Lamenting with Glynis Tietjen

In a recent edition of my local paper, a letter to the editor bemoaned the current state of affairs. Many mainline Christian church bodies are embracing CRT, DEI, and LGBTQAI+ ideologies. She rightly observes, in part:

“Through a recent church letter, I have learned that plans have been in the making for a while now … to restructure some of the oldest, most established religions slash churches as diverse, equitable, and inclusive, plans are to allow homosexual marriages, officiated by their clergy, and to also now accept these beliefs into their religions. The clergy themselves may even be LGBQTIA+. In other words, making homosexuality compatible with Christian teachings.”

“[T]he UMC … with the backing of the ELCA, has decided to ratify the plan … to basically align with DEI … I would wager my last dollar that Martin Luther would “not” have been behind this blasphemy.”

“I was instructed as a young child to believe the words of the Bible. … Countless Christians will not support the very churches who chose to go this route of DEI, when previously, these very churches taught them to live by the words in the Bible.”

“When will people start standing up? When will people have had enough? When will God have had enough?” Glynis Tietjen — La Grange

(“Church and Pride,” The Fayette County Record, La Grange, TX, June 14, 2024, Volume 102, Number 64, page D2)

(In response to “Church and Pride,” June 14, 2024) Miss Glynis, I can understand your frustration and disappointment. Christianity used to be more serious about those things forbidden and commanded. You’re right to suggest that DEI and LGBTQAI+ ideologies are opposed to Christianity. The accepted culture of the first quarter of the 21^st century doesn’t just encourage DEI and LGBTQAI+, it demands submission. Acceptance, the terminology of my youth, isn’t enough. The new order requires us to glorify sinfulness as a morally superior lifestyle. Movies, gaming, comics, books, music, and other products of the current mainstream culture attest to this.

I pray you’re right that a minority of folks in national church organizations, including the UMC, the UCC, The PCUSA, the Episcopal Church, and ELCA are behind the shift in official positions and activities. Regardless of who it is, the people of whom we speak are in power. They are driving the bus away from the Bible. Without the only certain witness of God’s Word, the Christian faith has no mooring. We’re certain to be lost apart from the Word of God, which entirely testifies to Jesus’s death and resurrection for sinners like us.

There’s been a bit of linguistic trickery for many years. It is as if Jesus’s love undoes the condemnation of the Law of God. It does not. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18) That’s the last day, the judgement, and the resurrection of all flesh.

Jesus forgave and forgives sin even today. The message remains the same. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10)

We are constantly being saved, reconciled by Jesus’s forgiveness. This is where the accepted culture falls down. “Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’” (John 8:10-11) The Gospel of forgiveness doesn’t grant permission to continue in sin. It also doesn’t bless those things that the Law of God condemns: adultery, homosexuality, idolatry, theft, covetousness, and the like.

The battle for the Bible started over 60 years ago. In those early days, the lines were fairly simple: is the Bible the inerrant Word of God or does it only contain the inerrant Word of God? The error we’re seeing on full display is this: if some of the bible isn’t true or isn’t normative to me, who decides that, and where does it end? Each one of us becomes the arbiter of God’s Word for ourselves. It ends when my pet sin becomes permissible. The temptation has never changed from the serpent in the garden. “… Did God actually say … you will be like God.” (Genesis 3)

All of God’s Word actually matters and He did actually say it. He has preserved His Word for us since ancient times in the original languages and in far better density and reliability than any other ancient texts. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Even those bits I don’t like, those are still God’s Word. Especially the bits that accuse me in my sin, those are still God’s Word.

In the LCMS and other orthodox Christian traditions, we have held to the Bible as the rule and norm of the Christian faith. “We believe, teach, and confess that the only rule and norm according to which all teachings, together with all teachers, should be evaluated and judged (2 Timothy 3:15-17) are the prophetic and Apostolic scriptures of the Old and New Testament alone.” (Formula of Concord, Epitome, 1576) It’s been a long and lonely road, cleaving to the Word of God. But, it’s worth it.

You’re always welcome back over on the other side of the fence, where we hold fast to the Word of God. We’d love to have you and your friends among us.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

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