NPR reported this week that the Trump administration would be protecting health care workers in conflicts arising from matters of conscience or religious objection. I was relieved to hear this, but not everyone has been so excited. Since some find this move alarming, I thought it would be a good time to revisit my teaching notes from a Sunday School series on the conscience. “To go against conscience is neither right nor safe.” – Martin Luther Historically, the conscience has been a fair-weather friend of the Christian faith. Conscience has been a powerful tool at times for showing people that Jesus provides a better way than how they have been living.…

When you grow up in certain denominations, you aren’t always trained in theology. Some denominations are explicit about their doctrines and about the statements and creeds and confessions that help define who they are, why they are here, and how they should live. For others, the theology is still present, but implicit and unstated. The trouble with this is that an implicit theology is more difficult to defend and keep with any consistency. Doctrines that are implicitly held may be in greater need of upkeep without anyone realizing it. Of course, denominations that emphasize doctrine have their own troubles, such as the difficulty of modifying it when it, too, needs…

In Christian circles, we often talk as though the truthfulness of Scripture was the most crucial doctrine to uphold. Once you lose the Bible, you lose everything. There’s a great degree of truth to that. But one of my seminary professors pointed out that there are some doctrines that strengthen or weaken this one, and in particular the doctrine of total depravity. He said something like “Man will not deny his need for Scripture until he has denied his need for a Savior.” There is much wisdom here as well. When we fail to take our sins seriously and instead puff ourselves up, we are likely to see the Bible…