Pro-Homosexuality ELCA Is Not Lutheran, and Not Christian

“If you hear of a brand or sect of Lutherans who are embracing wickedness and evil, look for the ELCA label.” — Mike Hein 

By Mike Hein, Christian Civic League of Maine

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s (ELCA) recent affirmation of its acceptance of homosexuality in its clergy is beyond unfortunate.  It’s beyond wrong. 

It is apostasy, pure and simple.  And it isn’t appreciated by this Bible-believing Lutheran.

I am a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), and a former member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).  As such, I can state with certainty that what the ELCA has been doing for years now, and what it continues to do, is not in the tradition of Martin Luther, the great Christian Reformer.

ELCA members are not in fellowship with the Missouri Synod or Wisconsin Synod Lutherans, and ELCA members are not recognized as Lutherans by either of these two more conservative, Bible-based denominations.  Nor are we in fellowship with Druids, Wiccans, New Age spiritualists, or any other non-Christian belief.  In reality, ELCA members are seen as little more than pagan deists by true Lutherans.

The ELCA denomination is the cross that real Lutherans have to bear.  Whenever the ELCA makes another foray into Truth-hating, Christ-hating apostasy, invariably the headline reads, “Lutherans embrace homosexuality,” or “Lutherans tolerant of abortion,” or “Lutherans defile Christ,” or some such heresy.  Often, the media make no distinction between Lutheran denominations, and often, no mention of conservative Lutheran denominations is written or heard.

So let me be clear: if you hear of a brand or sect of Lutherans who are embracing wickedness and evil, look for the ELCA label.  Understand that not even God-fearing Christians who call themselves Lutherans recognize the ELCA as Lutheran.  Most would not recognize the ELCA as a Christian denomination.  They’re closer to the Unitarian Universalists than anything else. 

Martin Luther himself would try to cast out the demons from ELCA members if he were alive today and saw these ELCA abominations perpetrated in his name.  Go into your local ELCA church this week and ask to see a Bible (any version), I dare you.  You’ll most likely get a confused look on the face of the curator or pastor, like you are the one that doesn’t “get it.” 

In true Lutheran circles, there are rumors of God-fearing, Bible-believing Christians left in the ELCA churches, but I don’t believe it.  How could a true believer stay in a church that every few years tries to outdo itself in heresy and apostasy? 

Before long, the ELCA will be among a small handful of churches that blesses homosexual ‘marriages’ and embraces active homosexuals in its clergy.  Already the ELCA has taken the stand of ‘looking the other way’ on such foundational issues.  Hasn’t recent history shown that when this is allowed (for example, the Roman Catholic clergy homosexual sex abuse scandals) that evil things happen?
   
The ELCA may do us Lutherans a favor and abandon the farce of calling themselves Lutherans altogether.  On that day, we Lutherans of the Missouri and Wisconsin Synods can put down our cross.  Until then, we will continue to be yoked with these ELCA unbelievers, and ours will be a constant struggle of education about who and what defines a Lutheran.

Mike Hein is a member of the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection (LCMS) in Waterville, Maine, and is the Administrator of the Christian Civic League of Maine.