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Lutheran Church of the Cross is a Canadian congregation that “affirms and celebrates human diversity in God’s creation.” Led by Lyndon Sayers and Lyle McKenzie, they are an ELCIC (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada congregation, the canuck version of the ELCA) that is populated by senior citizens, lesbians, and a host of other ragtag goatlings. We covered them after a recent sermon argued that the baby Moses’ trip in a basket on the Nile river has some queer themes, and is actually about kinship outside of heteronormative family structures, as well as a metaphor for the turbulence that trans folk...

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is one of the vilest denominations in America. Pro-homosexuality, pro-choice, and posessing a preternatural hatred for the Bible, it’s populated almost exclusively by spiritually decrepit senior citizens and virtue-twerking LGBTQ twenty-somethings. Less than 1% of the congregants in the denomination are saved, as you can only submit to a satanic pastor for so long without getting a little demonic yourself. We’ve written about them before, in Lutheran Pastor Promotes Hookups, Polyamory, and Premarital Sex , ELCA Leader in a Polyamorous/’Ethically Non-Monogamous’ Relationship, the time where After Annual Meeting, Lutheran Leadership+ Pastors Celebrate in...

Last Sunday, former head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Mark Hanson preached a sermon at Elk River Lutheran Church in Elk River, Minnesota, where he went off on Jesus, describing him as mean, cruel, troubling, an advocate of Nimbyism (Not in My Backyard) and quite frankly, even a little racist. It’s no big surprise, as the (ELCA) is functionally one of the most heretical and demonic denominations in America. It has denigrated to one massive pen for goats, run by spiritual criminals and hirelings, with barely a sheep to be found anywhere. From Planned Parenthood Logo on...

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) top bishop has formally apologized on behalf of the denomination to a delegation from a Spanish-speaking “Latine” congregation whose pastor was abruptly fired last year by a transgender bishop. “This is an opportunity to remind ourselves of all of the anti-racist commitments and apologies we have made as a church and to offer a public recommitment to become an anti-racist church,” Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton told voting members at the denomination’s Churchwide Assembly in Columbus, Ohio. The August 8-12 Assembly included a series of apologies for systemic racism as well as for mistreatment...

On April 18, 1521, Martin Luther was on trial and said “Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me”. At the risk of his life, he was standing for the truth of Ephesians 2:8-9, that we are saved by God’s grace alone and not by our good works. What would Luther say if he could see today's Protestant churches? I believe he would cry out against “grace abuse.” Grace abuse says “Because we are saved by grace alone, we can live like the devil.” Luther would say that nothing could be further from the truth. Luther would...

Augsburg Peace Prize awarded to Bishop Bedford-Strohm and Cardinal MarxLWI) - A strong sign for Christian ecumenism: the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, and the Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx were awarded the 2020 Augsburg Peace Prize for their “unconditional will to live together in peace”. On 11 March 2017, the then President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Reinhard Cardinal Marx, and the Chairperson of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD), Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, jointly presided over a service of repentance and reconciliation in Hildesheim, Germany. The painful divisions between the two separated...

In 2017, we will witness the 500th anniversary of one of the most important, influential and regrettable events in Church history: the Protestant Reformation, or the Protestant Rebellion, as some prefer to call it. Indeed, the latter term would suit me better, too. But, being German, I am used to the former expression and should I ever refer to said event as die protestantische Rebellion, people would think me some sort of radical. On that thought, perhaps it is worth noting that rebels are often quite radical themselves, which is one thing we can definitely say of the so-called "Reformers"....

While Joe Carter is yet again telling me what I should do, this time how to think about October 31st, Protestants (and others) in Hillsdale will be observing Reformation Day with a book talk by (all about) me on Calvinism. What follows is an excerpt: Calvinism (Why not Lutheranism?) One of the stranger features of religion in the United States is the level of comfort that Americans seem to have with Calvinism even though it is a version of Christianity that many, along with H. L. Mencken, place in their “cabinet of horrors” – the Baltimore journalist put it on...

Since shortly after its formation in 1988 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been fixated on deviant sexual behavior, culminating in the endorsement of homosexual pastors in 2009, homosexual “marriage” in 2011, and the election last month of their first homosexual bishop. Dr. James Nestingen, a highly respected scholar and retired ELCA seminary professor, recently concluded that promoting acceptance of deviant sexual behavior has actually replaced the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the primary mission and message of the ELCA. Those within the ELCA demanding these radical changes asserted it is necessary for the ELCA’s very survival. Supposedly, they...

