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When I was a budding high school musician, the local Lutheran Church had an inspiring young youth pastor who sponsored a traveling youth choir.  That was back in the late 60’s, the height of the rock era, and I ended up singing, and playing bass in that rather large group.  Loads of fun, and in those days, the Lutheran Church had not yet split into Christian and Woke/Leftist factions.  They were recognizable as the spiritual inheritors of the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther
Painting: Georg Pencz
credit: fineartamerica.org

Let us pause for a bit of theological history.  The father of the Protestant Reformation was Martin Luther 1483-1546, a Catholic Monk.  The Catholic church is the oldest and the first Christian Church.  The Apostle Peter is generally acknowledged to be the first pope, though he surely would not have been known by that title and would not have accepted it.  It always surprised my students to learn Martin Luther King was named after Martin Luther, a man whose significance they knew not.

Luther, a German, was an educated man, earning a master’s degree before becoming a monk in 1505.  By 1512, he earned a doctorate in theology and because a professor of biblical studies.  In 1517, he posted his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenburg, a list of issues he had with Catholic—the word means “universal”–doctrine.  Consider Thesis 86: 

Why does not the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?

As one might imagine, that sort of thing did not endear Luther to church leadership.  Luther parted with the church on the nature of salvation and forgiveness of sins, among other issues.  By 1518, the church demanded he recant, by 1520, the Pope issued a Papal Bull demanding he recant.  Luther responded by burning it, and by 1521, he was excommunicated.

Luther translated the New Testament into German vernacular (the German language, at it was commonly spoken/written of the time).  Luther argued the Bible alone is Christian truth, and everyone can understand its message.  A shorthand way to understand the fault line between Catholicism and Protestantism is Protestants believe in the priesthood of all believers.  They can pray directly to God for forgiveness of sins.  No confession, no formal penance, no priestly hierarchy is required. Luther wasn’t alone in these beliefs, but his influence and prominence inspired many.  Consider this excerpt:

According to Luther, God viewed all humans as sinners. Luther argued that entrance to heaven was not based on a person’s worthiness. Completing good works did not attain someone salvation. Only if a person believed in God’s existence and greatness, would he or she receive God’s grace. One must have faith in God’s love. Unlike Roman Catholics who practiced seven sacraments, Lutherans endorsed only two: baptism and communion. Rather than conducting services in Latin like the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church had its ministers give sermons in the language of their congregates. In France, ministers delivered sermons in French and, in England, in English. Latin was a language that usually only the college-educated people understood. Lutherans believed that all people should have access to God’s word. Lutheranism permitted the congregation to have larger control over religious leaders. The Lutheran Church also permitted church members to play an active role in religious services, including allowing the congregation to profess their love of God through song. In essence, Lutheranism was a much more democratic religious faith than Roman Catholicism.

Lutheranism arrived in North America during the 1600s. The majority of the first Lutherans settled in New Amsterdam (modern-day New York City). In the 1700s, thousands of German Lutherans migrated to Pennsylvania. During the late 1700s and the early 1800s, these people slowly moved westward into what was first the Northwest Territory and then Ohio. Most Ohio Lutherans were German immigrants. Every Ohio community with a sizable German population had a Lutheran congregation. Cincinnati had one of the largest German communities. Ministers conducted most Lutheran services in this city in German rather than English. The Lutherans, like other religious faiths in Ohio, placed a heavy emphasis on education. The Lutherans founded Wittenberg College in 1845 and Capital College in 1850 to educate their brethren. In Ohio, Lutherans remained in the minority among the various religious faiths. Although Lutherans are one of the largest Protestant faiths in the world today, Ohio Lutherans still comprise a relatively small number, and most of these people are descendants of the original German migrants.

Thus do we see the heavier concentration of Lutheran Churches in areas of the country first settled by ethnic Germans and Scandinavians. The Lutheran Church, circa 2021, isn’t remotely what it was when I was in high school:

This is a truly disturbing event.

