Beware of Lukewarm Lutherans
“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
One of the side benefits of the recent Dobbs decision is that it is smoking out infiltrators and traditiores in our midst who are suddenly in a state of panic that what the LCMS has consistently stood for has been vindicated - at least for now - by the Supreme Court.
Indeed, there are left/liberals in the LCMS who support abortion, homosexual ‘marriage,’ the ordination of women, Critical Theory (and all of its works and all of its ways) - while in the past, carefully covering up these beliefs in the same way that a cat completes its work in the litter box. They usually camouflage their views - often along with being anti-liturgical, in favor of deviation from centuries of tradition within our Lutheran and catholic heritage, and otherwise leaning heavily on the “adiaphora card” to justify their anti-traditionalism.
Indeed, the Treasury of Daily Prayer reading for July 5 was the famous “democracy of the dead” soliloquy by G. K. Chesterton. Our LCMS progressives/liberals/leftists are anti-democratic in the Chestertonian sense: denying the dead their rightful cultural votes (while at the same time supporting a political party known for giving the dead votes in political elections).
But now that the tide seems to be turning in favor of the unborn, in favor of traditionalism/conservatism, in favor of constitutional limits on the power of government, in favor of calling a man a man and a woman a woman, in favor of opposite sex monogamous marriage, and an increasingly vocal Christianity pushing back against state incursions upon the Bride of Christ - we see our so-called LCMS “moderates” exposed for what they really are.
On a facebook group, a man claiming to be a member of an LCMS congregation is urging other LCMS folks to “look to the moderate stances [that] exist within both parties,” to “vote as a registered nonpartisan and vote for both parties.” He says that, “It’d be better to not vote at all, than to identify and vote as a partisan for a single political party.” He has a website and is writing a book to “challenge the LCMS as a member of the LCMS.” He says that we “can’t let one single issue determine that we can’t vote for that party at all.” He claims that the world “hates political moderates… like how the Bible says the world will hate Christians.” He says, “I’m hated by both sides for my newfound political moderate/centrist positioning. And the Bible assures me that that’s quite okay.”
One can only wonder if his Congregation is called Laodicean Lutheran Church.
It’s not hard to read between the lines to figure out where he stands on the Dobbs decision.
He justifies his defense of extreme moderation by appealing to our Lord’s injunction that we be “in the world” but not “of the world.” Of course, that is not what our Lord means - that we should stop defending the unborn, cease defending marriage, and stop pushing the groomer drag queens out of our public libraries. Christians have been bullied with this “shut up and do Jesus-time in your own homes where nobody can see” rhetoric for too long. We’re starting to say, “No.” And our LCMS “moderates” don’t like it.
Ten years ago, I wrote about the Fallacy of Moderation.
Ironically, I’m a registered independent. Not because I am bipartisan, but because I believe the Democrats are hardcore socialist shills and the Republicans are softcore socialist shills. I believe the Libertarian Party is overrunning with nutters (probably through a cultivated infiltration), and the Green Party is really just the Red Party. The teeny tiny splinter parties that are even more irrelevant are more like the papal sedevacantists in Montana who believe the real pope lives in a single-wide on the prairie, and was elected by one family.
There was a time when I certainly believed that there was “not a dime’s difference” - and that was especially true when the “choice” was between the Bush Crime Syndicate and the Clinton Crime Syndicate. The main difference between them was that Clinton played the saxophone. Both pushed us into foreign alliances, war, Fed-dominated monetary policy, ever increasing regulations, and basically Socialism-Lite. The Establishment GOP grifted and fundraised from pro-Lifers while not really doing anything when they did take power.
