1. The world is very evil, The times are waxing late;

Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate;

The Judge that comes in mercy, The Judge that comes with might,

To terminate the evil, to diadem the right.

2. Arise, arise, good Christian, Let right to wrong succeed;

Let penitential sorrow To heav'nly gladness lead,

To light that hath no evening, That knows no moon nor sun,

The light so new and golden, The light that is but one.

3. O home of fadeless splendor, Of flow'rs that bear no thorn,

Where they shall dwell as children Who here as exiles mourn.

Midst pow'r that knows no limit, Where knowledge has no bound,

The beatific vision Shall glad the saints around.

4. Strive, man, to win that glory; Toil, man, to gain that light;

Send hope before to grasp it Till hope be lost in sight.

Exult, O dust and ashes, The Lord shall be thy part;

His only, His forever, Thou shalt be and thou art.

5. O sweet and blessed country, The home of God's elect!

O sweet and blessed country That eager hearts expect!

Jesus, in mercy bring us To that dear land of rest,

Who art, with God the Father And Spirit, ever blest. - The Lutheran Hymnal 605

I have often thought that example 1a on the list of tragic omissions from the hymn corpus of the Lutheran Service Book is TLH #605 (#260 being example 1b). It is kind of there with LSB 513, but does not come anywhere near packing the same punch. We are to sing the Psalter and the strong hymns of the Church with confidence in the face of the evil of this world, with the eyes of faith looking toward the dear land of rest where Jesus will bring us.

Stanza 2 begins Arise, Arise good Christian, let right to wrong succeed. That means that right is to replace wrong. This begins with the household of God as we live in penitential sorrow over our own sins, turn to what is right, and live in the light of Christ’s Word and work. Christians must confess the right, right now. We need to arise.

Of all places, our local libraries are where the right must be confessed in the face of the wrong. One would think that Drag Queen Storytime in Illinois would be confined to Chicagoland, but now here in Southern Illinois two of our local libraries are getting into the grooming of children with Drag Queen Storytime. You can read about them here and here.

This past Friday morning a few of the Southern Illinois District LCMS pastors were at a peaceful protest against such evil. There was a good crowd present. Pastor Heath Curtis and I brought a couple dozen donuts from our local Lutheran bakery to share; a good way to make new friends.. As you can see from the advertisement above, the Collinsville library decided to not have the drag queen present after all, but did the reading part of the event virtually, which is a minor victory. The event was billed to stress points of “Identity, Love, and Acceptance.”

Teaching the truth in season and out of season to our congregations gets to the essence of the institution of the Holy Ministry. Pastors are to teach and confess. We also are to confess to those outside of our congregations. It is through the confessing of the truth, God’s own Word that He works to bring repentance and faith. We confess for many reasons- God’s command, conscience sake, an example to other Christians, for the good of those who need to hear, to protect and defend those who need protecting and defending (like children), and many more. To be a Christian is to be confessing.

A few of us wrote a statement that local media published. It is straightforward and a clear confession of what is right. The executive director of the Collinsville library was quoted as saying “we do not serve a community that is uniform in its needs and its interests…We try to provide a wide variety of programs that meet those needs with ongoing education opportunities for as many community members as we can.” Christians know that there is no need for the grooming of children into sexual deviance. I have no doubt that there will be people asking pointed questions and making clear statements at the upcoming library board meetings, along with attempts to have those on library boards who support such activities voted out of office, as they should be. The world is very evil. What is right needs to be said. We need to act on what we believe. Let us all do it.

A statement from local Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod clergymen regarding the drag queen story hours for children to be held in Collinsville and Glen Carbon libraries.

Our Lord Jesus Christ especially blessed little children during His earthly ministry (Mark 10:13-16) and issued a vivid warning to those who would endanger the innocence of children (Matthew 18:5-6). Each child deserves the protection and care not only of his or her parents, but also of the community at large. It is simply wrong to expose children to sexually explicit themes. This fact is recognized in the Illinois law against obscenity, which makes special mention of obscenity aimed at children (720 ILCS 5/11-20 (c)).

Inviting a drag queen to perform for children is intended to introduce children to sexually explicit themes. In the words of the Illinois statute, it is "prurient." It is contrary to common sense, natural law, and all that is good and holy. Even a decade ago one would have struggled to find even a small minority in our communities who would disagree with those statements. Now our local libraries are using community funds and community space to do exactly this. Our communities deserve better from their public servants.

We strive to make our churches places of refuge from a world gone mad. We preach the love of God to all who will repent of their wrong-doing and come with open arms to receive the Lord’s grace. There can be no repenting of wrong-doing without acknowledging that it exists. As ministers of Christ it is our duty to say that the actions of the Collinsville and Glen Carbon libraries are wrong. We exhort all involved to repent of this wrong-doing. We encourage all Christians to beseech the Lord to give them repentance and faith.

Rev. Scott Adle - Associate Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Collinsville

Rev. Benjamin T. Ball - Senior Pastor, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hamel

Rev. Heath R. Curtis - Pastor, Trinity & Zion Lutheran Churches, Worden & Carpenter

Rev. Brian Feicho - Pastor, Concordia Lutheran Church, Granite City

Rev. William Gleason - Emeritus, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hamel

Rev. Aaron Mueller - Pastor, St. James Lutheran Church, Glen Carbon

Rev. Martin T. Schnare - Emeritus, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hamel

Rev. John Shank - Senior Pastor, Trinity Lutheran Ministries, Edwardsville

Rev. William C. Weedon - Assistant Pastor, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hamel

Rev. Michael Walther – Senior Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Collinsville

Rev. Kyle Wright II - Pastor, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Collinsville