Where I am coming from.

I was born in a Lutheran family, baptized and confirmed in an LCMS church, and went to a Lutheran school from kindergarten to 8th grade. My parents both, at some point or another, worked for Lutheran educational institutions (college, grade school, special ed). In my adulthood, after some time bouncing around different jobs and schools, I eventually became a teacher at an synodically unaffiliated Lutheran school, and then traveled to work at a Lutheran school in Europe where I still teach today. 

Needless to say, being Lutheran has been a part of my culture, my family, my heritage, and my personality for the bulk of my life. Despite this, the reader might need to know that I have never studied the Book of Concord nor have I delved deep into the Augsburg Confession or the Large Catechism. I study and memorize the Small Catechism in school, so the bulk of my understanding of Lutheran theology springs from there. 

Having been raised in an LCMS church, I was led to believe that the synod was sort of the middle-ground synod, not as conservative as WELS and not as not as loosey-goosey as the ELCA. I was also quite conservative in my social views for a long time, but as I have gotten older, my social views are much more  liberal than what they used to be. I probably, in my heart, think of myself as an ELCA-style Lutheran, allowing for a little more open interpretation of the scripture than what I may have thought was right years ago. Regardless of how tightly one does or does not interpret the Bible, I do think that scripture is the primary key to understanding God's relationship with me and the world. If it isn't in the Bible, I put little theological credence in a doctrine. Purgatory, the Seven Deadly Sins, etc., carry no water for me. I imagine that must be the sola scriptura pounded into me by 47 years of Lutheranism. 

So, that is where I start as I explore these ideas here.