Fast forward to today, the differences are more stark, as many in the mainstream Democratic Party carry open dual-membership with the Democratic Socialists of America (it was not that long ago that the Socialist Bernie Sanders nearly captured the Democratic nomination for president, and perhaps even actually did clinch it apart from cheating among the party bigwigs). Many Democrats are pushing the party further toward the extreme end of the bell curve, from arguing for infanticide right up to birth (and some arguing even for post-natal abortion), promoting sexual deviancy even with tax dollars and engaging in sexualized behavior of young children and toddlers, and many others pushing for encroachments of the state onto the church. Meanwhile, many Establishment Republicans are still itching to compromise with the increasingly strident Democrats on a slew of measures - seemingly oblivious (or perhaps complicit) with the Hegelian Dialectic that has served to push the entire country - both kingdoms (Church and Society) - to the Left. Even Conservatism, Inc. supports homosexual “marriage” to the point of inviting drag queens to attend party functions and congratulating Dave Rubin and his partner for renting out a woman’s womb so as to pretend to be a married couple with children. Maybe the first thing such conservatives should figure out is what they are trying to conserve. Even Trump held up his rainbow flag. Alleged “right-wing extremist” FOX News sings the praises of Bruce “Caitlyn” Jenner.
So, yeah, I’m not registered with either of our two leftist parties. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t individual Republicans that are worth voting for. Both major parties are not created equal.
This Moderationism is indeed a grift. Our leftist element of the LCMS knows that it cannot make headway by pushing the neo-Socialist envelope to the hilt, so they use a rhetoric of “let’s be reasonable” and “don’t be extremist.”
Let’s apply their logic to a few issues, shall we?
There are two extremes regarding the nature of God. One extreme is Unitarianism. The other extreme is Trinitarianism (polytheism is outside of the extremes within Christianity). Solution? Don’t be extremist either way. Be moderate. Let’s worship the “Binity.” That way everyone gains and everyone gives up something. We can all just get along. See how easy that is?
We can also find harmony on abortion. Some believe life begins at conception, whereas others argue that it begins with the first breath. Some argue that a one-celled fertilized egg is a human being, while the other side calls a late-term unborn child either a “part of the mother’s body” or a “blob of cells.” Let’s find a moderate approach. Let’s say that the fetus is an animal. So if you want to euthanize it, you need to do so painlessly and humanely. See how easy this is?
Within the realm of sexuality and marriage, one extreme says that marriage is one man and one woman committed for life with one another. The other extreme says “anything goes.” Let’s find common ground, shall we? Both sides need to move to the middle. We’ll say that one’s matrimonial partner must be a human being - thus avoiding the extremes of both sides. Moderation is the key.
We can also compromise on the women’s ordination issue, by arguing that woman can be pastors but not DPs (which is essentially how the Church of England operated, until women did indeed become “bishops”).
Meanwhile, with every compromise, the LCMS’s “hard line” gets drawn to the middle, and the Left can continue proposing a new “antithesis” to the “thesis” to achieve a new, ever leftward shifting “synthesis.” This has been Progressivism’s modus operandi for more than a hundred years: the Long March Through the Institutions. We allowed “moderates” to establish a beach-head in our university system decades ago, and now the line has shifted so far to the Left that many in the LCMS are shocked and asking how this happened.
We need to stop playing pattycake. The LCMS, its member pastors and church workers, its member congregations and all institutions are committed to the biblical worldview. That means we are creationists, opposite-sex monogamists, we are pro-Life from conception to natural death, and we believe in private property. We do not believe in macro-evolution, homosexual marriage, abortion, and socialism. And we will not compromise on these issues. If you believe in such things, the ELCA is waiting for you.
Our church, society, and country are worth fighting for. They are worth a little bit of being uncomfortable in saying, “Enough is enough!” We need to push back against this Leftist rot with the vigor that our antecedents did in the days of the Battle for the Bible and the Walkout. We need to not only resist and stop giving ground, we need to push back and take territory back - and shove the left/liberal/progressives out.
They are not welcome.
And we are not fooled by the Trojan Horse of Moderationism - which is itself a form of tyranny. “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts,” says the old aphorism. Start a bonfire with the big wooden horse, and see how fast your “moderate friends” come scurrying out of the trap door before the battle they intended to fight.
Or to use our Lord’s metaphor - spit them out (Rev 3:15). For our Lord gives us the corrective to the Hegelian Dialectic:
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see (Rev 3:18).