant will be used to develop a manual for churches and individual Christians on how we should conduct ourselves when in conversation with atheists and others who do not attend Church (the “nones”), either one on one or in a public forum. The biblical basis for the project is I Peter 3: 15b-16. The proposal includes field testing the manual in church adult classes and then holding at least one public forum in which Christians and non-Christians dialogue with one another. These conversations will constitute a Christian defense of the faith (ἀπολογία, apologia, English-apology) and a witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the Gospel of John Jesus engages in conversation a number of people, some foes, others new converts, and yet others undecided. One among those He meets along the way is the Samaritan woman. In her case we get a vivid idea of the human condition and Jesus’ response to it. The woman comes to…
Nicodemus, the Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night to inquire of Him about His ministry. He recognizes Jesus as a teacher from God because of the signs that He does. The passage (John 3: 1-21) is wrought with irony. When Jesus says that a person must be born again (or from above) to enter…
The mother of our Lord attended a wedding feast at Cana to which Jesus and His disciples were also invited. When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother informed her Son that there was no more wine. He gave a strange answer, “Woman, what has this to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” And then, Mary told the…
The Gospel of John gives its own unique account of Jesus’ coming to the Jordan for baptism. One day John sees Jesus approaching him. He declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because…
The modern age is characterized by much confusion. What accounts for this situation? Many different perspectives on the meaning of life and the world (See Charles Taylor, A Secular Age ) would be among the most important reasons. A very competitive marketplace of ideas exists in 21st century America. One can imagine that this state of affairs was…
Too often today the facts spoken or written about any subject or issue are inaccurate. This may happen because of ignorance. It may be done on purpose. Those who distort facts knowingly lack integrity. It is very important that we get the facts of a case as straight as we can. This requirement includes doing the research that is necessary…
Bigotry can have various objects, changeable and unchangeable, that draw its hatred. Class, race, nation, gender, and ethnic identification are things that we are born into. Our race, ethnic identification, and gender cannot be changed. Though some people think it possible, gender cannot be changed. Only in the mind is this possible, but every cell in one’s…
Bigotry is the hatred of people of a certain social or economic class, religion, race, nation, ethnic group, political affiliation, gender. (There are only two genders. God created gender and sex, not us), or ideology by an individual, group of individuals, society, or nation that may eventuate on a political level in laws against them and even more violent persecution. Bigotry involves the…
The well-known and popular, contemporary theory about truth is that there is no such thing except in a narrowly defined way. If I understand it correctly, post-modernist theory maintains that absolute truth does not exist and that any truth claim is only a point of view. Truth can not be attained. It is beyond us or does not…
When we speak, we are to speak with wisdom, knowledge and discernment. Today in the public environment, there are too many words and too little wisdom. Not much or nothing is accomplished by turgid and foolish speech. The news programs often give us a taste of the foolishness of the tongue. Wisdom means the willingness to listen to the rede…
