Two churches, shells of their former selves

Does it really matter what First Lutheran and Federated Churches of Morris do? They have been straining to keep some relevance. Obviously they have fallen into hard times. A friend explained to me that the older people of Federated have been dying and they are not being replaced. Actuarial tables do not lie. 

I attended a funeral at Federated just a couple weeks ago. A pretty nice building right across from the public school in fact. I noticed on the day of the funeral that the fellowship area was way too small. As the deceased's family came back from the cemetery, people felt they had to leave to make room. That's discouraging. Someone told me the kitchen there is not efficiently organized either. 

Theology? Does that even matter now? The big conflict in the faith now is between the hardcore Trump supporters and those who would like to moderate from that some, "cooI it" as it were. Federated and First have never been on board with Trump-ism but some individual members are comfortable being MAGA, such as the Hecks of First Lutheran. It's getting harder for me to spend time around people like that. 

I don't think Jesus Christ would want to get anywhere near Donald Trump. But that's just me. Some will say I'll burn in hell. 

Well, enjoy eating some good food while you can still afford it. The Iran war is accelerating inflation and it's already showing up in the official numbers. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow, everything is going to hell. In the future we may all have to depend on trucks from the government delivering rice to our neighborhoods for sustenance. We're already having to depend on "synthetic food." "Frankenfood." 

Well, what about First Lutheran, my old church? Why has everything gone to hell there? I have a long memory and can remember when it was such a viable place. A community leader in fact, many "important persons" in the ranks. Well, you all know what the "dagger" was. Go back to 2009. Certain actions taken at the national ELCA level. 

And because of that we've had to accept the death or near-death of our once precious First Lutheran Church in Morris. My second-guessing would be as follows: At the national level, go ahead and pass reasonable accommodations for gay people in a non-emotional way. But the church bureaucracy became known to have people who were more committed to "LGBTQ" than anything else. 

At the local level, I never felt it was necessary for pastors to give sermons on the new gay rights policy. As a matter of policy, fine. We want our gay brothers and sisters to feel accepted. But as a matter for crusading, no. The crusading became an irritant. 

And so in Morris we saw the creation of a whole new Lutheran church out in the windswept countryside. I can assure you that the location of Good Shepherd Church, not far from where I live, is very windswept. Listen for coyotes. And so a whole lot of people with their $ left the established Lutheran churches of the area. 

 

The latest 

The votes are in, regarding the combined status of First Lutheran (FLC) and Federated. The arrangement has been going on a while. The same type of people belong to both churches. Why the separation? The two are not even in the same denomination. What's a Methodist? I don't really know or care. What the heck is "UCC?" 

And there sits Faith Lutheran in west Morris with its reputation at least for the present of being a viable ELCA stand-alone church. There's no way Morris should have two ELCA churches. If you belong to one and switch to the other, people will talk. My route is the safest: become non-churchgoing. 

Well, shall we talk about the vote? Someone reported the numbers to me yesterday. Well, the joint venture will continue or let's say limp along. The greatest dissent to this was from among FLC members. There was just one "nay" vote - one - from the Federated flock. 

I wonder how many of the "no" voting families at FLC will even continue their membership now, or (more importantly) continue giving $. I felt I was betrayed the last time I wrote a check to FLC. It was shortly after that, that the new partnership was announced. 

First Lutheran Church

I wrote here that it seemed like a "bait and switch." I wrote the check with the understanding that things would continue pretty much as normal at FLC, even if downsized. But no, we can't even do that. 

Look how happy the Apostolics are. What do they know that we don't? I enjoy having my Sunday morning breakfast every week with some of the Apostolic men. One of them complained recently about all the excessive government spending "under Biden." These guys do read out of that playbook. But I saw a headline on "Drudge" just recently: "Federal spending higher now than under Biden." 

What would Jesus say? He'd probably say don't get buried in politics so much. There seems no hope when it comes to that. The government in our name has its military destroy an Iranian girls school with a Tomahawk missile. Our Navy sinks a ship and doesn't rescue the survivors. And this is the heavenly-blessed government regime of Donald Trump? So Trump walks hand-in-hand with Jesus? Not in my mind he doesn't. But I have always been an outlier in the Morris community. Very sad.

Is it time to abandon Christianity? The "nones" already have.

  

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - musicstuff54@gmail.com