(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.) Bishop Stacie Fidlar of the Northern Illinois Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is staunchly against the belief that there are only two genders, even though that is what Jesus taught in Matthew 19:4. She claims to love transgender, non-binary and non-conforming people. But part of loving people is telling them the truth, and if God created a person a male then you are lying to tell him he can be a female. And it is not loving to destroy children by giving them hormone blockers and destructive surgeries.
With leadership like this, no wonder ELCA membership is shrinking into oblivion. In Christ, Pastor Tom Brock (See here.)
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(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.) Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, is a congregation of the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Many years ago, it had a biblical pastor, but times have changed. Today Prince of Peace has a big sign on a busy highway declaring “God is proud of all Their children.” The word “proud” is in gay rainbow colors and God is no longer a “He” but a “They.”
The current senior pastor just retired, and the associate pastor just took a position at Edina Community Lutheran Church, another ELCA congregation which went viral when it recited the Sparkle Creed, saying “I believe in a non-binary God” and “Jesus had two dads” (the recently retired ELCA bishop didn’t understand why people got so upset with this). Prince of Peace has a “What We Believe” statement, not about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit or the authority of the Bible, instead we get this: “What We Believe …By de-centering whiteness and acknowledging the harm caused by racial violence, we’re working to heal and restore…We are working to create safe, affirming spaces where people of all genders and sexual orientations can be themselves, loved, and accepted just as they are…We amplify the voices of women, non-binary, and gender non-conforming individuals…We use inclusive language, respecting pronouns and gender identity. We refuse to tolerate hate speech…We are dedicated to supporting efforts that honor and protect Indigenous practices of land stewardship,…” It is tragic that many liberal mainline churches have abandoned preaching Christ for the salvation of the lost. They do this because they no longer believe people are lost and they no longer believe in Hell. So what replaces the Gospel? Making sure we overcome whiteness, use LGBT pronouns, and endorse sexual behaviors which God forbids. Sincerely in Christ, Pastor Tom Brock
Below are just a few of the many social media posts made this week by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or their partners about Transgender Remembrance:
(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.) The below liberally biased “report” from CBS-TV interviews a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. This is a woman who presents herself as a man. She is married to another woman and both are pastors in the ELCA. She, I refuse to say “he“, tells the world that the Bible was not written for today. This is a convenient way to get around the fact that the Bible says God made us male and female. For those with open eyes, the below clip from CBS Mornings seems more like an infomercial of why everyone should leave the ELCA. Sincerely in Christ, Pastor Tom Brock (The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.) Yes, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's healthcare plan, funded by offering dollars, not only pays for abortion for any reason, it now also pays for hormone blockers for children to keep them from developing their God-given sexuality.
Below are quotes from Jamie Bruesehoff, LGBT activist and ELCA pastor's wife, about her son who thinks he is a girl who receives hormone blockers. She calls this "life-saving treatment" but it chemically castrates her son. This is the same child, then 11-years-old, who the ELCA put on stage back in 2019 to promote transgenderism to 31,000 teens at the ELCA's Teen Gathering. Read the quotes below from the mother's Facebook page. Incredible. This is one reason some legislators are trying to make child sex transitions a felony and one more big reason to leave the ELCA with your offering dollars. Sincerely in Christ, Pastor Tom Brock Jamie : "Today, Rebekah had her second surgical procedure to place a hormone blocking implant in her arm to prevent her from progressing farther into puberty. This is one example of what medically appropriate, medically necessary, life-affirming, and often literally life-saving treatment looks like for a transgender child... That is the face of a girl terrified of hospitals and needles, but more terrified of having to live life as someone she is not. That is the face of a girl feeling on top of the world, knowing her body won’t betray her and she’s one step closer to the woman she will grow up to be....I’m extra thankful and proud to say that the insurance covering this procedure for my transgender daughter is provided to my husband through his employer... the church." https://nationalfile.com/pastors-wife-celebrates-trans-sons-puberty-blockers-paid-for-by-church-insurance/
ELCA pastor Margarette Ouji.
(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.)
