This January marks the end of my term as President of Lutheran CORE. I have been on the board of CORE since 2019. In that time, my own congregation held a successful vote to leave the ELCA. As a result, the fate of the ELCA will not have a direct impact on me and my congregation. Nevertheless, with the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly approaching, I wanted to share some final thoughts about the denomination of which I was a part for 35 years.
When I think about the direction of the ELCA in 2024, the words “no way to slow down” come to mind. In case you don’t recognize those words, they come from the song Locomotive Breath by the rock band Jethro Tull. It tells the story of a runaway train. The refrain says, “Old Charlie stole the handle / and the train it won’t stop going / no way to slow down.”
I have begun to wonder whether the bishops of the ELCA are less like the engineer of the train, and more like the unwilling passenger. In my interactions with bishops and various other church leaders over the years, they always seemed to have a standard response to any question about the future of the ELCA. Whenever I would share a concern, the answer I would get was, “Don’t worry. That will never happen.”
Are you concerned that “bound conscience” will be ignored, or worse yet, rescinded? “Don’t worry. That will never happen.” Are you afraid that ELCA pastors will be required to preach and teach in accord with ELCA social statements? “Don’t worry. That will never happen.” Are you afraid that the ELCA will close congregations and seize their assets to fund the church’s bureaucracy? “Don’t worry. That will never happen.”
That is what we are told. However, I also remember being told that the group “Naked and Unashamed” was a fringe group that would have no influence on the ELCA. I remember being assured that seminary faculties would not be purged of those holding to orthodox teaching on marriage, the Trinity, Christology, or salvation. I remember being assured that ELCA Advocacy would defend the right of religious organizations to adhere to traditional teachings on marriage. All of those assurances proved to be empty.
In 2019, one of the primary demands of “Naked and Unashamed” was met. The ELCA removed the requirement that unmarried rostered leaders remain chaste and abstinent from Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline. At least three seminaries have seen purges of faculty or staff take place. ELCA Advocacy declined to publicly support the freedom of religious institutions to follow their bound consciences in regard to marriage.
Why do bishops resort to such empty promises? You could argue that they are simply dishonest. That may be true in some cases. However, I think that explanation is too easy. I think it might be the case that the bishops are afraid. They are afraid to tell people the truth. First of all, they are afraid of what will happen to the ELCA if too many people decide to leave at the same time. Secondly, they are afraid of what will happen to them if they tell the truth. There is an unnamed group of people who will make life very difficult for any bishop that steps out of line.
Who are these unnamed people? I can’t say for sure. All I can say is that there is a sense in which the ELCA is a runaway locomotive that is outside of the control of its bishops. Someone else is at the throttle and the brake handle has been stolen. Even if a wreck is imminent, some think it is better to keep the passengers calm. That’s why groups like Lutheran CORE have to sound the alarm.
Dear David,
Your words touch me with penetrating wisdom and and a soulful cry. Thank you for your years of hard work and careful analysis for all who are willing to listen and LEARN. That last word is often the most difficult to embrace. Blessings.
Mike Lubas
Thank you, Mike.
Dear David,
Being a child of the 60’s I can relate. Jethro Tull’s Aqualung (1971) was a classic. The other telling lyric of the song is “…he sees his children jumping off…” (the train). Although Anderson wrote these lyrics in response to his concern about what he thought was overpopulation of the earth, they seem so very prophetic for today’s situation in the Christian Church in general. People are not as stupid as the “Church” elite think they are. I am afraid that the abandonment of the run away hierarchical institutions (that are hell bent on disobedience of God’s Word,) shall be swift and disastrous…for them.
Normal is not coming back, but Jesus is.
Bob Berry
Cody Wyoming
Amen. Maranatha!
That is certainly a charitable take, and I would bet that it is part of the story. There are always some people even in leadership roles who let events happen to them rather than trying to impact events.
However, thinking back to 2009 when the ELCA first changed its teaching on human sexuality, I would say it is more “won’t try to stop it” than “can’t stop it.” I was serving on the Board of Lutheran CORE then, and i remember being quite surprised that the handful (perhaps large handful) of synod bishops who were personally orthodox on those matters did not do or say anything. There were enough that they could have done something together – even if just a public pledge or statement of some sort.
Nothing of that sort happened, at least as I recall. About the most you could say is that a few of the synod bishops at that time didn’t really try to convince congregations to stay in the ELCA if they were voting to leave. That was something, I suppose, but hardly “profiles in courage” or even leadership. Certainly not “judging doctrine and rejecting false doctrine.”
Ultimately when you are in a position of leadership, choosing not to do anything is still a choice. Choosing not to try to impact events, when you have a role or platform in which you might impact events, is willingly allowing those events to happen. Staying silent while false teaching abounds in the church in which you have a servant leadership role is, in fact, saying that you don’t believe that teaching to be outside the bounds of sound doctrine.
