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Portico Benefit Services, "a ministry of the ELCA," announced "Effective Jan. 1, 2016, ELCA-Primary health benefits will cover services including mental health therapy, hormone therapy, and sex reassignment surgery..." The ELCA health plan covers employees of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which includes "rostered leaders, lay church workers, retirees, and family members..." (see below)  The money which members give to their local ELCA church, intended for God's use, will now be used to pay for the sex-change operations of ELCA employees and their family members who want to change their gender. (a desire that is medically impossible) Instead of helping struggling people embrace the way God made them, the ELCA wants you to pay the bill so a man can try to look like a woman, and a woman try to look like a man. Mutilating and abusing their body on your/God's dime. Don't forget that the ELCA health insurance also covers abortions for ELCA employees and family members, a fact that has upset thousands upon thousands of members. Forcing Bible-believing ELCA members to pay for sex change surgery, etc. should do the same. (Update: Below you will see a Portico Benefit Services document for 2017 stating more details of their transgender related coverage.)  Here is a closeup of the highlighted section about gender reassignment surgery that is covered:  Also, you can view the Executive Director of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries comments about ELCA/Portico's decision here.
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Could this ELCA synod be talking about conservative and/or Bible-believing Christians?
They don't like you, but I would bet they will still gladly take your money.
----- The belief in universalism is strong in the ELCA, as you know if you frequent this website. Here is another example - “I believe God is big enough to have many ways to be reached; although I confess Christianity, I also believe there are many other paths to God.” – The Rev. Patt Kauffman on ELCA clergy Uncensored Facebook group. The link goes to the Closed group, which only those in the group may view. (here) ----- An ELCA news story about the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut does not mention the Islamic faith of the terrorists. (see here) I wonder why the ELCA is so free to condemn Israel (falsely, I might add) but they can not state the facts and motivation behind the terrorists actions we are seeing worldwide. ----- Wartburg College, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) school, shared a video of their “Weekday Interfaith Chapel” (Sept. 30, 2015) in which a Hindu prayer was offered by the guest speaker. (see video here. View the video dated Sept. 30, 3015) The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) is on a mission. The mission? Bring the refugees who are in Europe, originally from the Middle East and North Africa, to the United States. How many? As many as they possibly can.
The ELCA dismisses the danger of doing this, despite the fact that at least one refugee participated in the recent terrorist attack in Paris. They say God would want us to take in the refugees. Yet they would never recommend sending troops into Syria to help the thousands upon thousands of people still there--being enslaved, raped and slaughtered. I guess God (of their making) doesn't care as much for those who are in Syria, living under constant danger, oppression and persecution. They talk as if Christians are obligated to relocate the refugees to America. But helping the poor can come in many forms. Moving refugees to America is not the only option. The Good Samaritan did not bring the poor, injured man to his home. He paid for his care and housing elsewhere. And it was good. They say we need to bring the refugees here, but they don’t tell you that these refugees are living safely in Europe and are in no danger. The ELCA says the refugees will be thoroughly vetted, but we all know that that is nearly impossible. And many national security experts have agreed. The ELCA bishop even says that most of the refugees will be women and children, but 70% of the refugees are healthy young men who are capable of fighting for their homeland. Very few are women and children. Let’s think about this for a minute. Besides the danger that some refugees will no doubt have an allegiance to radical Islam and a desire to kill as many Americans as they can, what about the Muslim refugees who are not terrorists but want Muslim law to rule the land in which they reside? (You know, cutting off the hand of thieves, women must be covered and killing homosexuals.) What about the way most Muslims view and treat women, like possessions, pieces of property with no rights? What about the Muslim view that Islam is superior to all other religions and that Muslims must hold power over others of differing religions for the sake of their god? What about the hatred of Jews, honor killings, female genital mutilation, molestation of young girls and boys that is rampant in the countries from where the refugees come? The ELCA wants to bring this to our country? Maybe the United States, who already takes in 20% of the world’s immigrants (stat from this article) can help the refugees by giving food, clothing and financial help as they make a new life in the European country in which they now reside, safe and sound. That sounds like a loving and WISE response to the refugee situation. Here are quotes from the ELCA leadership pressing for the settlement of the refugees in the United States:
(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and twitter - here.)
