In the aftermath of the horrific slaughter of schoolchildren at Sandy Hook in Newtown, Connecticut, a few men of the cloth decided to put their 
theological differences aside and hold an Interfaith service in honor of the victims. One of the participants in the prayer event was Lutheran pastor Rob Morris, who had lost a member of his congregation in the massacre.
One would imagine that this service — designed to comfort victims and show unity — would have universal support among the faithful.
Not so.
Incredibly, Morris was forced to apologize today after receiving withering criticism from members of his ultra-conservative denomination, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. This is a denomination known for its radical positions on social and doctrinal issues, and is far to the right of the more mainstream, and larger, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. According to an article by Sharon Otterman in the New York Times:
The Rev. Matthew C. Harrison, president of the Missouri Synod, called on Mr. Morris to apologize, which he did.
“There is sometimes a real tension between wanting to bear witness to Christ and at the same time avoiding situations which may give the impression that our differences with respect to who God is, who Jesus is, how he deals with us and how we get to Heaven, really don’t matter in the end,” Mr. Harrison wrote in an open letter on the Web.
Because it was not Mr. Morris’s intention to give the impression that the other faiths were equally valid, Mr. Harrison called on Lutherans upset by what had happened to accept Mr. Morris’s apology and support him and his congregation “especially in providing funding for Christ the King as it continues to care for victims,” he wrote in his letter.
Here is a bit from Morris’ forced apology:
”I believed my participation to be, not an act of joint worship, but an act of community chaplaincy,” he wrote. “To those who believe that I have endorsed false teaching, I assure you that was not my intent, and I give you my unreserved apologies.”
Such obnoxious, exclusionary, intolerant, and insulting behavior towards other religions (and many other people) is not unique to this denomination:
The Newtown reprimand was not the first time a pastor from the Missouri Synod has been chastised for taking part in an interfaith service after a national tragedy. In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Rev. David H. Benke, the pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Brooklyn and the equivalent of a bishop in the church hierarchy, was suspended from ministry for taking part in a huge interfaith prayer service held at Yankee Stadium.
Mr. Benke had broken the First Commandment — “I am the Lord thy God” — by worshiping with “pagans,” including Muslim, Sikh and Hindu clergy members, the Rev. Wallace Schulz, a senior official of the church, said then. Mr. Benke refused to apologize, and was cleared by a church panel in 2003 and permitted to return to ministry.
You have got to be kidding me. What a peculiar and petty God these people pray to at the Missouri Synod. They are selling a version of God who allowed the slaughter of innocent schoolchildren by a deranged gunman and let a plane hit the twin towers, forcing many to jump to their death. Yet, this puny version of God is presumably upset because a few of his preachers decided to comfort people after such heinous tragedies.
This is what Christianity looks like when even the pretense of “love” is stripped away in the name of hardcore ideology. Is it any wonder that people are leaving such strident denominations in increasing numbers?
* Photo, Shannon Hicks/Newtown Bee
Maybe it’s just me, but this surely sounds like being trundled of to reeducation camps in Cambodia or China. Who knew that o e of the many names of god is Mao Tse Tung?
If I were this minister, I’d find a new denomination, pronto.
Jesus preatched The gospel of God’s Kingdom, the freedom and power of His unconditional love. Jesus tought, Love God with all your heart and love ALL your neighbors as your self. This is the truth that sets us free. Jesus took legalism away and established the law of unconditional love. So many seam to need to go back to enforcing laws. God isn’t week. He isn’t threatened by world conditions. His love is more powerful.
Religion – ya gotta love it!
This is what typically passes for reasoning amongst all the Abrahamic faiths.
Fortunately it’s not typical. The vast majority of Christians, Jews and even the few Muslims I know, don’t even come close to such rigid and hateful attitudes. I agree with Ben, it’s high time for that minister to find a congregation of real people instead the Borg.
Wow. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is the same bunch of self-righteous religious bigots as when I bailed 40 years ago. What on earth is wrong with this minister praying at a prayer vigil for victims of a massacre such as that at Sandy Hook? I thought Jesus taught love and inclusion…at least that is what I learned in Sunday School as a child. Guess that only applies if you are LCMS.
Wayne, you are spot-on in describing the leadership of the LCMS as “pathetic”.
There was a forced church union in Prussia long ago that went very badly. It involved what is now the Missouri Synod Lutherans, and since then, they have been allergic to participating in any kind of joint religious activity with other religious groups, even other Lutherans. Why? You might get halfway through some sort of otherwise praiseworthy event and find that your principles or beliefs are being compromised or that you have stepped on someone else’s theological toes. It’s easier just not to participate, and then there’s no controversy–and they aren’t the only religious group with that policy.
The problem here is the fact that the service combined several different religious groups, not why the service was being held.
I do not like the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod one bit, but I don’t have any sympathy at all for this guy either. He knew the rules, he knew the reason for the rules, he broke the rules, he had alternatives that would not have broken the rules, and all they asked of him was an apology. Seems like a slap on the wrist to me.
What a load of crap. They stood next to each other and prayed. Each one to their own gods. That’s it. There were no other rituals involved. Nothing to be confused about, like different opinions about the eucharist (which an issue between Protestants and Catholics). And there is no telepathic cross-talk.
You are quite right, but you are overlooking the fact that this guy broke the rules he agreed to obey at his ordination.
There’s a woman in my church who manages to make little anti-abortion speeches, which everyone politely endures, because they are pro-choice and believe that politics categorically does not belongs in church even if they agree with it. They don’t like it when people break the rule, and the enforce it with peer pressure.
In a retirement home nearby, some lady taught a “Bible study” that was really a diatribe against gay marriage to a group of people in the 80-102 age range. A few days later, they told me that it was hard to endure, because they were in favor of gay marriage and they didn’t think Christianity has anything to do with sex. They will spend hours talking to me about gay marriage (they are for it) or politics (they are liberal), but their unspoken rule is that these things do not belong in a church service or a Bible study. They enforce it by giving the offender the silent treatment.
There are unspoken rules of civil behavior, and there are ordination vows, which are much more serious. This guy knew he did not have personal discretion yet he violated his vows anyway. This is not what we call integrity.
Hate to break it to these Christians, but the so-called “pagan” Muslims worship only one God, which has no image, while Christians worship a trinitarian deity that can be painted on walls.
There was a debate about religious art at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787. They decided that religious art can’t be required, but it can’t be prohibited either. If God is incarnate as a man, then it is possible to draw a picture of Him, and if you prohibit people from drawing pictures of Him, you are denying the incarnation and embracing docetism. The core teaching of Christianity is that God invaded His universe, thus sanctifying physical reality, and took on human form, thus sanctifying human beings.
Now you don’t have to agree with it to understand the rationale behind it.
The further away I get from my lifelong christianism, the loonier it looks. I can honestly say that mainline christianity and mormonism are becoming less distinguishable to me by the year.
“Rationale” implies that it is rational and logical. Which is the antithesis of religion.