You are correct, Ryan, that I am being charitable. You are also correct about the lack of courage simply to let one’s ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and one’s ‘No’ be ‘No.’ That was probably my greatest frustration as I continued in the ELCA from 2009 t0 2023. I wanted bishops and other leaders to be honest. It was clear what was happening and what the agenda was, but no one was willing to be honest about it. I would hear one thing in public and another in private. I would hear one thing when the audience favored progressive/liberationist policies, and another when the audience was made of up more traditional Lutherans.
At some point, one has to conclude that the refusal to say a clear ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ is from the evil one.
Ryan,
Looking back it was clear the ELCA’s train threw itself off the tracks and into the abyss back in 2009. We all remember the sequence; laity asked, surveys taken and ignored, a couple of national Assemblies to get a good enough result to start the more rapid flight into oblivion.
The sad bit is they have thousands of properties they can sell to keep throwing coal into their boiler, excited by their visions of new tracks and directions, but at this point it doesn’t matter how fast the wheels spin or clouds of steam they release, the plunge into emptiness can’t be stopped. I invision a rainbow stoled drag queen, head hanging out an engine window, smiling as wind blows through their hair, unable to see what’s coming at the bottom of the ravine.
You are correct, Ryan, that I am being charitable. You are also correct about the lack of courage simply to let one’s ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and one’s ‘No’ be ‘No.’ That was probably my greatest frustration as I continued in the ELCA from 2009 t0 2023. I wanted bishops and other leaders to be honest. It was clear what was happening and what the agenda was, but no one was willing to be honest about it. I would hear one thing in public and another in private. I would hear one thing when the audience favored progressive/liberationist policies, and another when the audience was made of up more traditional Lutherans.
At some point, one has to conclude that the refusal to say a clear ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ is from the evil one.
It is my belief that money and retirement funds drive a lot of the problem. The Bishops are afraid of not having anything to fall back on when it is their time to retire if they do not follow what ever is being told to them. It is reminds me of the Bishop’s letter sent out after the ELCA became a sanctuary church body. Every letter was exactly the same. After the letter was sent that was the last that was ever heard about it. Words to satisfy a political stand in word only.
Except that the press release celebrating sanctuary church status remained on the ELCA website for years. Whenever someone would tell my congregation that sanctuary church status was a minor resolution that was distorted by right wing media, we could simply ask why the press release was still the first thing one found when clicking “News” on the ELCA website.
I want to thank you for your service to God’s family and obedience to God’s Word. Being a voice to a people who have ears but refuse to hear, Being a mirror of truth to a people with eyes that refuse to see anything other than what they want to see is a daunting and draining task. Thank you for being faithful to that task.
We’ve known and been forewarned for years that there’s no slowing of the ELCA’s descent.
‘ELCA Hits Bottom” — Robert Benne
…After watching these recent proofs that the ELCA is pretty much both “in the world” and “of the world,” however, I want to write this as a warning. First, to those orthodox souls who remain in “evolving” churches. They belong to and support churches that increasingly depart from right teaching. Indeed, those churches suppress it. And it will get worse in the future. Today’s United Lutheran Seminary seminarians will be tomorrow’s pastors. Remember Timothy: “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:3) Second, I want to alert those churches that have not “evolved” to the dangers of doing just that. Once orthodoxy is breached on these issues, the process won’t stop there. It will lead to sharper denials of the apostolic faith. The revolution will eat its own children. There really is a slippery slope.
I learned from my ELCA congregation’s annual report that the 2024 Synod meeting sessions on the Commission for a Renewed ELCA “did not give much insight on what their report to churchwide in 2025 will say.” Some topics mentioned in the Commission sessions included: eliminating “Evangelical” from the name; lack of authority of bishops vis-a-vis their responsibilities; combating institutional racism; are the three expressions (parish, synod, church wide) in proper balance; and relationship to other ministries like campus, outdoor, advocacy, etc.
No great surprises here, but the fact that Synod Assembly attendees were left in the dark is not encouraging.
David,
Thank you for your witness and your faithful service. This is very insightful, and, at the same time gracious; more gracious than proponents of which you write would be. As one of the early speakers at 2009 during the two minutes each was allowed for “debate,” I tried to think what was the most important thing to say in the two minutes allowed? What I said was that those who considered themselves “moderate” who were voting for these social statements so there would be peace and things would settle were headed for disappointment, that “bound conscience” and presenting “all sides” in the explanations were put there to be “fair” and not push moderates away, and that if they thought this would be the end of it, they would sadly be wrong. Unfortunately that was understated. I didn’t think far enough to think that every outrageous idea that came along in the near future would not only be accepted, but instead imposed on everyone and that ordained preachers who are bishops would put out the unwelcome mat to even the most reserved of orthodox thinkers.
On a different note, I give thanks to God for the recent rash of college and professional athletes who have been bold with their public praise and thanks to Jesus Christ, not only to say that, but to expound on it even after the best efforts of the interviewer to derail that train of thought, or remain silent. hoping the interviewee will stop. God has a Plan and it will be done.