Luther and Reformation leaders on advocacy The Forgotten Luther: Reclaiming the Social-Economic Dimension of the Reformation, edited by Carter Lindberg and Paul Wee (Lutheran University Press, 2016)
Youth from St. Matthew Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa, Wis., meet with Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson in Washington, D.C., to discuss federal child nutrition programs and addressing poverty.
Chapters in this book come from theologians who have looked at Reformation-era attitudes toward the “social ministry” and “advocacy” side of church life. They contend that many have missed this aspect of the 16th-century Reformation.
In 1521 the Wittenberg town council passed the first “social welfare ordinance” with Martin Luther’s assistance, providing interest-free loans for small businesses, aid to orphans and widows, and health care for the poor, Lindberg said. Luther is known to have said that it is the duty of “the prince,” that is, the government, “to help the poor, the orphans and the widows to justice and to further their cause.”
Young adult ELCA members at the 2016 Churchwide Assembly and Grace Gathering pose to say #ELCAvotes. This is an initiative to expand the church's role to encourage voter participation and provide faith-based resources on voting.
“It’s the first time some of these women have had
an opportunity to meet their national government officials,” he said. High level officials in some countries then get to know what programs the churches have to deal with, issues such as HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support, and addressing gender-based violence or health care, and “they may want to replicate the programs or collaborate with the churches,” Frado said. ELCA advocates also say their offices, through
education programs and other activities, “provide space” for a variety of people in government to learn about church concerns. Sometimes Lutheran advocacy touches surprising
heights. When Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian Lutheran concerned about the civil war in her country, began to gather women into a peace movement, it was the Lutheran Office for World Community that provided her a U.N. platform. The office helped her and other church groups tell of their work to end the civil war and seek better treatment for women. Years later in 2011, Gbowee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work, an effort supported at its beginning by Lutheran advocates. Today, Frado said, “she still often comes to see what we are doing at our briefings.”
For more information on ELCA Advocacy, go to
elca.org/advocacy.
18 OCTOBER 2016 People can agree on the problem but disagree on solutions.
“I talk to very few people who would disagree if you say people do not have enough to eat,” Ostrem said. “But individuals may differ in how they address that situation.”
ELCA social statements ELCA social statements, approved by a churchwide assembly after considerable prayer and study, are the basis for the church’s advocacy work. The social statements are guides connecting faith and public life, Scripture and issues facing today’s world.
ELCA social statements have been prepared on: abortion (1991), church and society (1991), death penalty (1991), peace (1995), economic life (1999), caring for creation (2003), health and health care (2003), education (2007), human sexuality (2009), race, ethnicity and culture (1993), genetics (2011) and criminal justice (2013).
ELCA social statements can be found at
elca.org/ socialstatements.
Charles Austin is a retired ELCA pastor living in Teaneck, N.J. He has also been a reporter for The New York Times and other news organizations.
Is ELCA advocacy political? Faith-based advocacy isn’t “political” in that it does not attach to a particular party or ideology. Advocates report working with Republicans, Democrats and Independents.
“It’s not simply bipartisan, it’s nonpartisan,” said Paul Ostrem, an assistant to the bishop in the Southeastern Iowa Synod and an ELCA advocate.
Photo: Kendrick Hall
Photo: ELCA Advocacy
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