A Confessional Lutheran Reflection on Authority, Hermeneutics, and Institutional Drift Introduction: A Lutheran Beginning Without a Map Authored by: James F. Polk I entered California Lutheran University in 1997 for a simple reason: I was Lutheran. I had grown up in a Lutheran congregation connected to the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) and was baptized at sixteen at Grace Lutheran Church. At the time, I assumed—without suspicion—that a university bearing the Lutheran name stood broadly within the same theological family. I did not understand then that “Lutheran” in America encompassed profoundly…
Read MoreDay: January 7, 2026
Red Flags in the Hospitality Industry for Sex Trafficking: a recent DHS publication
https://praxisprofessional.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/25_0605_bc_hospitality-toolkit-v02-508.pdf The Department of Homeland Security’s Hospitality Industry Human Trafficking Response Guide is a resource developed under the Blue Campaign to help hotels, motels, and other hospitality businesses recognize and respond to human trafficking. Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to exploit individuals for labor or commercial sex, and it can occur right in plain sight within everyday hospitality environments. Because employees in this sector regularly interact with guests and operate in spaces traffickers often exploit, the guide emphasizes how critical staff awareness is in identifying…
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