A Lutheran Church in Logan Square in the Chicago area hosted a drag queen prayer time for kids during their Sunday service this past week.

I’m not exaggerating in any way. A drag queen took the pulpit, spoke to the congregation, then left the pulpit and invited children to sit at his feet as he read a book about joy. A sick adaptation of the drag queen story hours libraries have been hosting the last few years.

Here’s a screenshot from the Facebook page of this “church” celebrating this event.

Some lowlights from this disgusting display:

‘I’d like to invite any children or people who would like to see a picture book that I will be showing on the iPad here who would like a closer view of that to come up and sit somewhere on the [unintelligible].’

So, lest any get this confused, this was a planned and staged event, directly aimed at children to expose them to the world of drag. [skip]

 ‘Have any of you ever seen a drag queen?’

[Children answer ‘no’]

‘This is everbody’s first time to ever see a drag queen? Well, hello, I am also a boy most of the time when I’m here, but today I [hair toss] am beautiful today.’

He then explains Joy, in this way:

‘And I decided instead of telling you, ‘this is how I want you to be joyful,’ as we prepare for this dress rehearsal, I figured I would instead put on a dress as so many who have inspired me have done. I decided to follow their example, showing that liberation from oppressive laws clears a path for joy.’

What might be the sickest part of the video is whoever is behind the camera, whatever parent or adult, laughing at all the jokes and encouraging this depraved behavior.

Then the church brags about this on Facebook.

What indeed?  Martin Luther is surely spinning like a lathe in his grave.

That this would take place in an ostensibly Christian church is, well, there really aren’t words.  What, pray tell, does this have to do with spreading the Good News, the Gospel? Isn’t that the primary business of Christian churches?

Exposing children to sexual deviance, is nothing less than “grooming,” purposefully conditioning children not only to accept deviant behavior and ideas, but to embrace it themselves.  It’s encouraging children to become mentally ill, to act out practices that will cause them, and their families enormous heartache and pain, that will not only result in cultural consequences, but in spiritual error, in sin, which one might think to be something of a concern of Christian churches.

Apparently not this particular Lutheran Church.

That this is occurring near Christmas is particularly disturbing, but not, sadly, surprising.  More and more, denominations and churchs are falling away from the Gospel, from the word of God, and becoming political activists.  Such people are not Conservative—Normal American—in their political outlook.  Normal Americans support the first Amendment.  They understand the necessity of the separation of church and state.  They know all sin, all fall short of the glory of God and need His forgiveness. That belief is commonly expressed by loving the sinner and hating the sin.  However, that does not, for a moment, mean praising the sinner for their bravery and superior intellect and non-biblical morality, their sin and encouraging children to sin in that way.

Such breakaway denominations and churches are virtually always of the D/S/C variety.  Catholicism has long struggled with “liberation theology,” Marxism, even terrorism, draped in priestly robes and warped application of scripture.  Protestants tend to embrace an American form of Marxism which manifests itself as embracing every D/S/C policy and preference: LGBTQWERTY activism and practice, socialist/Marxist economics, and the practice of lawfare, attempting to wrest church properties and wealth away from those faithful to the Gospel.  They substitute D/S/c politics for faith in God, while keeping religious trappings, which confer a sort of legitimacy and tax benefits.

The truly faithful rely on Scripture, such as:

Matthew 7:15-20— 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

And:

Matthew 18:6 – But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

It is rejection of millennia of progress, of the sacrifices, beliefs and cultural attributes of millions that have made America the beacon of individual liberty, that has brought us to our current cultural divide, and the danger of splitting our nation, just as people who think drag queens fit role models for children gleefully and self-righteously split protestant denominations.

Such people may do as they will.  The First Amendment protects them.  We, in our fallen existence, can do our best to point out their error, their sin, to encourage others to avoid that sin, to read and understand the plain language of Scripture, but Judgment in such matters is not reserved for us.