Pastor Fritz Foltz
Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
Lesson 5: Online Courage
It was a strange week for the online Church. Last Monday night, the symposium that normally gathers in my home discussed the relationship between church and state over Zoom. As we were winding down, a number of the members asked why most pastors refuse to speak truth to power. In the few minutes remaining, a […]
Lesson 4: A Faustian Bargain?
As I write, the relationship between church and government is being maliciously manipulated. Popular public figures on both sides are using each other to get what they want. And, the deals being made threaten our souls. In order to understand how we got to this place, I find myself recalling what I have experienced during […]
Lesson 3: Trust… In Government
The pandemic has brought into focus all sorts of societal problems. The last lesson discussed only the large number associated with Smithfield Foods. Most of these have been festering for decades. The question is whether the pandemic will bring them to a head in a way that incites creative response. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in […]
Lesson 2: What We Have Learned
In a time when the Christian voice in the public conversation is babel and even cacophony, those struggling to follow Jesus must strive to be radically realistic. Jacques Ellul often describes this as being decisively honest. That would involve acknowledging the lessons that the pandemic has taught us and then making appropriate changes in our […]
Lesson 1: The Situation
I really ended the series on world religions because I was getting all sorts of emails that implied it was a good subject, but somewhat irrelevant in the midst of the pandemic. Along with this, I kept feeling a need to recognize what is going on in Christianity during this crisis. In general, the situation […]
Addendum: Sick Christianity
After I posted a lesson entitled “Sick Religion” a few weeks ago, one of my best friends asked when I would have the courage to attack the real sick Christians among us. I was taken back, because I felt that was exactly what I was doing. I consider myself a lifelong student of false prophets […]
Lesson 13: Religious People, Not World Religions
I began this series wanting to share Barbara Brown Taylor’s experience about how the study of other world religions enhances the way we practice Christianity. Her findings were similar to my own, and I felt that she responded honestly to the situation most of us confront in this pluralistic global society. I end it realizing […]
Lesson 12: Religious Language During the Pandemic
Just a few quick words on religious language. Barbara Taylor Brown repeatedly speaks about the difficulty of understanding the religious language used by other world religions. Conversely, she observes once you do, you discover a lot about your own. My own experiences bear this out. Often when working on Lutheran Roman Catholic ecumenical activities in […]
Lesson 11: Healthy and Sick Religion
Throughout her book Holy Envy, Barbara Brown Taylor cites Rabbi Jonathon Sachs to support her call to appreciate the insights and practices of other religious teachings and practices. Each time she did this, I found myself evaluating what I regard as healthy and sick religion in our present society, even though neither of these scholars […]
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