Dear Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick,
This message concerns an email sent on October 3, 2008 by the Reverend Russell L. Sommerfeld, the Nebraska District President, addressed to “Dear COP Colleagues.’’ He is responding to an email from my brother Dan Ford sent September 30, 2008. Dan’s message concerns an event sponsored by Wheat Ridge Ministries on October 2-4, 2008 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin titled National Symposium on Health and Hope.
A workshop at this Symposium was presented by an organization called Crossroads Anti-Racism Organization and Training, formerly Crossroads Ministries. As I wrote in a message to the Presidium of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod dated February 1, 2004, Crossroads is committed to the gay agenda. The workshop was led by a female pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America who is a board member of what is now called The Lutheran Network for Inclusive Vision, an organization of leaders in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America who openly promote the ordination and marriage of active homosexuals.
President Sommerfeld stated “Please note that the workshop at the Wheat Ridge Symposium was on anti-racism not homosexuality.’’ The Crossroads website has a document describing the changes that result from their anti-racism training. It is titled CONTINUUM ON BECOMING AN ANTI-RACIST MULTI-CULTURAL INSTITUTION (Page 72).
Here is a quote from a paragraph describing these changes. “Expanding view of diversity includes other socially oppressed groups such as … lesbian, and gays.’’ President Sommerfeld had consulted with President Kieschnick who sent you an email stating “once again the clear biblical position of the LCMS that homosexual behavior is intrinsically sinful.’’ As the CONTINUUM document makes clear Crossroads anti-racism training causes results that are intrinsically sinful.
In a letter to the Presidium dated February 29, 2004 I wrote the following paragraph.
“The Presidium of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod should adopt a policy which directs all of its districts, congregations, pastors, recognized service organizations (RSO’s), auxiliaries, and other affiliates to cease all cooperative efforts with people who are rostered in the Network for Inclusive Vision and indeed in all open homosexual advocacy groups which are evolving in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.’’
This proposal is all the more relevant five years later. I now remove any reference to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to include cooperation with groups such as Crossroads and address this proposal to the Council of Presidents.
The Council of Presidents of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod should adopt a policy which directs all of its districts, congregations, pastors, recognized service organizations (RSO’s), auxiliaries, and other affiliates to cease all cooperative efforts with those who openly advocate the homosexual agenda.
My brother Dan Ford will address other aspects of President Sommerfeld’s email.
Charles E. Ford, Ph.D.
Saint Louis University
Member of Timothy Lutheran Church (LCMS)
St. Louis, MO
