Posted on 08/13/2005 3:53:42 PM PDT by claudiustg
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America denounced the security barrier Israel is building along the West Bank, saying Saturday that Israeli policy throughout the territories has brought "extreme hardship" to Palestinians.
The statement, called "Peace Not Walls: Stand for Justice in the Holy Land," is part of an advocacy plan for Mideast peace that delegates to a churchwide assembly adopted on a 668-269 vote.
It was approved at a time of heightened tension between Protestants and Jews.
Several protestant groups have angered Jews by protesting construction of the barrier, and some Christian denominations have considered divestment from companies that profit from Israeli control of the Palestinian territories.
The new ELCA strategy doesn't mention divestment, but it urges the denomination to move toward "stewarding financial resources - both U.S. tax dollars and private funds - in ways that support the quest for a just peace in the Holy Land." Lutheran leaders insist it is not an endorsement of economic pressure against Israel.
(Excerpt) Read more at montereyherald.com ...
I agree with TopDog...your LCMS Church sounds like I am just not good enought to belong there. I am, after all, a sinner.
What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blaspemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath, of which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews. With prayer and the fear of God we must pratice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames. We dare not avenge ourselves. Vengeance a thousand times worse than we could wish them already has them by the throat. I shall give you my sincere advice:
First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly - and I myself was unaware of it - will be pardoned by God. But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in which they lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and us (as was heard above), it would be the same as if we were doing all this and even worse ourselves, as we very well know.
Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them that they are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.
Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. (remainder omitted)
Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. For they have justly forfeited the right to such an office by holding the poor Jews captive with the saying of Moses (Deuternomy 17 [:10 ff.]) in which he commands them to obey their teachers on penalty of death, although Moses clearly adds: "what they teach you in accord with the law of the Lord." Thoses villains ignore that. They wantonly employ the poor people's obedience contrary to the law of the Lord and infuse them with this poison, cursing, and blasphemy. In the same way the pope also held us captive with the declaration in Matthew 16 {:18], "You are Peter," etc, inducing us to believe all the lies and deceptions that issued from his devilish mind. He did not teach in accord with the word of God, and therefore he forfeited the righ to teach.
Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like. Let they stay at home. (...remainder omitted).
Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. The reason for such a measure is that, as said above, they have no other means of earning a livelihood than usury, and by it they have stolen and robbed from us all they possess. Such money should now be used in no other way than the following: Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. With this he could set himself up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife and children, and the maintenance of the old or feeble. For such evil gains are cursed if they are not put to use with God's blessing in a good and worthy cause.
Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen 3[:19]}. For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.
***
But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. for our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God.
*** From Luther's Works, Volume 47: The Christian in Society IV, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971). pp 268-293
I used to attend an ELCA congregation in Sudbury, MA. It amused me that while they would invite in a speaker from Chile or Nanibia or some other third world hellhole on the drop of a hat to talk about how wicked the U.S. was or nuclear freeze of AIDS or someother trendy topic, they never had anyone in to talk about the Holocaust, a situation for which Lutherans might at least accept some responsibility. There was at least one Holocaust survivor who had written a book living in Sudbury in those days.
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One thing you can be assured of....I won't be joining a Lutheran Church any time soon.
---First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.---
Most Lutherans are blissfully ignorant of these writings, and their leftist masters aren't going to enlighten them. The fight against anti-Semitism is not big on the leftist agenda. On the contrary.
In more recent times, let us not fail to mention, that many in the Lutheran church in Germany fell into the Nazi camp and that many Lutheran ministers there advanced the Nazi cause. In my entire time with the church I heard nothing about all that, but I heard plenty about Rev. Niemoeller.
Which?
It pushed me out of the Lutheran Church altogether.
I did not walk away from the Lutheran Church walked away from me.
Well, if Lutherans had Muslim serial killers lurking & plotting to butcher every single Lutheran, maybe they would not so viciously attack Israel for protecting her national borders from Islamic terrorist gangs.
Or, is the anti-Israeli=(anti-Jewish) declarations coming from today's Lutheran sect simply an extension of Martin Luther's own reprehensible Anti-Semitism?
ELCA aligns itself in opposition to God
I don't know... The Nazis were avowed atheists and Nazism was an ideology steeped in an odd ball form of paganism. It's hard to see how any serious Christian could have encouraged them.
I always found it strange that while the ELCA was happy to denounce all kinds of evils with which it and its members could have only the most tenuous connection, the Holocaust was off limits. "Don't mention the War." While many of our members came from pre-War Germany or their parents did, none ever owned slaves, worked for Pinochet, or (myself excepted) worked on nuclear weapons, and (myself excepted) damn few ever served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
---Or, is the anti-Israeli=(anti-Jewish) declarations coming from today's Lutheran sect simply an extension of Martin Luther's own reprehensible Anti-Semitism?---
I don't think it has anything to do with Martin Luther, not much that the ELCA does today has anything to do with Martin Luther. They've simply been hijacked by the left. That and the fact that they feel the Israelis are thwarting there mission work in the Palestinian territories.
Martin Luther would be proud.
I think it's more a function of their political views. At least I'd like to think so.
---I don't know... The Nazis were avowed atheists and Nazism was an ideology steeped in an odd ball form of paganism. It's hard to see how any serious Christian could have encouraged them.---
Exactly, but many Lutheran ministers there wore Nazi party emblems on their persons, giving the impression, certainly, that the Nazis were just another political party. If the minister does it, it must be all right...
But it went beyond that:
---During the Hitler regime, except for individual acts of resistance, the established churches were unable or unwilling to mount a serious challenge to the supremacy of the state. A Nazi, Ludwig Müller, was installed as the Lutheran bishop in Berlin.---
http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/facts/bl_religion.htm
From the article:
"The 4.9 million-member denomination supports sister churches and a hospital in East Jerusalem that primarily serves Palestinians. Lutherans are also deeply concerned about the dwindling numbers of Palestinian Christians, who have been fleeing violence in the territories."
So Palestinian members of the ELCA are fleeing the violent territories, but Israel cannot protect itself. What a joke.
When I learned of these writings of Martin Luther and of the collaboration of the church in Germany I felt the greatest shock and shame, which is only repeated now with these new declarations from the ELCA.
It would seem that at least good, common sense would keep them from these actions. But as you see, common sense isn't so common.
He's saying the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church has a strict and rigid code of conduct that applies to SECULAR life that will be adhered to if one wishes to be thought of as a good Lutheran.
Take the wrong job, invest your money the wrong way, or like the wrong music and you're branded.
I know exactly what he's talking about.
---The 4.9 million-member denomination supports sister churches and a hospital in East Jerusalem that primarily serves Palestinians---
The Israelis cut off their tax exempt status, or at least, one Israeli court did.
But if the Lutheran mindset becomes more prevalent, they will be.
Does walking a mile in the other guy's mocassins have any meaning at all to these people? The new American pastime is constant second guessing/complaining and getting msm coverage for doing it.
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