(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.)
If you go to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Advocacy blog (blogs.elca.org) you will get posting after posting of politics from the left of center. Here is how the ELCA's Rev. Dustin G. Wright of Messiah Lutheran Church in Schenectady, New York describes Jesus:
"Jesus was a refugee, a day laborer, after all, lynched in the manner of a political revolutionary by one of the most powerful empires the world has ever known specifically because he sought to challenge and change that system. While he talked about getting into heaven, for sure, this world, not the next, was the focus of his ministry....Jesus was a poor man. How then could followers of the Way of this poor revolutionary become identified with policing folks’ bedrooms but not saying much of anything about the systemic sins of poverty, racism, militarism and ecological devastation? The “moral narrative” of this country, influenced in part by a false, ahistoric and heretical brand of Christian Nationalism that has almost nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus, has quite simply become distorted."
Wow, who is doing the distorting here? Jesus mainly focused on this world and "sought to challenge and change" Rome? Jesus told Pilate “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world" (John 18:36). And I can't recall Jesus saying anything about "militarism and ecological devastation".
The ELCA claims to be a church based on diversity and inclusivity, a "big tent" where people of all views are welcome. But go to blogs.elca.org and take a look at the ELCA advocacy blog, see if you find any evidence that, say, unborn children should not be aborted or that Christians should promote traditional marriage. No, you won't find that in the ELCA (the ELCA pays for abortion for any reason in its healthcare plan and the ELCA now allows for homosexual "weddings"). Instead of diversity from ELCA headquarters, you will overwhelmingly get one point of view: liberal politics.
In Jesus our Savior,
Pastor Tom Brock
If you go to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Advocacy blog (blogs.elca.org) you will get posting after posting of politics from the left of center. Here is how the ELCA's Rev. Dustin G. Wright of Messiah Lutheran Church in Schenectady, New York describes Jesus:
"Jesus was a refugee, a day laborer, after all, lynched in the manner of a political revolutionary by one of the most powerful empires the world has ever known specifically because he sought to challenge and change that system. While he talked about getting into heaven, for sure, this world, not the next, was the focus of his ministry....Jesus was a poor man. How then could followers of the Way of this poor revolutionary become identified with policing folks’ bedrooms but not saying much of anything about the systemic sins of poverty, racism, militarism and ecological devastation? The “moral narrative” of this country, influenced in part by a false, ahistoric and heretical brand of Christian Nationalism that has almost nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus, has quite simply become distorted."
Wow, who is doing the distorting here? Jesus mainly focused on this world and "sought to challenge and change" Rome? Jesus told Pilate “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world" (John 18:36). And I can't recall Jesus saying anything about "militarism and ecological devastation".
The ELCA claims to be a church based on diversity and inclusivity, a "big tent" where people of all views are welcome. But go to blogs.elca.org and take a look at the ELCA advocacy blog, see if you find any evidence that, say, unborn children should not be aborted or that Christians should promote traditional marriage. No, you won't find that in the ELCA (the ELCA pays for abortion for any reason in its healthcare plan and the ELCA now allows for homosexual "weddings"). Instead of diversity from ELCA headquarters, you will overwhelmingly get one point of view: liberal politics.
In Jesus our Savior,
Pastor Tom Brock
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