There is little comfort that Ratzinger isn’t my boss. When elected Pope, for better or worse he became the most influential spiritual leader in the world. It is not merely that his views and our views (western, LGBT, liberationist) are adversarial in a cultural struggle.  Ratzinger is in a position to cause many of us incalculable suffering through his influence over politics, law, culture and faith.

Lutherans Concerned/Los Angeles reserved a time slot during the Southwest California Synod Assembly to offer a workshop on the Reconciling in Christ program of Lutherans Concerned, and to showcase the newly-developed "Reconciling Ministry Planner" CD-ROM program (for which I served as principal editor). Just before the Assembly was held, however, I learned that the Synod planning committee had withdrawn its permission for me to lead the workshop, and insisted that someone else lead it. As the newly-installed Pastor of Hollywood Lutheran Church in Los Angeles, I protested.

"Two Gay Lifestyles", January 2004, 2 pp. Download PDF file.

"The ELCA: A New Lutheran Orthodoxy?"April 1999, 1 p.  Download PDF file.

Jesus’ almost savage condemnation of the Judaism of his time is grounded in his rejection of the smug, self-satisfied certainty of an entire system, which had placed its own corporate good work not on the altar of God as a fragrant offering, but in front of the altar of God as an intermediary, an impregnable locked gate, and thus a stumbling block to true faith.