Lutherans take The Hill
After a 17-year hiatus, conservative Lutherans are back in Washington, D.C., defending religious liberty, Biblical marriage, and the sanctity of life with the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty.
The conservative Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has had a “small presence” in Washington, D.C., said Greg Seltz, newly appointed LCRC executive director. But with the creation in 2015 of the new religious liberty center, the synod expanded that influence to address issues of growing concern within the denomination and the church at large.
Missouri Synod President Matthew Harrison’s 2012 congressional testimony regarding the Health and Human Services contraceptive and abortifacient mandates served as a prescient moment for the denomination, making it “clear the time was right to move forward,” Seltz said.
The center will offer a “uniquely Lutheran, two-kingdom” perspective on public policy for Missouri Synod congressmen and lay members. Seltz said a Christian’s ability—and right—to exercise their faith in the public square is foundational to the Christian faith but is sorely misunderstood.
“When [Christians] exercise those rights, they do not impose their faith on the culture, rather they engage the culture from the perspective of a Christian-moral worldview,” he said. “Critics tend to be confused by this distinction, sadly at times seeking to unconstitutionally deny Christians the right to engage the culture at all.” —B.P.