EXPOSING THE ELCA
  • Home
  • ELCA Exposed News
    • on The Bible
    • on Homosexuality & Sex
    • on Universalism & Hell
    • on Goddess/Mother God/Gender Neutral Lang.
    • on Israel
    • on Abortion
    • on Social Media (ELCA Wolves Blog)
    • on Radical Hospitality and Prophecy
    • on Transgenders and Drag Queens
    • on Social Justice
    • on Gospel Reductionism / Antinomianism
    • on Called to Common Mission
    • on Other Critical Issues
  • Responses to ELCA
    • The Bible vs. ELCA
    • Churches Respond
    • Pastors Respond
    • Exposed Quotes
    • People Respond
    • More Responses
    • ELCA Finances
    • Alternatives to the ELCA
  • Exposed Blog
  • Share
  • Support
  • More
    • About & Contact
    • Help and Advice on Leaving ELCA
    • Important Information
    • Church Produced Info
    • ELCA Vault
    • Readers' Comments
    • ELCA Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber
    • ELCA Colleges
    • ELCA Seminaries
    • Want to Know Jesus?
    • Exposing the ELCA Newsletters & Important Websites
    • Submit Tips

The ELCA Church and the Orlando Massacre

6/14/2016

7 Comments

 
​Updated

Last Sunday a Muslim terrorist killed more than four dozen innocent people in Orlando, Florida and injured 54 others. Rightfully, many ELCA leaders respond to the attack with sorrow and prayers, but some of what they said should infuriate you.
 

ELCA pastor Heidi Neumark writes the following:
Picture
 Pastor Tom Brock (of pastorsstudy.org) shared his thoughts on pastor Neumark’s comments saying, “If I understand her right, this ELCA Lutheran pastor is saying that we better say homosexual behavior is OK, or you are helping murder people. The opposite is true. By telling people homosexual behavior is OK, we are helping them go to a tragic eternity (I Corinthians 6:9-11).”

ELCA pastor Ángel Marrero blames Christians and Jews in an article he wrote for the Huffington Post saying, “this isn’t simply ‘extremist Islam’, as some would like to paint it. This comes out of centuries of many religious traditions systematically demonizing and dehumanizing LGBTQ individuals. This hatred isn’t out of nowhere. It is in parts of Islam, yes, but it is within parts of Christianity and Judaism, as well. 
​Facing such a reality, I feel I must apologize for the complicity and silence of the Church. I am sorry for the pain our sinful indifference and self-righteousness has caused, and continues to cause, throughout the world." (see here)


Bishop Jim Hazelwood of the ELCA's New England Synod wrote a letter in response to the massacre going into great detail of his desire for gun control. He also writes about his concern for "our Muslim brothers and sisters." (see here) He then jumps the shark with this accusation:

Thanks you @BishopHazelwood, @NESynod, @ELCA, for your words in support of LGBTQ people https://t.co/qpDCtu6FqJ pic.twitter.com/JqBx1Eb5QW

— ReconcilingWorks (@ReconcilingWrks) June 14, 2016

 
Much like the liberal media many ELCA leaders are:

1.  calling for stricter gun control in America and
2.  can't seem to understand the connection almost all the terrorism happening in the world has with the religion of Islam.


Bishop David B. Zellmer of the ELCA's South Dakota Synod said, “There is no place among us for words and actions that disparage the Islamic faith…This act of terror and actions like it are carried out by people who have taken a world religion and perverted it to their own evil purposes – not unlike others have done with Christianity in past centuries.” (see here)

Bishop Robert G. Schaefer of the ELCA's Florida-Bahamas Synod writes, “There are deeper issues here. Church, it’s time to be clear about honoring and speaking up for...reasonable gun control in this country.” (see here)


The ELCA's Southwest California Synod sent out an email saying, "I would also invite you to rechannel whatever anger and frustration you might be feeling into positive action. Such violence effects everyone, and motivations include terrorism, hatred of various groups, and mental health issues, all of which are often interrelated.  But along with our task force, I am devoted to putting a stop to this carnage by the advocacy of stricter, common sense gun laws.  

If you feel called to share in this endeavor, we recommend that you get involved with a movement (such as Everytown for Gun Safety, Women Against Gun Violence, The Brady Campaign, or our own joint task force).  Meanwhile, know that the SWCA Synod Gun Violence Prevention Task Force will be reconvening this week with a renewed commitment to end the kind of tragedy we saw in Orlando so that we all might live in safety and in peace." (see here)

Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Elizabeth A. Eaton tweeted this:

We are killing ourselves. All are created in God's image. We are LGBTQ. We are Muslims whose faith has been cooped by hate. God have mercy.