The below two minute video is of a gay pride worship service of a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. During the prayer Jesus is referred to as God’s “Child” (“Son” would be sexist) and states: “You sent your Beloved Child to dissolve the binaries”. Really? Jesus said that God made us binary, male and female (see Matthew 19:4-6). The pastor reads from a children's book “’Twas the night before Pride…the drag queens all brushed their wigs with great care.” A youth tells his/her/their story of coming out as transgender. During communion the pastor tells everyone to “Bring your trans bodies, your bodies destined for metamorphosis, your scarred bodies, your pierced bodies…”
The good news is, as you can see from the video, almost nobody attends this church. In Jesus our Savior, Pastor Tom Brock Queer ELCA Lutheran pastor helps transgender people understand "God created them just as they are"7/2/2024 (The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.) Dawn Bennett is a queer pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America who works with transgender people. Pastor Dawn helps people see that if they are biological males but identify as females, God made them that way. In a glowing article in the ELCA's national magazine, Kathy Halbrooks of PFLAG, “Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays,” says this about queer Pastor Dawn's work: "I see so many LGBTQ+ people emotionally damaged by their experiences with negative organized religion. Pastor Dawn of The Table helps people understand that God loves them and created them just as they are."
So if you believe what Jesus said, that "He who made them at the beginning made them male and female" (Matthew 19:4), you are part of "negative organized religion". You need to understand something that Jesus never said, namely, that God also makes people to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, asexual, pansexual, tri-spirit, etc. etc. This is the "brave new world" of the ELCA as it drifts further and further from Biblical truth and embraces the confusion and deception of modern American culture. Rather than help people out of sexual confusion, the ELCA confirms people in it. In Jesus our Savior, Pastor Tom Brock (See Living Lutheran article here) The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has elected it's third homosexual bishop this year. The ELCA has a total of six practicing homosexuals who currently are bishops. (likely to grow in number this summer) ELCA pastor Nathan Pipho was elected bishop of the New England Synod. He is gay, as he explains in an article he wrote, "It was the saints at Good Shepherd, North Quincy, who took a chance on a pastoral candidate who was gay. This was seven years before the 2009 Churchwide Assembly lifted prohibitions on partnered LGBT persons serving as ordained ministers. It also coincided with the height of the clergy sexual abuse crisis that was hitting the Archdiocese of Boston at the time. Some of my friends counseled me this was not the best time for me to be open with them about my sexuality, that it was none of their business, that I should stay in the closet …but I knew for the sake of authentic witness I needed to be open." (See here) Rev. Nathan Pipho is a "...past chair of the New England Synod Team for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Inclusion." (See here) Since we are talking about Bishop-Elect Pipho, here is his position on a controversial transgender topic: "Earlier this year, the Charlotte City Council passed an ordinance that affirmed the right of transgender individuals to use the bathroom of their gender identity. It was right and fair." (See here) See photo here - https://www.masslive.com/galleries/TDQWQH3E3BDT3MOAXKH4J34Z2U/ (The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.) For years, Living Lutheran, the official magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has printed articles promoting homosexuality and transgenderism, while forbidding the traditional, biblical viewpoint in its pages. As if to see how radical it can become, Living Lutheran magazine celebrates gay pride month in an interview with queer/bisexual ELCA activist pastor Elle Dowd, who calls for the overthrow of “heteronormality” and capitalism. It is the most radical Living Lutheran article to date.
Here are some highlights: The article begins: June is Pride Month, and we are excited to amplify the voices of our ELCA siblings who are proud to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community... Today we are speaking with pastor, author and activist Elle Dowd (she/they). Dowd states: I am currently...finish(ing) up my Ph.D. in queer theology, researching bisexual theology...I have a lot of religious trauma from growing up in the church...I received a lot of messages about the sinfulness of my identity (as a bisexual/quer pastor), which deeply harmed me... we can’t continue to affirm theology that is killing people. The ELCA needs to move toward a full-throated, wholehearted affirmation and even celebration of LGBTQIA+ people..What I want to know is: Are you lobbying your legislators to protect LGBTQIA+ people? Are you protesting and taking the streets when our rights are ripped away from us? ...Does your budget and your calendar reflect that we are a priority? Are we in your pulpits? In your liturgy? In your Sunday school illustrations? What kind of conversations are you having around reparations?...Does your congregation have education about the phenomenon of bisexual erasure? ...I pray for... the dismantling of white supremacy, for an end to cis-hetero patriarchy, for the fall of capitalism and empire, for #landback, for abolition, for reparations, for restoration... So ends the article Whew! The truth is that if I Corinthians 6:9-11 is true, that homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God, then it is hateful to promote homosexuality, which the ELCA is doing in its national magazine. Living Lutheran is funded by ELCA offering dollars. That's right, your ELCA offering dollars at work, overthrowing “hetero-normality” and capitalism. Sincerely in Christ, Pastor Tom Brock PS. The article states that its author is Kelly Wilkerson who is in full-time ministry and “resides with her fiancée”, an unashamed plug for pre-marital cohabitation (Read Living Lutheran article here.)
