ELCA as Sanctuary Church Body

Dear Members and Friends of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod,

As you know, the triennial Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin August 5-10, 2019. On Wednesday August 7, the Assembly adopted a resolution that, among other things, declared the ELCA to be “a sanctuary church body.” This declaration has triggered a great deal of interest, debate, and criticism in social and news media, as well as among the members and friends of the ELCA across the country and this synod. Some of this has risen to a confused frenzy of questions and accusations, many of which arise from misunderstanding and, in some cases, misrepresentation of what the resolution actually says and means. With this letter, I invite you to take a deep breath with me and take some time to explore this resolution under the classic Lutheran catechetical question, “What does this mean?”

Given the sorts of misrepresentation and misinformation that have been floating around, before engaging in any discussion of this decision – or posting on social media about it – it is crucial that we all become familiar with the “original sources.” Here are some links that will assist you and your congregation to access these sources:

·      The text of the resolution itself as reported in the Assembly’s Legislative Update: https://bit.ly/33wqVcz

·      Videos of the discussion on the floor of the Assembly. You will need to use the slide bar on the bottom of the video to get to the time mark indicated (hour.minute).

o   Wed. morning – Discussion begins at 1.09: https://youtu.be/EbOyMdeAqV0

o   Wed. afternoon – Discussion starts at 1.21: https://youtu.be/a0-QMl5szYU

·      The ELCA’s Social Teaching Statement on Immigration will also be helpful in providing some of the context and history that informed this decision. Through this page you will also find links to a couple of other documents about immigration that have been adopted since this one in 1998: https://www.elca.org/en/Faith/Faith-and-Society/Social-Messages/Immigration

In this resolution, the ELCA in Assembly reaffirmed “the long-term and growing commitment of this church to migrants and refugees and to the policy questions involved.” In other words, declaring the ELCA to be a sanctuary church body is a public declaration that we will continue and deepen what we have been doing as a church for some time in support of refugees and immigrants. Partnering with agencies like Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), we will continue to assist refuges and other immigrants to find homes and communities to welcome them and assist them in establishing a flourishing life in this country. The ELCA will also continue to accompany and advocate for immigrants who are seeking asylum and do what we can to see that undocumented immigrants are aware of, understand, and live into their rights under US law. This sort of ministry is expressed most clearly through AMMPARO, Accompanying Migrant Minors with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities.

This resolution also “recognizes that the ELCA in congregations, synods and the churchwide organization are already taking the actions recommended by this memorial” and requests “that appropriate staff” from various agencies and ministries “review the existing strategies and practices by the five current sanctuary synods and develop a plan for additional tools that provide for education and discernment around sanctuary.” Note the verbs used here: recognize, request, review, provide. Note well: There is no requirement that any particular synod, congregation, or person provide sanctuary or engage in advocacy or other ministry with or on behalf of refugees or other immigrants. In other words, the Churchwide Assembly’s declaration that the ELCA is a sanctuary denomination binds only the ELCA Churchwide Organization; it does not bind congregations, synods, or other organizations.

The ELCA and its leadership, including yours truly, support the work that some among us engage with and on behalf of refugees and other immigrants. We are committed to providing resources in support of that ministry. At the same time we do not require that others among our number to engage such ministry, advocacy, and action. We are also committed to “love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor” in the name of Jesus across our differences in perspective and action in this and other concerns [Romans 12:10].

Please note: The Churchwide Assembly did not call for any illegal actions, all actions mentioned by the Churchwide Assembly are legal. Whether any person or organization chooses to engage in civil disobedience (and therefore accept the consequences) is up to them. Nevertheless, one panelist in one of the news reports that I saw misguidedly proclaimed that the ELCA is violating both federal law and the Word of God in declaring itself a sanctuary church body. To make his point he quoted Romans 13:1ff: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” Of course, the Word of God also says, in many places, that we are called to welcome, accompany, advocate for, and protect those who come from other places to live among us:

 “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.” [Exodus 23:9]

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” [Matthew 25:35]

“The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” [Leviticus 19:34]

“Do no wrong to the resident alien.” [Jeremiah 22:3]

Ministries of welcome, advocacy, accompaniment, and protection for refugees and other immigrants are rooted in God’s Word and enlivened by the Spirit of Jesus. Freed in Christ crucified and risen, we are sent to love our neighbors as Jesus has loved us. We disagree with one another about how that love is expressed in the context of a dysfunctional immigration system and in light of the vulnerability of many refugees and immigrants among us. We also disagree with one another about whether, how, and when to resolve the tension between the call to “be subject to governing authorities” and the call to invite the stranger in and to “do no wrong to the resident alien.”

