June 12, 2025
As we have noted many times before, the more “progressive” a religious organization is, the fewer members it tends to have. This is certainly true of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). It was formed in 1988 when three Lutheran denominations merged amidst disagreements with more traditional-minded Lutheran denominations.
The ELCA rejects the Christian definition of marriage, namely the union of a man and a woman. Instead, it believes in gay marriage, the union of two people of the same sex who are barred by nature from creating a family. It also rejects what science teaches about the sexes, which is that sex in binary—one is either a man or a woman. Instead, it believes the fiction that the sexes are interchangeable.
By rejecting core Christian teachings about marriage, the family and sexuality, many would argue that the ELCA has essentially forfeited its Christian status. But all of this will soon be moot: it won’t be around much longer.
In 1988, when the ELCA was born, it had 5,251,534 members. In 2020, the figure was 3,142,777. Its own Office of Research and Evaluation determined in 2022 that it will have fewer than 16,000 worshippers left on an average Sunday by 2041. This is happening despite a desperate attempt to be “proactive in evangelism and outreach.” This led one Lutheran observer to conclude that “according to current trends, the church will basically cease to exist within the next generation.”
Hastening the end is the radical LGBTQ agenda sported by the ELCA. A microcosm of this phenomenon was recently brought to our attention.
On June 2, I registered a complaint with the Director of the Glenn Korff School of Music at the University of Nebraska. I mentioned how “a serious act of anti-Catholic bigotry was initiated by a doctoral student in your department. Reportedly, the final recital of his music degree took place at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Lincoln. It was a drag performance that viciously mocked the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; central aspects of it were debased. A video of this event is available on YouTube.”
I sent a copy of my letter to Tobi White, pastor of the church. She wrote back saying her church “would not knowingly insult another faith or religious institution.” But then she took it back, saying, “Upon reviewing the composition, we interpret the piece differently and support Dr. Willette’s artistic expression.”
The “artistic expression” that she supports includes music that Joseph Willette titled, “Kyrie,” “Gloria,” “Credo,” “Sanctus,” and “Agnus Dei.” The video features a fat man dressed in white, looking like a demonic nun/bride hybrid, dancing to the music. His face is painted in a ghoulish white as he gyrates around the church.
Does this sound like a love letter to Catholics, or a direct insult?
Pastor White’s claim that “we interpret the piece differently” is undercut by the student. He writes that the “Mass of Perpetual Indulgence” (the name is a play on the anti-Catholic group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence) was an “appropriation of the traditional Mass [that] blurs the lines between the sacred and the profane.” He boasts that his drag show and other “queer imagery” represent the profane.
By checking the website of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church we learn that it boasts of being the most queer-friendly church imaginable. While it does welcome “People who are currently or formerly incarcerated”—it says not a word about the victims of these rapists and murderers—most of its “welcoming” efforts are aimed at gays and those who falsely claim to be transgender (no such persons exist). The church is lined with rainbow flags and its staff members go by such pronouns as “she/they.” That tells us a great deal about their mental faculties.
There is something really sick going on here. Not only does this church’s commitment to “inclusion” not extend to Catholics, they justify anti-Catholic behavior, claiming it is “artistic expression.” But would it be “artistic expression” if a house of worship featured a parody of drag queens, depicting them as pedophiles who get their jollies by raping kids? That could be seen as entertaining, couldn’t it be?
The church’s website also features a doctored video of Pope Leo XIV refusing to shake hands with President Trump. Posting this video must have made them giggle—we can almost hear them yucking it up like little boys and girls. Sorry about that folks—our new pope is not like you guys, not by a long shot.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is close to death, a death of its own making. But not all examples of institutional suicide are to be mourned. Some should be celebrated.
