Lutherans do not have their hands clean

The Star Tribune had a feature within the last couple years about how many churches are changing their names. Bottom line: they are trying to get rid of denominational references. Churches find that the reference to denomination is a turn-off for millennials. The young, who are always smarter than the rest of us, think it's silly to get into conflicts between the various factions or denominations in the Christian faith.
I wrote a skeptical blog post when the Good Shepherd church got started in Morris (just outside of Morris to the north). Another Lutheran church? Is this really necessary? There are those who assert that Good Shepherd started as (frankly) a rebellion because of the once-hot gay ordination issue in the ELCA. See, this is the type of thing that alienates young people. Such firm opinions on issues that are blown out of proportion.
The purpose of the new inclusive policy was simply to guarantee that gays would not be subject to discrimination, just as a matter of policy. It didn't mean that gays were going to take over the synod. So, we hardly give a thought to this now. In the meantime, ELCA churches did lose some of their members.
Was Good Shepherd really created as a "refuge?" I do believe their members would say they are not a gay-bashing church. I don't wish to get into an argument. A friend of mine who is in the conservative or fundamentalist camp says "hate the sin, love the sinner." His point was to actually defend the exclusionary policy while at the same time professing "love."
I brought my complimentary Lutheran magazine with me to Stone's Throw Cafe in Morris Saturday. Mainly I just wanted something handy to read, or to occupy my attention, because of advice I had gotten that you might have to wait a while for your order there. I found that I didn't want other people to see the name of the magazine I had. I sensed the divisiveness that religion can inevitably cause. And, maybe I should be ashamed having a "Lutheran" magazine.
This is uncomfortable for me to write about because my recently-deceased mother was a most committed Lutheran who didn't have a prejudiced bone in her body about anyone. I remembered hearing over the years that Martin Luther was an anti-Semite. My church of First Lutheran in Morris recently had a Martin Luther impersonator visit, in costume in fact. He sure wasn't going to stand up there and act like an anti-Semite. But upon getting home, I wanted to refresh my memory on the anti-Semitic angle re. Martin Luther. Was it that bad?
Some alleged anti-Semitism falls within vague bounds, like when you question the nation of Israel. Regarding the real anti-Semitism, we know it when we see it. And now we have the horrifying synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh PA. Having a president who seems to fit the description of "white nationalist" is getting more ominous all the time. We sit back and are too passive about it. The Nazis got wiped out because decency prevailed with God's blessing.
What is to become of the U.S. now, a nation with so many older white men willing to wear MAGA caps? Will things get worse before they get better? How bad can it get? Martin Luther whose name inspires countless churches across the nation, was in fact a horrible anti-Semite, the worst kind. It was so bad, it was a leading factor in what developed in Europe in the mid-20th Century.
Luther wrote the treatise called "On the Jews and Their Lies" in 1543. He was more mild earlier in his life but that was only because he held out hope that Jews could be converted. Upon realizing that this was not in the works, rage took over. He openly urged persecution of Jews. His treatise argued that Jewish synagogues and schools be set on fire, their prayer books destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, homes burned, and property and money confiscated.
Someone on cable TV wondered last week why Rudy Giuliani seems to have suddenly vanished from the airwaves, after having been a prominent if eccentric (senile?) spokesman for Donald Trump. There should be no mystery here. Giuliani disappeared from public view because he crossed a line. He talked about how the government might "freeze the assets" of George Soros. Why? Was Soros "paying off" the protesters of Kavanaugh? Well, the truth is that Soros financially supports organizations the members of which are the type who might want to protest Kavanaugh. That of course is not the same thing. Logic can end up out in the periphery in the Fox News world.
We will find out soon in the mid-terms whether the crazed Trump world is going to keep making inroads. A simple Republican majority would ensure that.
Freeze the assets? If such anti-Semitic talk gains traction, we are truly on the way toward re-experiencing what happened in 1930s Germany. Martin Luther described the Jews as a "base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision and law must be accounted as filth." Luther further wrote that the Jews are "full of the devil's feces, which they wallow in like swine." And, "the synagogue is an incorrigible whore and an evil slut."
Do you want me to go on? Research shows us this: "The prevailing scholarly view since the Second World War is that (Luther's) treatise exercised a major and persistent influence on Germany's attitude toward its Jewish citizens in the centuries between the Reformation and the Holocaust."
Luther was a rebel from the Catholic Church. We see the newspaper headlines today abut the abhorrent conduct that has been foisted on youth all over the nation, due to priest misbehavior. And so we wonder why millennials might be disillusioned? Can Christianity re-create itself in a new inclusive and progressive mold that has a little more passivity?
 
Addendum: Can you see Jesus wearing a "MAGA" cap?
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com