Nevertheless, the call to love the neighbor is so central to our faith that each of us in our local contexts are called to figure out how God is calling us to embody this love as individuals and as communities of faith and witness. We engage this discernment in deep and honest discussion, debate, prayer, study, and discernment with our siblings across the community, the synod, and the church. We do so centered in Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the life of the world. In the end, as one bishop has put it, “For us, welcoming people is first and foremost a matter of faith which impacts how we live out all our vocations in God's world, including our political life.”

Dear people of God, I invite you to take a moment to breathe deeply of the presence of God in this and so many other significant and challenging situations. Then, gather with others in whatever ways are most appropriate in your context to study and discuss these resources, dwell in scripture together, pray with and for one another with openness to the movement of the Spirit in your life together, and to seek wisdom about how you as individuals and as a community might grow, deepen, and expand your love of your neighbors, whoever they are. And, along the way, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” [1 John 4:7]

Peace be with you,

Rev. Dr. William O. Gafkjen, Bishop

Kristallnacht 80 Years Later

Kristallnacht Observance 2018, November 6, 2018

University of Louisville Interfaith Center

Bishop Bill Gafkjen, Indiana-Kentucky Synod, ELCA

On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kristallnacht

Led by ELCA pastor Austin Newberry and Hillel Director Elana Levitz, Episcopal LutheranCampus Ministry and Hillel, the Jewish Campus Ministry, at the University of Louisville convened a gathering of students, faculty, and community folk at the university’s Interfaith Center on November 6, 2018 in observance of the 80^th anniversary of this terrible atrocity. Speakers included Fred Whittaker, a science and social studies middle school teacher at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School and dedicated Holocaust educator, Fred Gross, Holocaust survivor and author of "One Step Ahead of Hitler: A Jewish Child's Journey Through France," students from St. Francis School, and Lauren Kasden, who sang a part of the Kaddish with us. I was honored to speak near the end of the event. This is what I said:

Thank you, Austin. Thank you, Elana. Thank you both for creating this holy space. Thank you to the two Freds and Lauren and students from St. Francis for filling this holy space this important evening. And thank you, all of you, who are here this evening. It's important that you are here. I believe that a Spirit bigger than all of us has drawn us here this night.

In April of 1994, the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – the national governing body, if you will, of the brand of Lutheranism of which I am a part – adopted a statement called the “Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Jewish Community.” I want to read some portions of that declaration.

​In the long history of Christianity, there exists no more tragic development than the treatment accorded the Jewish people on the part of Christian believers. Very few Christian communities of faith were able to escape the contagion of anti-Judaism and its modern successor, anti-Semitism. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America feel a special burden in this regard because of certain elements in the legacy of the Reformer Martin Luther, and the catastrophes including the Holocaust of the 20th century, suffered by Jews in places where the Lutheran churches were strongly represented.

There's a paragraph explaining why we continue to honor Martin Luther in some ways. And then, there is this paragraph:

In the spirit of truth-telling, we who bear his name and heritage must, with pain, acknowledge Luther's anti-Judaic diatribes and the violent recommendations of his later writings against the Jews. As did many of Luther's own companions in the 16th century, we reject this violent invective. And yet more do we express our deep and abiding sorrow over its tragic effects on subsequent generations. We particularly deplore the appropriation of Luther's words by modern anti-Semites for the teaching of hatred toward Judaism or toward the Jewish people in our day.

Grieving the complicity of our own tradition within this history of hatred, moreover we express our urgent desire to live out or faith in Jesus Christ with love and respect for the Jewish people. We recognize that anti-Semitism is a contradiction and an affront to the Gospel, a violation of our hope and calling. And we pledge this church to oppose the deadly working of such bigotry, both within our own circles and in the society around us. Finally, we pray for the continued blessing of the Blessed One upon the increasing cooperation and understanding between Lutheran Christians and the Jewish community.