We are just a couple days into what the woke have deemed "Pride month." Their "pride" is in being LGBT+ or supporters of the lifestyles.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in American (ELCA) has chosen to announce their support of people's sexual and gender twisting practices, as we see below:
This proclamation is from the national ELCA churchwide headquarters -
The next display is from the ELCA's Vice President - Additional "pride" posts that I've run across so far, (with little effort to find) include this from the ELCA's Susquehanna University - (The following article was written last year by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.) As my liberal State of Minnesota is on the verge of proclaiming itself a “safe state“ for “gender affirming care“ for youth—which means giving children hormone blockers to prevent them from developing naturally—you would think the head of a Christian denomination would stand up against this barbarity. Instead, Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who produces a yearly gay pride video, has decided to stand up for transgenderism. You will note below that she talks not about “our transgender brothers and sisters“, that would be too binary, instead she calls them “our siblings”. In contrast to the transgender craziness that has overtaken much of our culture, Jesus said that there are only two genders (Matthew 19:4). It would be good if Eaton would remember to follow Christ and not the depraved mind of our culture. The ELCA even pays for hormone blockers for children in the denomination’s healthcare plan. That’s right, your ELCA offering dollars at work, destroying children’s sexuality before it can develop. ELCA offering dollars also pay for abortion for any reason in the denomination’s healthcare plan. Just today I heard an elderly ELCA Lutheran bemoan the fact that her congregation is closing because young people aren’t coming anymore. But they can’t come if the Church is killing them in the womb. And if a denomination is telling a boy that he can really be a girl, that denomination is doomed to shrink. And the ELCA is shrinking under Eaton’s leadership. In Jesus our Savior, Pastor Tom Brock PS. Famed atheist and biologist Richard Dawkins recently stated that “There are only two sexes, and that’s all there is to it.” He said LGBTQ activists trying to discredit two biological sexes are pushing “utter nonsense.” (Read ELCA statement here.) Luther Seminary’s preaching conference to feature transgender preacher—who called Jesus an S.O.B.4/16/2024 (The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.) Luther Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America helps put on a yearly “Festival of Homiletics” conference at which 1500 clergy and lay people from around the country gather. One of this year’s speakers is ELCA Pastor Nicole Garcia who was born a man but now identifies as a woman. Telling his (I can’t say “her”) story to NBC News, Garcia referred to Jesus as an S.O.B. From the NBC article: “I had my come-to-Jesus moment. It wasn’t one of those, “Oh please, oh please, help me,’” she explained. “It was more, “Alright you son of a b---h, if I’m going to come back, you better step it up this time.’” (see article here)
No wonder America is in such trouble when many in the leadership of the Church have caved to the sexual confusion of our age. When I graduated from Luther Seminary years ago, it was moderately liberal, today it is radical. In Christ, Pastor Tom Brock (The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.) The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has affiliated camps around the country. This year four camps will host symposiums to promote the LGBT agenda and "inclusion".
One of the speakers is the "openly queer mother" of a "trans girl" (that is, a biological boy who believes he is a girl). The 11-year-old child spoke promoting transgenderism at the ELCA's Teen Gathering a few years ago and is now fifteen years old. The ELCA's healthcare program, which is funded by offering dollars, pays for the teen's hormone blockers. Here is how Lutheran Outdoor Ministries' website describes its speaker: "Jamie Bruesehoff will be leading the workshops focused on total inclusion of persons who are LGBTQIA+. Jamie (she/they) is an... openly queer woman married to a Lutheran pastor and mom to three spirited children, including a fifteen year old transgender daughter... Jamie writes and speaks about LGBTQ identities, policies and practices..." For more information, click here https://www.lomnetwork.org/total-inclusion-symposiums/ Beware of sending your child to an ELCA camp. The ELCA-related Outlaw Lutheran Bible Camp in Custer, South Dakota, this summer will hold its second annual LGBT Pride Camp for 14 through 18-year-olds. Many years ago as a teen I attended Outlaw Lutheran Camp and it was wonderful. Today I can recommend it, and the ELCA, to no one. Sincerely in Christ, Pastor Tom Brock PS It looks like Outlaw Lutheran Camp requires Pride Camp participants and staff to use "preferred pronouns". From its website "Our community will call people by their names and use desired pronouns to uphold an environment that is respectful, safe, and identity-honoring" |
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 Dan Skogen
Former ELCA seminary student and former ELCA member who is fed up with the ELCA's consistent mockery of God's Word. If you have been helped and blessed by Exposing the ELCA's ministry, please help us continue to proclaim the truth of God's Word to ELCA members who need to hear it.
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Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. - Ephesians 5:11
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