Dual-Affiliation

Grace and Peace to you from Christ our Lord,

We are aware that it has been with no little interest that individuals and congregations have been following events here at First Lutheran in Shelby, Ohio pursuant to our decision to join the LCMC (Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ).  Some have cheered us on, some have expressed fears and doubts.  We are aware that some of you have even felt anger at our choice to dual affiliate with the LCMC, feeling that it  represents an unwillingness to step up to the challenge of re-directing the errant ELCA.  Far from taking any offense at that sentiment, let me state unequivocally that I both understand and empathize with your feelings.
I have no interest in writing a general epistle about this, nor have I any need to rally folks to replicate our choices, but I am willing to explain our position to you my friends.
In 2010 when the North American Lutheran Church split from the ELCA I was in between calls. I had been a church planter for the ELCA Department of Outreach and had completed a project in Cape Coral, Florida.  I had not received a new call yet and was working as manager at a social work agency to pass the time and pay the bills while I waited on the slow process in the ELCA to play itself out.  I was deeply affected on a faith level by the conflict between the liberal policies of the ELCA and those who opposed them.  To that end I attended and participated in the Coalition for Reform’s (CORE) inaugural Convocation in Fishers Indiana in 2009,  that year we began to lay out our expectations for how CORE might be a conservative voice for advocacy in the ELCA.  Our stated goal was to redirect the ELCA’s theology back to a more orthodox, or at least centrist, position.  The leadership in Fishers assured us that this would not result in the formation of a new break-away denomination, but the goal would be the reformation of the ELCA.  One year later the 2010 Convocation of CORE announced the formation of the NALC.
Many of us, myself included, felt betrayed.  We were ready to stand in the gap and work to fix that which was broken in the ELCA.  That the resources to do this would be siphoned off to create a new body, leaving those of us unwilling to give up the fight on our own, seemed unthinkable.  When I say that I understand anyone’s sentiment when they are angry at 1st Lutheran’s choice to dual affiliated to preserve our theological integrity, I hope you can see that I really do understand.  I stood in the gap, as a member of CORE for over a decade fighting the good fight….and being completely stonewalled by the leadership of the ELCA.  I did so as dozens of conservative congregations, then hundreds, left the ELCA taking with them any hope of a balanced or nuanced leadership in Chicago, or in our synods.
I watched as Rev. Theresa F. Latini was fired in 2018 from her position as President at Union Seminary, the newly formed ELCA seminary.  She was not fired because she was conservative...she is liberal.  She was not fired because she does not support LGBT rights....she does.  She was fired because once upon a time, twenty years ago, she was a conservative who did not support gay marriage.  The taint of once having been conservative was enough to oust her from leadership in the new ELCA, an ELCA that promised to support and defend the beliefs of all its members whether they were conservative or liberal. But, you probably never heard about that, you weren't supposed to.
I watched as Krish O'Mara-Vignarajah was hired as president of the important Lutheran ministry: LIRS (Lutheran Imigration and Refugee Services).  We have members that came to this country from Germany after World War Two as a result of important ministries like this.  But Krish isn’t Lutheran.  In fact she isn’t Christian.  She’s a Hindu.  But, she worked for Michelle Obama, and it was decided that when it comes to leading a major ministry in the ELCA it does not really matter what your faith is, as long as you have the right credentials.  But, you probably never heard about that, you weren’t supposed to.
I watched as Leila Ortiz, who is bishop of the ELCA Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod actually campaigned for polyamory (sexual relationships between more than two people at once) as normal and Biblical. She did so with the full support of Chicago.  But, you probably never heard about that, you weren’t supposed to.
I watched as one of our key-note speakers at our national youth assembly published videos encouraging young girls who have taken a pledge to remain virgin until marriage to send her their pledge rings so she could melt them down into an idol of a gold vagina to give to Gloria Steinem.  This would be in support of this “pastor’s” belief that premarital sex is blessed by God, and teens should feel free to experiment.  This is hardly surprising considering that this “pastor” admits in her biography Pastrix that she joined a witches coven and that:

“The goddess we spoke of never felt to me like a substitute for God but simply another aspect of the divine, like God's aunt or something. When I tell other Christians of my time with the goddess I think they expect me to characterize it as a period in my life when I was misguided and that now thankfully I have come back to both Jesus and my senses. But it's not like that. I can't imagine that the God of the universe is limited to our ideas of God. I can't imagine that God doesn't reveal Godself in countless ways outside of the simple system of Christianity.”

That is to say, she still believes in the witch’s Goddess and thus, is still a witch.  When our own Bishop in the Northeastern Ohio Sybnod was asked why a witch who advocates for premarital sex would be invited by our national leadership to speak at our National Youth Conference, he simply stated that he was sure she had been properly vetted.  But, you probably never heard about that, you weren’t supposed to.
I watched as our own National Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, gave an interview where she stated explicitly that she does not believe in Hell, or at least if it exists, that it is empty.  For those of you who don’t know, this was explicitly labeled heresy by the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD, and placed under an anathema, which is to say that those who say this are no longer considered Christian.  This has been the stance of the church for nearly a millennium and a half. But, you never probably heard about that, you weren’t supposed to.
I watched as our own Church Wide Assembly last summer passed a social statement that included a section that stated explicitly that we cannot know how salvation happens or if there is or isn’t salvation outside of the Christian faith and that furthermore, we cannot know how salvation happens for members of other religions.  When a representative spoke up and pointed out that scripture states that Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through [Him]” (John 14:6) he was silenced and told that he was embarrassing the assembly in front of their non-Christian guests.  But, you never probably heard about that, you weren’t supposed to.
I watched as our own Bishop stood in the middle of 1st Lutheran a few weeks ago and proudly proclaimed that he believed that Jesus died for the sins of, and salvation of, all the world.  That all were saved, even those who actively reject faith in Jesus Christ.  Universal salvation, regardless of faith.  But, you never probably heard about that, you weren’t supposed to.
What have people like me and my compatriots in CORE been allowed to do in the last decade?  Precious little.  In the last ten years our sixty six synods have had 660 synod assemblies.  CORE has asked to address, and have a voice at all of them.  They have been allowed to speak twice, ten years ago, and not in Ohio.  What have we done?  We have been marginalized, mocked, and disenfranchised. Should my congregation and I continue to stay and stand only in the ELCA and not dual affiliate?  We no longer see any point.  The outcome will remain the same, the ELCA will continue down the same path toward ever deeper Universalist Heresy and social controversy.  We can either go down with them, or take the available life raft to survive, and go on to build a better, faithful, and Biblical tomorrow.
I hope this explains our decision.  If you have questions, I am always available.

God Bless,
Pastor Rus Yoak.