In Harmony With the Doctrine and Practice of the LCMS?
Recognized Service Organizations and the LCMS
Recognized Service Organizations are independent organizations that the LCMS partners with. Per the LCMS website: “To extend its mission outreach, education and social ministry, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod works with independent Recognized Service Organizations (RSOs) that agree to ensure their programs are in harmony with the doctrine and practice of the LCMS.”
I’m involved with two RSOs, and they are excellent orthodox and confessional Lutheran organizations doing educational and mission work in tandem with the LCMS.
X (formerly Twitter) is abuzz with one that is, to say the least, controversial. I’m not taking credit for discovering this. Like everyone else, I owe a debt to those on X who have shown us what is going on. As a member of Synod, I have no idea who is responsible for RSOs. Do RSOs have to undergo periodic reviews to make sure that their “programs” remain “in harmony with the doctrine and practice of the LCMS”?
According to the RSO directory, Lutheran Community Services Northwest is one such organization recognized by our Synod as being “in harmony with the doctrine and practice of the LCMS.” Per their website, they are “making our world a safer, healthier and more hopeful place to live.” Their strategic plan is available for anyone to download, and assures us that:
it puts diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront of all our work. The plan describes a set of commitments and creates a framework for staff to embrace DEI principles in specific ways.
and:
LCSNW recognizes that structural inequity, unconscious bias and institutional racism are prevalent in society, and that achieving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) means that we deliver quality care, services and opportunities to reflect our communities’ broad spectrum of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality, age, disability status and sexual orientation.
And here is their DEI Action Plan (note - this has become a dead link. But here is their “strategic plan” - see page 8 for the DEI stuff).
In the aftermath of the George Floyd riots, they announced advocacy of BLM and the narrative of “police brutality.” Interestingly for a Lutheran organization, their website mentions Martin Luther King more than Martin Luther.
And for them, “Pride is more than a month at LCSNW; it’s a mindset to serve LGBTQ clients.” They are also partners with the Odyssey Youth Movement, who are sponsors of the Youth Queer Prom, especially for children and young adults aged 13-18, and the V-Day Ball for a “night of drag.” LGSNW helped a homosexual Saudi man immigrate to the US.
And speaking of immigration, they are “undaunted by [the] new President’s anti-immigrant orders.”
LCSNW includes a tribute to a lady who was introduced to the organization by an associate who “worked with FamilyBuilders [a program of LCSNW] on many adoption cases, including one of the first adoptions by a gay couple.” In another account on their webpage, they helped a “single gay man” adopt a baby girl, since he “had the spiritual belief that he was meant to be a parent” and “it was like the Holy Spirit descended on” him. Here is the story of LCSNW’s work on behalf of a” transgender person” whose “preferred gender pronouns” are “he/him,” even though “most customers refer to Kieran as she/her. He’s [sic] learned to not let gender confusion bother him.”
According to their website:
LCSNW and Lutheran Services in America share an affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS).
Their Board of Directors features members from the LCMS Northwest District, as well as the Northwest Intermountain Synod (ELCA), the Southwest Washington Synod (ELCA), the Northwest Washington Synod (ELCA), and the Oregon Synod (ELCA). Here is a promotion of LCSNW by the LCMS Northwest District.
Their website does mention Jesus. Once: “When Jesus was a toddler, he was a refugee.” However, it should be noted, according to one of the program directors, who is a Muslim, that “Ramadan observances” are becoming “more prevalent among LCSNW staff [and] clients.”
Thoughts?
Thank-you, brother Larry. As heretical as this Registered Service Organization of the Lutheran Church LCMS is, the real problem here is the conditions in LCMS leadership that result in Woke Marxist outbreaks like this. It's the same with the outbreaks of Woke Marxism in the LCMS's Concordia University System. Concordia University Wisconsin, for example. For more, see the Preface and Chapter One in Anatomy of an Implosion at https://a.co/d/2oeNwKe and worldwide on all Amazons, Barnes & Noble, and more. In a word, the willful ignorance of Scripture and the Formula of Concord by the administrative church has left Lutheran institutions wide open to all sorts of heretically transmitted diseases (HTDs). Woke Marxism is just the current epidemic.
I urge the leadership of the LCMS to review all RSOs for agreement with our doctrinal practices. Those that are not in agreement should be encouraged to come into agreement or they should be dropped as a RSO of the LCMS.