Last Updated on July 23, 2017 by Dave Farquhar
This morning, I read something in the St. Louis-Post Dispatch that disturbed me greatly. I didn’t say anything about it until I had a chance to confirm with my pastor that it is true.
In the aftermath of the shooting in Newtown, Conn., Rev. Rob Morris, pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church, spoke at an interfaith service designed to give comfort to the community. the Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, the president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, of which I am a member and a former employee, forced Rev. Morris to apologize. (I will refer to him as Dr. Harrison throughout because he has earned that degree, not because I agree with what he says. It is possible to acknowledge rank while expressing disagreement.)
I’m not going to go toe-to-toe with Dr. Harrison over theology, just as I would not expect Dr. Harrison to attempt to correct me about computer security or journalism. I will leave that to Rev. Stephen Hower, the pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Ellisville, Mo. (a St. Louis suburb), and to the Rev. Dr. Jerry Kieschnick, who was even more outspoken in his critique of Dr. Harrison. Then again, Dr. Kieschnick can better afford to be outspoken in his critique, being the past president of the synod.
I will say there is a time and a place to disagree, and there are times we must put our differences aside, come together, and offer aid and comfort to our community and nation. In the immediate aftermath of a tragedy, our duty as Christians is to share the love and comfort of Jesus Christ with the people who are hurting, and then let God use that to draw people to Himself, in His time. To paraphrase Dr. Kieschnick, we can be like Elijah praying in the presence of the prophets of false gods, letting God show who He is.
Or we can be like Dr. Harrison. I don’t speak for him, so I don’t know what his intention was. The message that he is sending is that the purity of his doctrine is more important than helping people who are in pain. When I see bumper stickers that say, “God, please protect me from your people,” this is precisely the kind of thing they’re talking about.
Update: After posting this, several people raised this undated apology by Dr. Harrison to my attention. That’s a start. Dr. Harrison said many of the right things in his apology. There is the possibility that something good can come of this controversy; I can only hope and pray that both sides are equally open to that.
Update 2: As time went on, this attitude persisted even though the stance in this particular incident softened. It is one of several reasons I severed all ties with the LCMS. I now attend an Evangelical Free church.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
It is very frustrating, but at the same time I was very impressed and encouraged by Dr. Harrison’s letter of apology issued yesterday. Very sincere, humble, repentant letter from a forgiven child of God. http://wmltblog.org/2013/02/pastoral-letters-on-the-newtown-tragedy/
No Lutheran minister should consort with a non-Lutheran minister! That doesn’t make sense.
Jesus wasn’t a Lutheran. He was a Catholic. The Lutheran clergy can’t go to heaven because that would mean they will have to associate with Jesus.
….
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”
Martin Luther
Joseph, trust me, you don’t want to go down that road. Every denomination believes, of course, that if they’d been around during the time of the Book of Acts, that the apostles would have all been one of them and declared all the other denominations heretics. But some are more outspoken about it than others.
Dave,
I know. I was raised Southern Baptist. They trace their Church back to John the Baptist. That makes them Christians before Jesus Christ.
We still had to eat fish on Fridays at our school.
Does Harrison have an earned doctorate? Ast I knew, he only had honorary doctorates from Fort Wayne Sem and Concordia Ann Arbor.
You are correct, as far as I know, in that his doctorates are honorary.