— Bishop Eaton (@ELCABishopEaton) June 12, 2016

ELCA Bishop Timothy Smith of the North Carolina Synod posted this on his Facebook page (be sure to read his comments at the end):

The ELCA's Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) shared a prayer on their Facebook page that included this:
"We pray for renewed action and perseverance in reforming our American gun laws, especially the sale of automatic weapons." (see here)

Dr. Samuel Torvend, Professor of Religion at the ELCA's Pacific Lutheran University writes, "The massacre of innocents in Orlando prompts us to pray for those who grieve, to resist homophobia and Islamophobia, and to work diligently for an end to the easy purchase of deadly weapons." - Quote posted on PLU's Facebook page. (see here)

Bishop Patricia Lull of the ELCA's Saint Paul Area Synod comments "I invite your prayers for the family and friends of those killed or injured, for the Muslim community, which repudiates this act of hatred and violence, and for all who work to curtail gun violence. We also pray for colleagues in the Florida-Bahamas Synod, ELCA, who are offering pastoral care to those involved in this tragedy. (see here)


My, my. The opportunists are out in full force. 
​​
7 Comments
Didaskalos link
6/14/2016 06:48:17 pm

ELCA pastor Neumark should have one urgent concern: getting the ELCA to stop its pretense of being Lutheran and to drop the "L" from its name. Much of what Martin Luther preached is viscerally despised by today's ELCA.

Now as in Luther's day, "lives hang in the balance." But as a godly, genuine shepherd of those lives, Martin Luther had no "slow, drawn-out" deliberation about condemning a Biblically proscribed sin that, unrepented of, leads to eternal damnation: "the heinous conduct of the people of Sodom ” [is] “extraordinary, inasmuch as they departed from the natural passion and longing of the male for the female, which is implanted into nature by God, and desired what is altogether contrary to nature. Whence comes this perversity? Undoubtedly from Satan, who after people have once turned away from the fear of God, so powerfully suppresses nature that he blots out the natural desire and stirs up a desire that is contrary to nature." (Commentary on Genesis, Luther’s Works, Vol. 3, page 255)

Before it caved in the to the world, the ELCA used to have a Biblical stance on marriage and homosexuality: Resolution CB93.10.25 of the ELCA Conference of Bishops (October 1993): “We...recognize that there is basis neither in Scripture nor tradition for the establishment of an official ceremony by this church for the blessing of a homosexual relationship. We, therefore, do not approve such a ceremony as an official action of this church’s ministry.”

That was then; this is now. When your ersatz-Lutheran denomination keeps kowtowing to the world's latest demands and rewriting Scripture at any number of its church-wide conventions, there's no telling what depths you can plumb.

And as long as the ELCA continues to preach widely the no-hell, everyone-goes-to-heaven, anti-Biblical doctrine of universalism, it's in no way evangelical, as Dan has often documented. Time to drop the "E" also.

Think of the waves of relief that would wash over ELCA pastors and bishops and seminary professors to be free of those chafing, ill-fitting titles "evangelical" and "Lutheran."

Reply
Pete
6/14/2016 11:27:59 pm

I too mourn for the lost and regardless of the beliefs or lifestyles or religious affiliation or belief hate is never the answer.

While I'm saddened I read the letter from the ELCA bishop.

She cites a bible verse... But leaves out the 2nd part saying we were created male and female. Certainly this is not by accident?

Genesis 1:27New International Version (NIV)

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

Reply
Brad Parkman
6/15/2016 08:57:38 am

It sounds like ELCA pastors are using talking points from the Obama administration, which wants to portray the Orlando massacre as the act of a lone wolf who hated gays. Never mind that Omar Mateen was a Muslim, and that on the day of the attack he posted online "Taste the ISIS vengeance," and that he pledged allegiance to ISIS in his 911 call to the police. Never mind that ISIS claims responsibility for the attack, and that ISIS Radio called Mateen "a soldier of the caliphate in America." Never mind that Mateen had cased Disney World as a possible target before deciding on the Pulse Nightclub.

