The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the word of God, infallible and authoritative, the only norm for all that is to be believed, taught, and confessed as Christian.

The Holy Scriptures teach us that, as Christians, we are citizens of two kingdoms, one earthly, visible, and temporal, the other heavenly, invisible, and eternal. We are to be loyal, faithful citizens of both, recognizing that the two represent, respectively, the left and the right hand of God, who is the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of all. Each of these two has its proper and legitimate set of duties and responsibilities before God for the protection and benefit of those under its delegated and properly carried out authority, the former for our physical well-being, the latter for our spiritual well-being.

Every Christian is in duty bound to love God, who first loved us in and through Jesus Christ, and to love his/her neighbor as he/she would be loved.

Citizenship disclosure: American and Lutheran, but respectful of the views of others insofar as they believe and act in accordance with what is stated above.

The best “user’s manual” for citizenship in the first is, the Declaration of Independence (1776) and United States Constitution (1789), and for citizenship in the second, the Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther (1528). These documents are to be understood not as living and malleable, and thus changeable according to the conditions of the times in which they are read, but as they were written, standing over time and positing that which is enduringly true.