The Mexican countryside is sunny, pleasant, full of stray dogs and in each corner of Russia, you'll find decaying houses containing a samovar. But today, a nation like Mexico or Russia probably wouldn't last two months in a full out military confrontation with tiny Sweden (9.5 inhabitants). But that isn't the real point here, although it is worth pointing out how pathetic nations like Mexico and Russia really are considering the fact they have an abundance of natural resources and border to two of the largest and most successful economies on Earth (USA and the EU). America is presently being...

On Private Confession and Absolution Confession has not been abolished in our churches. For it is not customary to administer the body of Christ except to those who have been previously examined and absolved. The people are also most diligently taught concerning faith in the word of absolution, about which there was a great silence before now….Nevertheless, confession is retained among us both because of the great benefits of absolution and because of other advantages for consciences. (Augsburg Confession XXV [Kolb/Wengert 73:1-2; 75:13]) As a consequence of the vows I took to uphold the Scriptures and the proper interpretation of...

In yet another stunning attack on freedom of religion, President Barack Obama's Justice Department asked the Supreme Court last week to give the federal government the power to tell a church who its ministers will be. The case involves a former teacher at Lutheran school, who along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is pushing a claim that a Lutheran congregation should be forced to restore her ministry position. Americans United for Separation of Church and State and American Atheists, Inc. have filed briefs siding with the Obama administration against the church. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Church...

The new bishop of a breakaway Lutheran denomination says there will be "no compromise" on the issue of gay pastors with its liberal counterpart, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.Bishop John Bradosky, 59, a native of Greensburg, said while he is open to dialogue between the North American Lutheran Church and the ELCA, there is a limit to what can be agreed to. Closing the breach between the two would "require some really major changes" on the part of the ELCA, Bradosky said. "I'm not sure there is an openness to those kinds of changes," he added. "We're certainly open...

I am a sinful human being that continually falls short of the glory of our Savior. Without my Lord and Savior, I can accomplish nothing. John 15:5-8, Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87vo2jkmJUg

Michele Bachmann Leaves Church Accused of Anti-Catholic Bias By James Oliphant July 15, 2011 Taking a page from President Obama’s political playbook, Michele Bachmann has formally left a church in Minnesota accused of holding anti-Catholic views. According to CNN, the church that Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus had attended for more than a decade, Salem Lutheran in Stillwater, Minn., granted the couple’s request to be released from their membership last month, a week after Bachmann told a national audience that she would run for the Republican presidential nomination. The Bachmanns had approached their pastor and verbally made the request...

Christian churches in Latvia have criticized a new social science school textbook that describes gay and lesbian life as a "normal aspect of sexuality." "The church isn't alone in its traditional view of the family in Latvia," said Ivars Kubcis, spokesman for the country's Evangelical Lutheran church. "Our church's attitude to homosexuality is strongly linked to our understanding of Bible teaching and the authority of God's Word; in brief, we regard homosexuality as a sin. At the same time, we welcome different kinds of sinners in our churches, who admit they are sinners." Kubcis issued the statement to ENInews today...

The torments that the two major American Lutheran churches have visited on themselves.The two largest Lutheran churches in America have now broken up: the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) in the 1960s and 1970s after a brutal conflict between insurgent conservatives and complacent liberals, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) in the last few years, as the predictable result of a flawed ecclesial foundation. While both stories are instructive in their own right, the striking thing about them is that they are compellingly connected. The refugees from the first conflict were instrumental in shaping the flawed foundation of the second....

I intended to give the poor Protestants a break, but now I read that the Lutherans are imploding or exploding, depending on your point of view. It seems that the two largest Lutheran “churches” in America have broken up, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). The first split occurred in the 1960’s and 1970’s after a long battle between resurgent conservatives and liberals, the latter including especially the faculty of Concordia Seminary. The liberal losers in the LCMS moved on to help shape the ELCA in the late 1980’s, but they crafted a...

ELCA NEWS SERVICE September 30, 2010 Lutherans' Ecumenical Journey Highlighted by Unexpected Moments 10-256-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Two Lutherans retracing Martin Luther's 1510 journey from Erfurt, Germany, to Rome report that "unexpected company or hospitality" from people they've met are among the best moments they've experienced so far. The Rev. Dr. Sarah Hinlicky Wilson and her husband, Dr. Andrew Lars Wilson, left Erfurt on foot Aug. 22 and are now in Italy. Luther was an Augustinian friar who created controversy with his 95 Theses. Luther's statement, which he nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany in...