And above all, ignore the fact that the Koran prescribes death for all non-Muslims:
(Koran 4:50) "O ye to whom the Scriptures have been given! believe in what we have sent down confirmatory of the Scripture which is in your hands, ere we efface your features, and twist your head round backward, or curse you as we cursed the Sabbath-breakers: and the command of God was carried into effect."
(4:89) "They desire that ye should be infidels as they are infidels, and that ye should be alike. Take therefore none of them for friends, till they have fled their homes for the cause of God. If they turn back, then seize them, and slay them wherever ye find them; but take none of them as friends or helpers."
(5:33) "Those who wage war against God and His Messenger [i.e., Mohammed] and strive to spread corruption in the land should be punished by death, crucifixion, the amputation of an alternate hand and foot, or banishment from the land."
(8:12-13) "Thy Lord spake unto the angels, 'I will be with you: therefore stablish ye the faithful. I will cast a dread into the hearts of the infidels.' Strike off their heads then, and strike off from them every finger-tip. This, because they have opposed God and His Apostle."
(8:39-40) "Say to the infidels: If they desist from their unbelief, what is now past shall be forgiven them; but if they return to it, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's."
(9:5) "When the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush: but if they shall convert, and observe prayer, and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way."
(9:29) "Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in God, or in the last day, and who forbid not that which God and His Apostle [i.e., Mohammed] have forbidden, and who profess not the profession of the truth, until they pay tribute out of hand, and they be humbled."
(9:124) "Believers! wage war against such of the infidels as are your neighbors, and let them find you rigorous."
(47:37) "Be not fainthearted then; and invite not the infidels to peace when ye have the upper hand."

The Koran even prescribes death for MUSLIMS who speak against Mohammed:
(33:36, 60-61) "When God and His Messenger have decided on a matter that concerns them, it is not fitting for any believing man or woman to claim freedom of choice in that matter: whoever disobeys God and His Messenger is far astray.... If the hypocrites, the sick at heart, and those who spread lies in the city do not desist, We shall rouse you, Prophet, against them, and then they will only be your neighbors in this city for a short while. They will be rejected. Wherever they are found, they will be arrested and put to death. This has been God's practice with those who went before. You will find no change in God's practices."

Reply
Andrew
6/15/2016 09:50:53 am

As Nabeel Qureshi wrote on the Gospel Coalition blog:

“If you find anyone doing as Lot’s people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done” (Sunan Abu Daud 4447).

That is Islam.

And it wasn't an AR-15. It was a Sig Sauer .223. Quibble, I suppose, it's still an important fact.

Reply
Steven E Herman
6/15/2016 09:34:48 pm

what a bunch of ridiculous dribble. Biblical christians reject behavior, not people. Do you really think a Koran following jihadist is motivated by what a christian (infidel) thinks? Get a grip.

Reply
John
6/15/2016 09:40:00 pm

These ELCA propagandists hold Christians responsible for the acts of a Muslim terrorist. If the ELCA lets a Muslim terrorist get away with 50-fold murder of their LGBTQ darlings, they will let Muslims get away with anything. And blame Christians and Jews for everything.
Here's how to boycott them:
1. Let them know you are boycotting them, and why. Say it respectfully but firmly. Do not invite a discussion, for actions speak louder than words.
2. Send your boycott notice(s) to as many ELCA congregations and affiliates as you can find. Postcards work very well for this, and are cost-effective. If you or your congregation participates in Thrivent, this would also be a very appropriate addressee.
3. Keep the message simple. "Due to the ELCA's persistent defamation of Christians and Jews, I/we are boycotting all of your ELCA-sponsored activities."
4. Lutherfest season is coming up -- send those postcards to your local Thrivent chapter!

Reply
Aaron
6/17/2016 08:48:40 am

Conservative Christians believe homosexuality is a sin. Almost no Christians go so far as to propose enacting the death penalty for homosexuality according to the law of Moses [1]. The Book of Concord does not go that far: "Civil government deals with other things than the Gospel does. Civil rulers do not defend minds, but bodies and bodily things against obvious injuries. They restrain people with the sword and physical punishment in order to preserve civil justice and peace" [2]. Or again: "[The Gospel] commands that we obey present laws, whether they have been framed by heathens or by others. It commands that in this obedience we should exercise love. Carlstadt was crazy to impose on us Moses' judicial laws" [3]. And only a lunatic would condone taking the law into one's own hands. But none of this is especially relevant to the massacre in Orlando. Omar Mateen was motivated by radical Islam, not by Christianity. And the fact that he had been casing Disney World as a potential target proves that he killed his victims merely because they were infidels, not because they were homosexuals.

[1] Lev. 20:13
[2] Augsburg Confession, Article 28, Section 11. http://www.bookofconcord.org/augsburgconfession.php
[3] Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 16, Section 55 (some BC editions, section 3) http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_15_politicalorder.php

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    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.