I just read the current issue of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's official magazine. There are three letters to the editor responding to the magazine's recent glowing article on the ordination of the ELCA's first transgender pastor. All three letters are on the "pro-gay" side. Perhaps there were people who wrote sharing disagreement over this latest tragedy in the ELCA and perhaps the editors did not choose to print them. On the other hand, the one place (often the only place) one can find a conservative opinion in The Lutheran is in the Letters to the Editor section. I'm guessing here, but perhaps no one wrote to complain about the ELCA's endorsement of transgender clergy. If you know the history of The Lutheran magazine, it has been liberal for a long, long time. And its subscription rate has dropped hugely over the years. I am guessing that many of the conservatives who would have once written in have long since cancelled their subscription. When the ELCA ordains a transgender pastor and no one complains, wow, have things gone wrong. When I pray for the Church these days, I pray that those churches which are heretical will repent. I also pray that those churches which refuse to repent will die. I pray the people in those churches will be moved into good, Biblical churches. This indeed is happening. The growing churches in America are the Bible-based, often non-denominational, churches. And the churches which are dying are the ones which have abandoned the authority of Scripture to embrace homosexual and transgender pastors, universalism, de-sexing God language, and lessening of missions (the ELCA, United Church of Christ, Episcopal Church in America, Presbyterian Church USA). Please pray for Christ's Church today, that the Lord would grow the churches which honor Him and shrink those which do not. In Jesus our Savior, Pastor Tom Brock pastorsstudy.org The ELCA’s Saint Paul Area Synod held a number of visioning process gatherings asking ELCA members this question: “Where do you sense God calling us to be more deeply present as the ELCA?” What kind of answers do you get from people attending a denomination that has little desire to evangelize and tell people about the good news of salvation in Christ for those that believe? You get responses regarding liberal social policies and very few responses about God.
Here are the answers they received:
This provides a clear picture of the spiritual state of most of the leadership and members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. (The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and twitter - here.)
The Toledo Blade newspaper wrote an article about Elizabeth Eaton, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. (see here) To quote the article: "The work of the Church, Bishop Eaton said, is not so much saving souls. 'That's God's work, and if God loves God's creation, you're part of God's creation; you're going to be loved.' But there is work to do with others, missional work." Two things strike me. First, the Bible teaches the Church is ALL about saving souls. Yes, God alone can ultimately convert anyone, but He has given that saving work into the hands of the Church. Jesus’ last words on earth were “Go ye therefore and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). The Apostle Paul wrote “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (I Corinthians 9:22). The Apostle Paul knew that he, and all Christians, are all about saving souls. Sadly, when we read the news coming out of the ELCA (see elca.org news items), it seems ELCA leadership is often speaking out on climate change, immigration reform, defending Muslims, Palestine, etc. Meanwhile, the number of missionaries in the ELCA has gone down dramatically. Such is the result of replacing “saving souls” with politics, however well meaning those politics might be. And sadly, when it comes to the politics of protecting the unborn, one never hears a word from an ELCA leader on issues like the horrors happening at Planned Parenthood. Just once it would be nice to read an ELCA news article that an ELCA bishop wants to see Planned Parenthood defunded, or partial birth abortion outlawed or Roe vs. Wade overturned. The second thing that struck me (see the quote in the first paragraph above) is how tortured the language is which Bishop Eaton uses to refer to God. Its all “God…God…God” in order to avoid the masculine pronoun “He” for the Almighty. This is also true in the ELCA hymnal which has de-sexed all of the Psalms to get rid of masculine references for God. May you and I be busy this day doing the work of God, HE has called us to join in HIS work of SAVING SOULS, In Jesus our Savior, Pastor Tom Brock pastorsstudy.org |