Lutheran Missouri Synod is Deep into Politics


One of those in the Trump circle indicted on jury tampering is a retired Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) preacher. His excuse that he was just trying to help out the juror comes as quite hallow. The head of the Denomination appeared on a You Tube complaining the State of Illinois is terrible because its legislature passed laws making it easier to get an abortion there.

A LCMS preacher getting arrested for going whacko over some political matter would not be worth noting were is not for the bragging LCMS does about its "policy" of keeping out of politics. I've heard LCMS people say that about themselves often and always wondered if it was the same bullshit that comes from nearly all other branches of Christianity. Might it be, I wondered, LCMS has a backdoor political operation it tries to keep hidden.

Indeed it does. The latest edition of, Church & State, a publication of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, included an in depth report on money funneled into politics by Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. The author, David Beck, grew up in the LCMS so he had heard all of his life condemnation of other Protestant denominations that go into politics. He speculated that the loss of 1/3 of its members in recent decades has pointed LCMS to a view of some desperation.

He noted that LCMS has filed "friend of court" briefs in 90 cases concerning church/state separation. This is anything but remaining above the fray.

Starting about 2010 LCMS waded into cases in which churches wanted to pay for playgrounds on public school grounds. It won two cases. In 2016 LCMS established the Lutheran Center for Freedom of Religion. This was a lobbying group in Washington, the purpose of which was to pass laws which aligned with 'Biblical world order." The link author, who grew up in the denomination, has never heard this phrase before. I appeared to him as a commitment to push religion into government.

"The executive director told me by email the biggest threats to humanity were and have been Enlightenment, secularism and separation of church and state. The answer to humanities problems are to establish a Biblical world order."

The link author said it was hard for him to fathom how LCMS could have strayed so far from its long-standing belief in separation of church and state. It is now a member of ADF, a aggressive group trying to push Biblical views into law. The Southern Poverty Law Center has included ADF in its list of hate organizations. 

It is goodbye Lutheran Church Missouri Synod as it passes to the dark side. 

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