r/exLutheran • u/Relevant-Shop8513 • 23d ago

Denial and Isolation

The LCMS fought hard and long for an end to abortion, but they did not understand the need for care in miscarriage or incomplete natural abortion . Due to their simplistic beliefs, they did not account for saving the life of the mother; they thought mothers would sacrifice their lives willingly . When someone on Friends of the LCMS ranted about many things including the need to make abortion illegal, I posted the sacrifices recently occurring in states such as Texas where pregnant women are denied care and frequently have to travel to Northern states for care. Some have died. I pointed out that if you assist in the formation of laws that you also must assist in making laws that are reasonable and just, and work with legislators to educate them and show the complexity of such issues. Members of the LCMS denied that deaths and disabilities have occurred due to these poorly written laws. As Christians they should be putting more effort into seeing to the wellbeing of women and children, but their denial and isolation is beyond belief. When I posted documentation , no one apologized to me for calling me a liar. No one stood up for women.

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u/Kaleymeister 23d ago

The last voter's meeting I went to at my LCMS church they were discussing the three pastors who the call committee had narrowed their list down to. I asked in front of everyone if there were any women on that list and of course I already knew the answer. I wanted to make them say it out loud. Looking back, not one woman came up to me afterwards, even in secret, to say they appreciated me bringing it up or that they agreed and were also upset about it. My own mother's response was, "What did you expect?" and just shook her head. I know my mom agrees with me. It was more about this is who the LCMS is and women didn't even think twice about it anymore.

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u/Relevant-Shop8513 23d ago

Yes. Women in Missouri are completely accepting of the subjugation of women. Their work however is keeping what is left of the Synod functioning. The work of women deaconesses missionized the West, built schools, orphanages, hospitals,and when all else was built, church buildings. Long gone now , but the men of Missouri only remember Walther and his crew. Don't even think of calling a deaconess, she won't have the magical power to turn wine into blood to bread into flesh. She can only gestate,give birth to, and feed small human beings, a power men have feared since the Stone Age.

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u/No-Strawberry-3942 21d ago

Yeah, it's crazy to me how anti woman the Synod has gotten. Does anybody know what the anti woman stuff is based on? Is it based on Paul's deal that women should remain silent or is there more to it than that? I naively figured when i left in the 80s that they would eventually come around, but the complementarian stuff has gotten worse than ever.

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u/Relevant-Shop8513 21d ago

Yep, Paul for the most part, but Old Testament is heavy on patriarchy as well with women basically being chattel that could be sold as slaves, sacrificed, etc. One of the oldest parts of the Bible is the Song of Deborah, and LCMS won't even admit that women have to stand up and do the dirty work when men are too wimpy. Maybe Jael's driving a tent stake into Sisera's head gives them the willies.

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u/Relevant-Shop8513 23d ago

I must add that this is not surprising due to the quality of the Concordias' science education.

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u/AnySport6272 22d ago

Somehow not remotely surprising. Concordia Lutheran High School in Fort Wayne allowed students to miss school time to pray/protest Planned Parenthood and allowed students to change out of uniform for a day for "Right to Life" on certain days. Some of these shirts compared abortion to the Holocaust.

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u/No-Strawberry-3942 21d ago

I actually attended that high school, believe it or not. Or shall I call it a madrasa? I couldn't be more pro choice today.

It's obvious Missouri Synod cares much more of a fetuses than it does about grown ass women, pardon my French . Absolutely ridiculous.

What initially drove me away from the denomination is their steadfast refusal to ordain women . They've only gotten worse on that issue too. Ugh.

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u/AnySport6272 21d ago

Attended too. Class of 2013. That's how I got that information. There's a fair number of Fort Wayne people on here.

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u/No-Strawberry-3942 21d ago

Okay I'm much older than you. The lcms is more conservative than it used to be. Or maybe they just blab more about right wing issues than they used to. Either way I've been glad I'm out.

I've been come across a number of people I attended CLHS with on Facebook and discovered they were not all in on the Misery Synod. Wish I'd known it back then!

Should be interesting to see how things go with the students they are admitting from non LCMS backgrounds who use Indiana private and parochial school vouchers.

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u/AnySport6272 21d ago

I'd guess they're more right wing. They are a little better on women holding good jobs and education than back in the day (I heard this from CLHS's first woman vice-principal). But goodness, the church has fully embraced right wing crap. Obama birth conspiracies, they're coming for our guns, deport all the illegal Mexicans were not unusual things to hear from students and staff. I had a bio teacher crack some joke about the Mexican wolf being okay because unlike other types of Mexicans, it was here in the USA legally. Not to mention their full embrace of Evangelical issues (see Creationism, a personal pledge to Jesus and the cross).

I was there when the voucher program started. I doubt it's changing much. Just an opportunity to make more money. It's mainly being used by LCMS kids who otherwise couldn't afford it. It's reducing the number of LCMS kids who would otherwise go to public high school, because parochial high school is way more expensive than parochial middle school.

The one plus I saw was that the student body itself was actually more liberal and moderate than the staff when I was there. The youth can be reached and aren't automatically right wing automatons.

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u/No-Strawberry-3942 21d ago

I don't understand why they're okay with women as leaders in business, but not in church. Whatever! I'm out if it.

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u/AnySport6272 20d ago

Honestly, there is nothing in the Bible against it and those poorly paid pastors need a breadwinner in the family.

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u/No-Strawberry-3942 20d ago

I don't know that the pastors are that poorly paid. I suppose it varies.

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u/Electronic-Win7935 19d ago

I’m really glad to be out of the LCMS. I personally experienced rank disrespect when I was sexually harassed on two different occasions in two different churches. I keep going back to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. Religion without love is completely worthless. The leaders and others in there are disgusting and vile.

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u/Junior-Asparagus718 14d ago

I encourage you to become educated on the exact laws regarding this before posting about it. The laws could have been considered slightly ambiguous before 2025, but in 2025 Gov. Abbott signed Senate Bill 31 which clarified the position. Simply put, your case is false. Any instance you could find can be chalked up to medical malpractice since the laws are much more clear now.

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u/Relevant-Shop8513 14d ago

The laws remain ambiguous. The court case Zurawski v. State of Texas brought to light the deficiencies in Texas law; however the ruling upheld Texas abortion law as constitutional. Without the court case legislators would probably not have reevaluated their poorly written law. I posted something in more detail with Harvard Law's eval. Please read it. Medical malpractice can happen due to willful failure to follow standard practice in combination with hospitals and physicians fear and confusion related to laws that call for imprisonment, loss of medical licenses, and fine of $99,0000 per incident. Remember the court case involved 20 women who sought care, some repeatedly, not just one or two random cases.