Don’t Take Me To This Church!

Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, will likely be in the “spotlight” in the weeks ahead. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, now running for Vice President on the ticket with Kamala Harris, has said publicly that Pilgrim Lutheran Church is “my parish,” and has regularly referred to Pilgrim Lutheran as his church. 

The Christian Post made an effort to find out more about the church, but discovered much of its website content is no longer accessible. They were able to peruse Pilgrim’s latest newsletter, however. You can read what they found here.

Pilgrim is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) widely, considered one of the most left-leaning denominations in the country. The denomination has been a leader of LGBTQ causes. They issued a handbook in 2020 to provide guidance to its affiliated churches titled, Lutheran Introduction to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Gender Expression.

The theology at Pilgrim is clearly “woke” and gender obsessed. The Christian Post watched a livestream of a recent church service and noted that its pastor led the congregation in “The Lord’s Prayer.” However, he dropped the normal opening of “Our Father” and replaced it with “Our guardian, our mother, our father in Heaven…”

Pilgrim Lutheran has a “partnership” with Reconciling Works, a pro-LGBTQ “ministry.” They in turn have links with groups that support deforming surgeries, including the removal of healthy body parts from children, as “life-affirming” medical treatments. Governor Walz has supported laws in Minnesota that reflect these radical gender views taught in his church.

The Christian Post has the full, sad story about the church’s transition into a party cell rather than a refuge of salvation. It is no wonder that Harris picked someone like Walz, who seeks to cultivate an image of the homespun pew-sitter rather than the leftwing pol he is.

Shepherds for Sale?

Of course, these permutations are happening across many denominations, not just among Lutherans. An important new book detailing some of these challenges is streaking to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

Megan Basham, a widely published reporter for World and The Daily Wire, takes on this phenomenon in Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda. The book details the surprising endorsement by some Christian leaders of liberal candidates who have even pushed such radical steps as excluding Christian mothers and fathers from adoption and foster parenting if they refuse to embrace the LGBT cause.

Basham details how a network of activist billionaires, including George Soros, has funded many of these leaders in their drift away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the “Gospel of Woke.” The book is getting plenty of attention, and it’s well worth your time.

Israel’s Enemies Gather

Could the long anticipated Iranian/Hezbollah attack on Israel happen tonight? I pray it doesn’t, but here’s why I am worried. 

Tonight, Jews the world over are observing the fast of the Ninth Day of the Hebrew month of Av. It’s the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, commemorating the destruction of both the first and second Temples in Jerusalem and many other tragic events in the history of the Jewish people.

Not only have Jews never forgotten those tragedies, they mark them during joyous events such as Jewish weddings, where a glass is broken in their memory. On Tisha B’Av itself, Jews spend the day fasting and sitting on the floor like mourners, reading the Book of Lamentations. The radical Islamists often launch their deadly attacks to coincide with such holidays or traditions.

For Jews, out of all this sadness and memory came the very idea of hope. The Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament teach us still that what is lost can be regained, what is destroyed can be rebuilt, and what disappears may one day return. The Jews never gave up hope of returning to the land of their ancestors and restoring Jerusalem, their ancient and eternal capital. For 2600 years, Jews recite the famous Psalm, “I will never forget you, O Jerusalem” each and every day in their morning prayers. Just as that hope has restored Jerusalem and recreated the Jewish state, so too must we keep our hope alive to redeem and deliver our nation.