A Bit More About That Thing Down the Street

[walkitout]

If you had asked me a few hours ago, I would have sworn the Lutheran church down the street must be from the more liberal denominations. And I would have been wrong. This really helps explain an interaction I had in front of the grocery store with a couple of them doing outreach a year or so ago: That Thing is actually Missouri Synod. You know, the people who made one of their pastors apologize for participating in an interfaith memorial service after Sandy Hook:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/nyregion/lutheran-pastor-explains-role-in-sandy-hook-interfaith-service.html

He had to do this because the _membership_ of the synod was so incensed with him. This isn't a hierarchy imposing something -- it's a groundswell of anti-ecumenism on a par with the behavior of JWs and other cults.

LCMS still thinks homosexuality is a sin (heck, they're still really opposed to divorce) and that their membership should be giving public witness against homosexuality and legal recognition of same-sex marriage (their words!).

Bleah.

I could go on, but I'm not sure I'm ever going to get the smell off of me as it is. No, T. is not allowed to go there.

Comments

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember asking my mother (who was raised Lutheran) once why she didn't consider going to the Lutheran church right around the corner from us. (On the rare occasions we went to church, it was at the Episcopal cathedral.) Got an earful about the Missouri Synod.

oh to be able to hear what she had to say then, now

[walkitout]

There are so many things I remember people talking about
when I was younger that I just didn't understand and so
did not retain. While in many cases (probably not this one)
I wouldn't agree with what they had to say if I heard it as
an adult, it would be so amazing to have a perfect memory of
it to review.

Re: oh to be able to hear what she had to say then, now

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Yeah, tell me about it. Thing is, she was raised in a very small town and her own church was doubtless quite conservative in its way, mirroring the townspeople -- so if the Missouri Synod was notably worse, it's because they really, really wanted to be.

I think, but am not sure, that the churches she and her family went to in their various home towns are all just ELCA now.

Anyway, I grew up with a rather romanticized view of Lutheranism, which disappeared when I had occasion to read more about Luther for history class. My mother was all, oh, didn't you know what an old basket he was? or something to that effect. (I hope she said basket. It was a word of hers. I didn't work out for years that it was a euphemism for bastard.)