Letters


Team ELCA strikes chord, provides benefit Readers stirred up about decline, giving, kindness, law, poverty, bishops


Lutheran JUNE 2014 www.thelutheran.org $2.50


The digital church


Connecting beyond our sanctuaries


Story Page 16


Study guide Page 22


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Million dollar love VBS with a twist Urban servants


I really liked Presiding Bishop Eliza- beth A. Eaton’s concept of “Team ELCA” (June, page 50). The article— save one point—was excellent. I belong to the ELCA because of what I get out of it. I hope that I’m not self- ish, because I get from the ELCA a tradition of values in which I can raise my family with the support of the other Team ELCA members. I get theological insight, music, friends, coffee, macaroni salad, and on and on. I get a lot out of it, and I can do more for others with Team ELCA than I could ever do all by myself. If I didn’t, I would play on another team. Phil Reitan Decorah, Iowa


All things must pass I agree with the editor that there are things more important than church structure, whether that be a congre- gation, synod, assembly or the ELCA hierarchy (June, page 4). Parts of the church structure have been in decline since the 1960s and may one day die


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entirely. But what goes beyond that structure is what really matters and will no doubt survive beyond the closing of any and all church build- ings and congregations. How the gos- pel message is transmitted into the world at large is what really counts. The Rev. M. Laurel Gray El Cajon, Calif.


Think it through Five years have passed, and it’s time to stop already. I’m tired of people stating with such certainty that the reason giving has gone down in the ELCA since 2009 is because of the decision on gay clergy. What these people don’t realize is that while it’s true that a certain percentage of people have left because we decided one way, at least the same percent- age of people would have left had we decided the other. Then how would they frame the decrease in giving? Keith E. Gatling Syracuse, N.Y.


Be kind As a “new” Lutheran (six years) who was attracted to the ELCA and my congregation by their progressive principles and foundational kind- ness, I was startled by Peter W. Mar- ty’s remarks about some of the folks who have left the church (June, page 3). He depicted Larry and Cheryl as theological midgets who couldn’t stand the word serendipity; he made snide comments about Shawn and the self-help thrust in his life. Partic- ularly demeaning was the rhetorical query whether Rick, a nature-loving parishioner, “would favor an oak or maple tree for his confession and absolution of sin.” Marty would do


better to avoid belittling others. Barbara Reid Seattle


Law and gospel Once again Marty shows that neither he nor this denomination is in any way, shape or form Lutheran (May, page 3). Instead of discussing “The Ten Words” as the law, which serves as a curb, a guide and principally a mirror, he denigrates obedience to them (which sinners can never fully achieve). Funny how Jesus told those whom he healed to “go and sin no more.” God does command us to do things we cannot do. That’s why God fulfilled the law himself for us (the gospel). Drew Kornreich Los Alamos, N.M.


Not political John A. Nunes made a good begin- ning in his discussion of “the proper place of religion” (June, page 14). Poverty is the result of many causes— one of which is not increasing a hor- rible minimum wage to millions of hardworking Americans. In my state, North Carolina, and 23 others mil- lions of the very poor cannot receive health care on a regular basis because the state legislature refused to expand Medicaid to the very poor. These are not political issues. They are people issues, and Jesus and the prophets taught and showed us how we are to treat others. John Weinbach Burlington, N.C.


Politicized gospel The recent visit by ELCA bishops to Congress (May, page 4) reminds


The


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