To all members of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church,
This letter is being written out of a heartfelt desire to keep our congregation informed and prevent our church from being overrun with politics.
With the Bishop’s meeting occurring in just a few days (Sunday, March 12th, after regular service), and having gone through all appropriate leadership channels, we remain convinced that the congregation deserves to see this critical information so they can draw their own conclusions.
Our Savior’s has always been a place where Christians, regardless of political persuasion, could worship in peace with their focus on God. Recently, political changes within the ELCA have led to a series of incidents which directly affect our church and can no longer be ignored.
Every member of this congregation has a right to know the following information.
Please review this letter carefully. Click the blue hyperlinks for more information, and review the last page for critical next steps.
On October 21st, 2022, 6th-9th graders from Our Savior’s attended an ELCA-sponsored youth lock-in at UNI. In attendance were youth from three ELCA synods and other partner churches.
At this event, youth from our church, including prepubescent children were:
Following the event, Pastor Cindy was informed of the incident. A small group began deeper research into the ELCA, its youth curriculum, social statements, social media campaigns, and its leadership to determine the root of the problem. The concerning results of this research are featured on the following two pages.
Research has uncovered concerning information showing the ELCA has been captured by a series of anti-Christian philosophies/ideologies which are being used to transform this denomination into a political advocacy organization. The ELCA is now overtly political.
First, in his letter to the Colossians, Paul warned the church against molding the faith to the philosophies of the world. Rather, the world was to be molded to the faith.
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” –Colossians 2:6-8
As you read through each of the attached real world examples of the ELCA’s politicization, please ask yourself:
“Where does this idea being presented by the ELCA originate from?”
A) From the Bible or Lutheran tradition
B) From the politics/philosophies of man
If the answer is “B,” then it doesn’t belong in church.
ELCA Sunday School Youth Curriculum contains political/ideological propaganda. Due to this overt politicalization of the curriculum, our own youth leadership team has been unwilling/unable to utilize ELCA curriculum materials in recent years. It is very difficult for our mostly volunteer staff to develop Sunday School curriculum from scratch. This political content doesn’t belong in Sunday School.
Does our Sunday School staff deserve access to a Christian curriculum that isn’t politicized?
Are these the types of actions/statements we want from our Christian denomination leadership?
As demonstrated at the UNI lock-in, ELCA events are being used as opportunities for propaganda and advocacy toward highly controversial and complicated gender/race ideology indoctrination.
For example: Day 3 Mass Gathering - The Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber - Throughout this video ELCA “Pastor of Public Witness” Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber denies any need for repentance, teaches Satan as optional (14:28), offers universal salvation (17:45), calls real and imagined political positions, such as immigration policy, to be white supremecist demonic activity (21:20).
Another mass gathering speaker, ELCA Pastor Tuhina Verma Rasche, organizes #DecolonizeLutheranism which features two Advent devotionals entitled “F*** This S**t” and “#ShuttheHellup.” Her blogs include themes like “The ‘American Dream’ is code to hold on to white supremacy” and “Whiteness is such a hell of a drug, white people are willing to blow up the entire f***ing world in order to maintain white supremacy.”
This type of content has led to our youth not attending the National ELCA youth gathering since 2018. Julie Anhorn and chaperone Kristi Aschenbrenner (whose family has ceased worshiping in Our Savior’s due to the politicization of the ELCA) stated that they felt very uncomfortable with the topics being presented to our youth and felt that there was “an agenda to normalize making gender confusing for kids.”
Here are some presentation titles featured on the agenda for the upcoming 2023 ELCA Youth Ministry event:
Should we be able to send our youth to church events without fear of political indoctrination?
The ELCA puts out a variety of social statements to help their churches address current events/issues. These documents are biased and based largely on the philosophies of men, rather than the Bible or Lutheran tradition.
Does this look like the work of a Christian denomination, or a political advocacy group?
Regardless of your personal political positions held outside the church, as Christians we should all agree that the agenda being pushed by the ELCA does not originate within scripture or Lutheran tradition, or at the very least… that this level of political activism has no place in church.
The ELCA no longer reflects the simple Christian faith held by the members of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church. If we don’t take a stand today, Our Savior’s will continue to experience a rapid loss of God-fearing Bible-believing families like the Rob and Tara Stangel family who recently wrote to announce their departure for this exact reason.
Since 2009, more than 700 churches and 500,000 members have left the ELCA including many from Iowa, largely due to this politicization. In fact, the ELCA’s own Office of Planning and Research estimates the ELCA will lose more than 95% of its membership in the next 30 years. Although it might feel like Our Savior’s and the ELCA have always been together, in reality our Church was originally part of the American Lutheran Church (ALC). We only joined the ELCA through a denominational merger in 1988. We started without the ELCA, and can move forward confidently without the ELCA.
Many of the churches leaving the ELCA have joined the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) which was formed in part due to the political excesses by the ELCA. The NALC is “Christ Centered, Mission Driven, Congregationally Focused and Traditionally Grounded.” The NALC provides many of the same benefits as the ELCA (formalized pastor call processes, youth curriculum, meaningful giving opportunities, events, etc.) without the problematic politicization of the ELCA.
Basically, the NALC operates like the ELCA of 20 years ago, the same priorities/positions, great charitable causes, strong pastor call-process, but without all the political advocacy. There are NALC congregations near Our Savior’s: First Lutheran in St. Ansgar and Emmanuel Lutheran in Grafton.
The NALC has offered to provide us with guidance and professional staff dedicated to helping us ensure a transition that is as seamless as possible. Based on early estimates, our upcoming pastor call process would actually be shorter with the NALC.
Do we want to continue to be the Our Savior’s Lutheran Church where Christians, regardless of political persuasion, can worship in peace? Or do we want a church that puts politics and philosophies ‘of the world’ over the Christian faith? The ELCA has made its choice. Now it’s time to make ours.
If you want to ensure the church you love isn’t politicized and lost forever, we ask you to do three things today:
United in Christ,