{"id":13663,"date":"2013-02-07T20:49:37","date_gmt":"2013-02-08T01:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=13663"},"modified":"2013-02-10T00:01:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-10T05:01:20","slug":"missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri-Synod Lutherans: Interfaith action against gay people is fine, but not prayers for slain children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Christ the King Lutheran Church is in Newtown, Conn. The church\u2019s pastor, the Rev. Robert Morris, prayed at the vigil the Sunday after the massacre at Newtown\u2019s Sandy Hook Elementary school in December.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a no-no in Christ the King\u2019s denomination, the break-away \u201cconservative\u201d Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.<\/p>\n

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod does not allow its members to participate in interfaith prayer vigils. And for the LCMS, \u201cinterfaith\u201d means anything involving anyone who is not part of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.<\/p>\n

Caleb Bell reports for RNS<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A Lutheran pastor in Newtown, Conn., has apologized after being reprimanded for participating in an interfaith vigil following the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Morris\u2019 church is a member of the Lutheran Church\u2013Missouri Synod, and the denomination\u2019s constitution prohibits ministers from participating in services with members of different faiths.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time a Missouri Synod pastor has been reprimanded for joining an interfaith prayer service; a New York pastor also was suspended for participating in an interfaith service after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chaplain Mike at Internet Monk<\/a> calls this \u201cridiculous religiosity,\u201d and quotes from the Reuters report:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Earlier this month, the president of the Lutheran Church\u2014Missouri Synod, Pastor Matthew Harrison, wrote a letter to church members saying he had requested an apology from Morris for his participation in \u201cjoint worship with other religions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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\u2019t matter in the end,\u201d Harrison wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be times in this crazy world when, for what we believe are all the right reasons, we may step over the scriptural line,\u201d he wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, OK then, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod wants to avoid any appearance of squishiness about its core beliefs that might come from joint worship or joint prayer or standing alongside members of other denominations or other faiths. It doesn\u2019t even matter if a community like Newtown or New York is united in grief from a grave tragedy. What matters most is that the LCMS never give the impression that it can co-operate with what are, in their view, false denominations and false religions.<\/p>\n

No co-operation. No appearance of comity and partnership. No coming together or working together in any way that might blur these essential differences.<\/p>\n

Got it?<\/p>\n

OK, that was Wednesday\u2019s<\/em> news. Here\u2019s the news from Tuesday<\/em>: \u201cMormons, other religious groups file brief in support of Prop 8<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

And who would those other groups be?<\/p>\n

Other groups whose names are on the brief are the National Association of Evangelicals, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod;<\/strong> the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America; the Romanian-American Evangelical Alliance of North America; and Truth in Action Ministries.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So praying for the victims of tragedy with other members of the community is forbidden. But interfaith coalitions are just fine when it comes to kicking LGBT people.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t hypocrisy. It\u2019s just that the people in church<\/del> charge of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod hate gays way more than they love the schoolchildren of Sandy Hook.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong> LCMS president Matthew Harrison has apologized<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As president of The Lutheran Church \u2014 Missouri Synod, I take responsibility for this debacle. I handled it poorly, multiplying the challenges. I increased the pain of a hurting community. I humbly offer my apologies to the congregation, Christ the King Lutheran Church, Newtown, Conn.; to Pastor Morris; and to the Newtown community. I also apologize to the membership of our great church body for embarrassment due to the media coverage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s a forthright, proper apology. I hope that the leaders of the LCMS, NAE, SBC, LDS, Orthodox union and\u00a0Romanian-American Evangelical Alliance are just as genuine when, someday soon, they offer their apologies for that amicus<\/em> brief against the rights of same-sex couples in California. And, yes, that day will come.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Praying for the victims of tragedy with other members of the community is forbidden. But interfaith coalitions are just fine when it comes to kicking LGBT people. This isn’t hypocrisy. It’s just that the people in charge of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod hate gays way more than they love the schoolchildren of Sandy Hook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[17,53,52],"class_list":["post-13663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-equality","tag-gay-rights","tag-homosexuality"],"yoast_head":"\nMissouri-Synod Lutherans: Interfaith action against gay people is fine, but not prayers for slain children<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Praying for the victims of tragedy with other members of the community is forbidden. But interfaith coalitions are just fine when it comes to kicking LGBT people. This isn't hypocrisy. It's just that the people in charge of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod hate gays way more than they love the schoolchildren of Sandy Hook.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missouri-Synod Lutherans: Interfaith action against gay people is fine, but not prayers for slain children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Praying for the victims of tragedy with other members of the community is forbidden. But interfaith coalitions are just fine when it comes to kicking LGBT people. This isn't hypocrisy. It's just that the people in charge of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod hate gays way more than they love the schoolchildren of Sandy Hook.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-08T01:49:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-10T05:01:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2013\/02\/LCMS-184x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/\",\"name\":\"Missouri-Synod Lutherans: Interfaith action against gay people is fine, but not prayers for slain children\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-08T01:49:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-10T05:01:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Praying for the victims of tragedy with other members of the community is forbidden. But interfaith coalitions are just fine when it comes to kicking LGBT people. This isn't hypocrisy. It's just that the people in charge of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod hate gays way more than they love the schoolchildren of Sandy Hook.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Missouri-Synod Lutherans: Interfaith action against gay people is fine, but not prayers for slain children\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Missouri-Synod Lutherans: Interfaith action against gay people is fine, but not prayers for slain children","description":"Praying for the victims of tragedy with other members of the community is forbidden. But interfaith coalitions are just fine when it comes to kicking LGBT people. This isn't hypocrisy. It's just that the people in charge of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod hate gays way more than they love the schoolchildren of Sandy Hook.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Missouri-Synod Lutherans: Interfaith action against gay people is fine, but not prayers for slain children","og_description":"Praying for the victims of tragedy with other members of the community is forbidden. But interfaith coalitions are just fine when it comes to kicking LGBT people. This isn't hypocrisy. It's just that the people in charge of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod hate gays way more than they love the schoolchildren of Sandy Hook.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2013-02-08T01:49:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-02-10T05:01:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2013\/02\/LCMS-184x300.jpg"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/","name":"Missouri-Synod Lutherans: Interfaith action against gay people is fine, but not prayers for slain children","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-02-08T01:49:37+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-10T05:01:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"Praying for the victims of tragedy with other members of the community is forbidden. But interfaith coalitions are just fine when it comes to kicking LGBT people. This isn't hypocrisy. It's just that the people in charge of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod hate gays way more than they love the schoolchildren of Sandy Hook.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/07\/missouri-synod-lutherans-interfaith-action-against-gay-people-is-fine-but-not-prayers-for-slain-children\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Missouri-Synod Lutherans: Interfaith action against gay people is fine, but not prayers for slain children"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}