​In 1994, twenty-four years ago, I was serving as Lutheran Campus Pastor at Penn State University. We had email then, just barely. When this message arrived in my inbox that spring, I printed it off and walked twenty steps down the hallway at Eisenhower Chapel at Penn State University and knocked on the door of my colleague and friend Tuvia Abramson, who was then the Director of Hillel. I knelt before him and I read this statement to him. Tuvia embraced me and we wept.

That terrible atrocity eighty years ago...that quiet moment when two leaders embraced one another in quiet repentance and grace on the campus of Penn State twenty-four years ago…the death-dealing act of terror on the Jewish community just over a week ago...place names like Pittsburgh and Charlottesville, Orlando and Jeffersontown….this moment, right here, this particular night in the life of this nation…even Scripture itself across traditions…all these converge to call us, to compel us, to be active participants in God's own mission to heal the torn fabric of human community.

It starts in our own hearts and moves from there…into our own families…our neighborhoods…our churches and synagogues and mosques…our communities…our nation and our world. But it begins in each of our own hearts, as we live with humility and solidarity and advocacy.

Humility, to me, means standing under or below. It's kneeling before each other, admitting our own complicity, our own silence, and seeking forgiveness and reconciliation. Standing below one another, not over one another, in humility.

Solidarity: standing alongside another, standing with one another. As Fred Gross suggested, solidarity means getting to know one another for who we are. It’s rejecting and overcoming stereotypes…standing together against fear…honoring one another for who we are and getting to know each other for who God has made us to be. Standing alongside one another.

​And advocacy: standing for one another, speaking for one another. Tweeting opposition when the bad stuff happens, yes, but advocacy is more. It’s stepping out in every way that we can – with our voices and with our bodies – to stand against the wave of violence and hatred that is upon us. Standing for one another.

​Dear sisters and brothers, this is a holy moment. Across our traditions we are called to humility, solidarity, and advocacy. As we do, wonder of wonders and by the grace of God, together we become means by which the Holy One will knit together again the torn community of this world. There is no more holy task. And I'm grateful to be in it with you.

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Declaration of ELCA to Jewish Community

The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on April 18, 1994, adopted the following document as a statement on Lutheran-Jewish relations:

In the long history of Christianity there exists no more tragic development than the treatment accorded the Jewish people on the part of Christian believers. Very few Christian communities of faith were able to escape the contagion of anti-Judaism and its modern successor, anti-Semitism. Lutherans belonging to the Lutheran World Federation and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America feel a special burden in this regard because of certain elements in the legacy of the reformer Martin Luther and the catastrophes, including the Holocaust of the twentieth century, suffered by Jews in places where the Lutheran churches were strongly represented.

The Lutheran communion of faith is linked by name and heritage to the memory of Martin Luther, teacher and reformer. Honoring his name in our own, we recall his bold stand for truth, his earthy and sublime words of wisdom, and above all his witness to God's saving Word. Luther proclaimed a gospel for people as we really are, bidding us to trust a grace sufficient to reach our deepest shames and address the most tragic truths.

In the spirit of that truth-telling, we who bear his name and heritage must with pain acknowledge also Luther's anti-Judaic diatribes and the violent recommendations of his later writings against the Jews. As did many of Luther's own companions in the sixteenth century, we reject this violent invective, and yet more do we express our deep and abiding sorrow over its tragic effects on subsequent generations. In concert with the Lutheran World Federation, we particularly deplore the appropriation of Luther's words by modern anti-Semites for the teaching of hatred toward Judaism or toward the Jewish people in our day.

Grieving the complicity of our own tradition within this history of hatred, moreover, we express our urgent desire to live out our faith in Jesus Christ with love and respect for the Jewish people. We recognize in anti-Semitism a contradiction and an affront to the Gospel, a violation of our hope and calling, and we pledge this church to oppose the deadly working of such bigotry, both within our own circles and in the society around us. Finally, we pray for the continued blessing of the Blessed One upon the increasing cooperation and understanding between Lutheran Christians and the Jewish community.