The text below is excerpted from an email I received yesterday from my pastor, forwarded from Lutheran Bishop William Chris Boerger.I am sure that most of you have heard of the tragic events at Reformation Lutheran Church, Wichita, Kansas Sunday. Dr. George Tiller was serving as an usher when a person who had been visiting the congregation in the past weeks approached him and shot him at close range. Dr. Tiller had been the center of the abortion controversy for a number of years.
Regardless of our convictions related to abortion, the use of violence is never the way to address our difference. There is no justification for this act of violence in a place of worship or on the street for that matter.
As our society is becoming more polarized on these issues of moral decision-making, it is critical that we remember that God has the responsibility for punishing evil. Luther was clear that this office is given to the government and that individuals who are not called to serve in these offices are not to take up violence in response. We do differ in this church about many issues in the cultural debates. The use of words is appropriate, the use of guns is never appropriate in debating these issues.
This will certainly open many questions for us and for the whole nation. It is time for us to be the ones who hear Jesus' words that those without sin may cast the first stone or that those who take the sword will perish by the sword. We are to give witness to the love of Christ for all sinners, including ourselves. It is in the community of faith and forgiveness that the Holy Spirit works repentance. That is our power, not the gun. This is a time for the church to speak and act on its faith and its knowledge that Jesus' death was sufficient. We will not serve God or our neighbor by the use of violence, especially in a house of prayer.
Wm Chris Boerger
Bishop
