Native American smudging at ELCA Lutheran National Assembly and the ELCA’s homosexual seminary president

​(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.)

Below is a picture from the current issue of Living Lutheran, the national magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Pictured is Guy Erwin leading a worship service at the National Assembly. Erwin is the ELCA’s first homosexual bishop with a “husband“ and he is now the president of an ELCA seminary. The article mentions that the Native American practice of smudging occurred during the assembly, along with the Native American “Prayer to the Four Directions of the Earth.” Smudging is a Native American practice of burning sage in order to get rid of evil spirits and energy. In a previous post here was my comment on incorporating pagan practices into a Christian worship service:

“Years ago when I was still a pastor in the ELCA, I went to one of our conventions where we turned to the north, south, east, and west in order to pattern our prayers after Native American spirituality. I got to the microphone and said "I am German, my ancestors worshiped Thor and Odin. Are we going to incorporate Thor worship at our next convention?"

When I returned home, I told that story to my congregation and a Native American woman with tears in her eyes said "They're trying to take us back to what Jesus saved me from."

This is called syncretism, when people mix various gods and religions together. It is what got the ancient Jews in trouble when they tried to mix Baal worship with the worship of Jehovah.”

It is interesting that the ELCA’s national magazine put all of this on display for everyone to read. I hope many ELCA Lutherans will become upset over what happened, but I’m afraid the “frog in the kettle“ syndrome has dulled the senses of many in the ELCA.

But I must say to the ELCA: No, ELCA, smudging and sage do not drive out evil spirits, but only the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Christ,

Pastor Tom Brock