News
By the staff of The Lutheran, ELCA News Service and Religion News Service
Lutheran presence on death row Atlas shows divide
Politicians, scholars and the simply curious can see how deeply the nation is divided on abortion or same-sex marriage—and discover there’s sig- nificant consensus on immigra- tion—with an online mapping tool. The latest edition of the “American Values Atlas,” released Feb. 25 by the Public Religion Research Institute (
ava.publicreligion.org), allows users to “heat-map” views on those issues across all 50 states and 30 met- ropolitan areas to see where people’s attitudes blow hot or cold. The map shows New Hampshire as most favoring same-sex marriage and legal abortion. Alabama and Missis- sippi are least likely to approve of gays and lesbians marrying, and Wyo- ming is least likely to approve of legal abortion.
Conversations on race
Wondering how to help your congre- gation or Christian education class start the conversation about issues of race and justice in the U.S. today? “ELCA Presiding Bishop Eaton has called for deeper conversations on race to happen across this denomina- tion,” Judith Roberts, ELCA program director for racial justice, told The Lutheran in March. Roberts encour- ages congregations to act on that call, using a congregational study resource (revised in 2009) that accompanies the ELCA social statement “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity and Cul- ture.” Download the guide for free at
download.elca.org/ELCA%20 Resource%20Repository/RaceSS_ Study_Guide.pdf.
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www.thelutheran.org L
utherans and other people of faith were among the activists calling for a halt to the execution
of Kelly Gissendaner, 46, in Georgia, in late February and early March. At presstime, her execution had been postponed but still seemed likely. Gissendaner was sentenced to
death for persuading her boyfriend to murder her husband. She admit- ted her role in the murder, but since her 1998 conviction had undergone a Christian conversion. In 2010 she enrolled in an Atlanta-area theology studies program and was taught by Jennifer McBride, who now teaches at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. During Gissendaner’s year of
study, she was moved by the works of German theologian Jürgen Molt- mann, whose books on hope, suf- fering and liberation helped define postwar Protestant thought, accord-
ing to a story about Gissendaner in The New York Times. When she learned that McBride
knew him, Gissendaner asked if she could write to him. Through the mail, a friendship developed, and Moltmann (a German soldier in World War II and prisoner of war after) and Gissendaner have exchanged 20 to 30 letters since the inmate first sent him her paper on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. When Moltmann was in Atlanta
to lecture at Emory University in 2011, his visit to her in prison coin- cided with graduation for the 10 or so theology students, and he agreed to give the commencement address. After the ceremony, “the three
of us sat together,” McBride told the Times. “They talked about their mutual experience in prison …. About what it was like to read the Bible in prison.”
Bishop Eaton visits Rome
SERVIZIO FOTOGRAFICO L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO
During an ecumenical journey in February, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton presents Pope Francis with letters from students at St. Paul School in San Francisco. The letters include one from the daughter of Elizabeth Ekdale, pastor of St. Mark Lutheran Church in San Francisco and an ELCA Church Council member. Donald McCoid (right), an ELCA pastor and director for ELCA Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, also presents Pope Francis with a gift.
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