The Root of All Evil

Faced with the tidal wave of congregations voting to dissolve their association with the ELCA, the leadership of the ELCA is in the process taking steps to make it more difficult for congregations to leave. Lutheran CORE reported in its November Newsletter that the ELCA church council recommended changes to the model constitution making it more difficult for a congregation to vote to leave the ELCA. This church body, so welcoming and accepting of everyone, passed a far reaching social justice agenda that disregarded God’s law, fully expecting many congregations to leave. But, more are leaving than expected, so they are now scrambling to limit the damage. Loss of revenue from congregations that leave or redirect their benevolence is starting to take a significant toll on the bureaucracy of the ELCA. Money talks, and the God fearing walk away, choosing to give to organizations true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A more reasonable organization would realize that they overreached their authority and would try to make an effort to stem the flow by rescinding some of the more offensive doctrinal shifts. Not the enlightened, all knowing leadership of the ELCA. All of us knuckle dragging traditionalists just don’t understand that the ELCA is trying to lead us to a new world order of Lutheranism, created, not in God’s image, but their own. Many that sit in positions of power, religious or governmental, fail to understand the gravity of their decisions when they choose to adopt errant doctrine that throws our foundational beliefs under the bus. Instead, they place the blame on the unenlightened masses for “misunderstanding their intent”.

Forcing congregations to navigate additional restrictive procedures in order to leave an organization that they have little in common with, makes no sense whatsoever. Would it not be better to just recognize that we differ in our core beliefs and need to go our separate ways? For the ELCA, though, that would mean losing more money. That would mean that the ELCA power structure and establishment would lose their clout in the secular world. Without the ability to misuse our benevolences that are given faithfully so that the ELCA can do God’s work, how would they be able to advocate against Israel and support Palestine, thereby tacitly enabling terrorist groups like Hamas? How would they continue to advance their far reaching progressive social justice agenda? Money is the root of all evil, and make no mistake about it, the ELCA is fighting to keep you because of the money you give.

Some of the new changes that will be submitted to the Church Wide Assembly in 2011 include;

• A congregation must hold a 30-day consultation period with its bishop before taking a first vote to leave the ELCA.

• Congregations will be required to meet any financial obligations to the ELCA before leaving.

• A congregation will be required to vote by a two-thirds majority to join a new Lutheran church body, or else it will be “conclusively presumed” to have become an independent Lutheran congregation, potentially forfeiting its property.

Micah 2:1-3, “Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. 2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance. 3 Therefore, the LORD says:“I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves.” A disaster is brewing, and the ELCA has brought it upon itself. Because they miscalculated the fallout from placing their agenda ahead of our Lord’s, they face a catastrophic loss of membership, more than likely ending the ELCA’ s reign as the largest Lutheran denomination in North America. So, the plan is to put as many roadblocks up as possible to stem the flow of congregations leaving. The leadership of the ELCA plots ways to seize the property of congregations that vote to leave. They plan to require congregations to meet any financial obligations before leaving. Will this include any budgeted benevolences for the remainder of the year that they disassociate with the ELCA?

Isaiah 5:20-21, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” These clever leaders and scholars of the ELCA have made a major misstep by overreaching their authority and underestimating the resolve of those who remain true to the Lord.