Political News and Commentary with the Right Perspective. NAVIGATION
  • Front Page
  • News
  • Multimedia
  • Tags
  • RSS Feed


  • Advertise on RightMichigan.com


    NEWS TIPS!

    Get the RightMighigan.com toolbar!


    RightMichigan.com

    Buzz

    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Display: Sort:
    The answer . . . (none / 0) (#11)
    by Kevin Rex Heine on Thu Mar 21, 2013 at 02:19:32 PM EST
    . . . isn't exactly simple, though I can probably simplify it, and it depends on what the term "in-tune" means.

    If, by "in-tune" you mean "in official fellowship with," then the answer is: not to my knowledge.

    However, if you wonder whether we'd find the message of the day agreeable, the answer is: it depends on who you talk to and on how the 2A message was presented . . . and that isn't a dodge.

    The closest reference in Scripture to gun ownership, that I'm aware of, is Luke 22:36 (which is yet another instruction that Jesus gave to his followers on the night he was betrayed).  However, I'm familiar with multiple Scripture references that preserve the individual right to self-defense and/or provide the expectation of defense of others.

    The Founding Fathers were of the opinion that a critical role in a free society -- that of fueling the flame of freedom, stressing morality, and alerting the citizenry to dangerous trends -- is a role best filled by the clergy, and requires that the clergy remain politically separate from the state (which is not the same as the state being religiously separate from the church).  The WELS is well aware of this intent, and you will often find WELS pastors speaking against any number of sinful social trends from the pulpit.

    But a Second Amendment Sunday?  Knowing many WELS pastors as well as I do, I think that many of them would find the concept appealing.  (Notably, the pastor of the church at which I'm currently a member is an Army Veteran --  his specialty was nuclear artillery -- and has "NRA Life Member" as the only political bumper sticker that will ever be allowed on his car.)  The question would be in how the message is structured.

    "To the church the Lord has assigned the responsibility of calling sinners to repentance, of proclaiming forgiveness through the cross of Christ, and of encouraging believers in their Christian living. The purpose is to lead the elect of God to eternal salvation through faith in Christ."

    That's from Section VIII (Church And State) of This We Believe, which is available as one of many documents on the What We Believe page of the WELS website.  The principal function of the church is to get sinners connected to Christ, and keep them there; everything else is a secondary consideration at best.  Confessional Lutheran pastors will connect the sermon text to the lives of the congregation, but it's always done in the context of reminding us of just how undeserving we are of the least of God's favors.  Yet for the sake of what his Son did for all humanity on Calvary's cross, every sin (except that of persistent unbelief) is forgiven.

    However, the current pastor of the WELS congregation in which I grew up (and only the fourth pastor associated with that pulpit in my lifetime) is fond of saying that there is no situation in the entirety of human experience to which Scripture cannot be applied.  To use the pulpit to sound a warning against an increasingly despotic government that reduces the value of human life to a formula based upon a person's perceived ability to contribute to society, and that is advancing a policy agenda morally disconnected from anything even remotely resembling America's roots, is well within the bounds of scriptural acceptability (at least in my opinion).  Life Sunday is a common occurrence in WELS congregations.

    The trick, of course, is to avoid crossing the line at which we start glorifying the tool itself, which is where the WELS pastors may have a headache with a Second Amendment Sunday such as depicted in the article you linked to.

    Parent

    • Ah, thanks by Corinthian Scales, 03/21/2013 03:11:57 PM EST (none / 0)

    Display: Sort:

    Login

    Make a new account

    Username:
    Password:
    Tweet along with RightMichigan by
    following us on Twitter HERE!
    create account | faq | search