    Give online
    by clicking the "donate" button below:

    Categories

    All
    2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly
    Abortion
    Adam And Eve
    Advocacy
    All Paths Lead To God
    Angels
    Anglican Church
    A Pastors Thoughts
    Astrology
    Bds
    Belief
    Berlin Wall
    BIPOC
    Bisexual
    Bishop
    Black-lives-matter
    Blasphemy
    Border Fence
    Camp
    Christian Nationalism
    Christmas
    Church Leaves Elca
    Church Plant
    Climate Change
    Columbus Day
    Communion
    Community Organizing
    COVID
    Covington-catholic
    Creation
    Cross Dressing
    Cursing
    Deaconness
    Decolonizelutheranism
    Divorce
    Drag
    Drag Queen
    Eappi
    Easter
    Elca
    ELCA Churchwide Assembly
    Elca College
    ELCA Conference Of Bishops
    Elca World Hunger
    Environmentalism
    Episcopal
    Equality Act
    Evil
    Evolution
    Exposing The Elca
    Feminism
    Feminist Theology
    Fracking
    Franklin Graham
    Fundamentalists
    Future
    Gay Bar
    Gay Marriage
    Gender
    Gender Neutral Language
    Gnosticism
    God
    Goddess Worship
    Gospel Of Affirmation
    Grace Luth Eau Claire
    Guns
    Heaven-on-earth
    Hell
    Herchurch
    Heresy
    Heterosexism
    Holy Spirit
    Homosexuality
    ICE
    Ilhan Omar
    Illegal Immigration
    Illustration
    Immigration
    Inclusion
    Inerrancy
    Interfaith
    Intersex
    Intolerant
    Israel
    Jesus
    John Dominic Crossan
    Jonah
    Judge Kavanaugh
    Lcmc
    Lent
    Letter
    Liberal Theology
    Liberation Theology
    Lift
    Living Lutheran
    Lutheran Church Of Hope
    Lutheran Core
    Lutheran Immigration And Refugee Sevice
    Lutheran Social Services
    LWF
    Mainline Protestant
    Mantra
    Marcus Borg
    Martin Luther
    Masterpiece Cake Shop
    Masturbation
    Media 1517
    Membership
    Methodist
    Mike Housholder
    Missionaries
    Money
    Mother God
    Naked And Unashamed
    Nakedness
    Nalc
    National Day Of Mourning
    Non-Binary
    Operation Christmas Child
    Other Religions
    Overpopulation
    Pam Rocker
    Pat Robertson
    PC(USA)
    Police
    Politics
    Polls
    Polyamorous Relationships
    Pornography
    Portico Benefit Services
    Prayer
    Premarital Sex
    Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton
    Presiding Bishop Herbert Chilstrom
    Pronouns
    Purity Rings
    Queer Eye
    Queer Theology
    Race
    Racism
    Rage
    Reform Elca
    Refugees
    Reiki
    Resurrection
    Rev Nadia Bolz Weber
    Right And Wrong
    Rob Bell
    Salvation
    Salvation Army
    Samaritan's Purse
    Sanctuary
    Satan
    Saul Alinsky
    Seminaries
    Sex
    Silencing Free Speech
    Silencing Pastors
    Sin
    Smudging
    Socialism
    Social Justice
    Spirit Guides
    Standing Rock
    Store
    Substitutionary Atonement
    Syncretism
    Synods
    Taxes
    Thanksgiving
    The Bible
    The Finger
    The Gospel
    The Lutheran
    The Tea Party
    Thrivent
    Tolerance
    Transgender
    Trump
    UCC
    Unitarian Universalist
    United Methodist Church
    United Nations
    United States Of America
    Unity
    Universalism
    Universal Salvation
    Vagina
    Video
    Virgin Birth
    Welca
    White
    White Privilege
    White Supremacists
    Wiccan
    Wordalone
    Yoga
    Youth


    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009


    RSS Feed


    Exposing the ELCA
    Exposing the ELCA is on Facebook

    Picture
    Follow Exposing the ELCA on Twitter

    ​Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. - Ephesians 5:11

Home

Share

Exposed Blog

HELP

Contact

Exposing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
​Copyright © 2021
Photo used under Creative Commons from lcm1863
  • Home
  • ELCA Exposed News
    • on The Bible
    • on Homosexuality & Sex
    • on Universalism & Hell
    • on Goddess/Mother God/Gender Neutral Lang.
    • on Israel
    • on Abortion
    • on Social Media (ELCA Wolves Blog)
    • on Radical Hospitality and Prophecy
    • on Transgenders and Drag Queens
    • on Social Justice
    • on Gospel Reductionism / Antinomianism
    • on Called to Common Mission
    • on Other Critical Issues
  • Responses to ELCA
    • The Bible vs. ELCA
    • Churches Respond
    • Pastors Respond
    • Exposed Quotes
    • People Respond
    • More Responses
    • ELCA Finances
    • Alternatives to the ELCA
  • Exposed Blog
  • Share
  • Support
  • More
    • About & Contact
    • Help and Advice on Leaving ELCA
    • Important Information
    • Church Produced Info
    • ELCA Vault
    • Readers' Comments
    • ELCA Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber
    • ELCA Colleges
    • ELCA Seminaries
    • Want to Know Jesus?
    • Exposing the ELCA Newsletters & Important Websites
    • Submit Tips