wfn.org | LWF President Urges Lutherans to Overcome 'Genetic Resistance'

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank_Imhoff@elca.org>]

LWF President Urges Lutherans to Overcome 'Genetic Resistance' to Sharing Their Faith
Christians Urged to Maintain a Prophetic Voice, Learn to Deal with Ambiguity

LWF Council Meeting, Geneva 1 - 7 September 2004

PRESS RELEASE NO. 06-2004

GENEVA, 2 September 2004 (LWI) - In a press conference following his Address to the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Council, LWF President, Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson said that, while evangelical Christians were happy to talk about the experience of God in their life, Lutherans seemed to be "genetically resistant" to the public expression of their faith. 

While faith is almost corporate, and lived for the sake of the world, it can also have deeply personal moments. "We need to help Lutherans to speak more about their experience of God in their life," he said. Hanson is Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Witnessing was another thing that he suggested many Lutherans do not do well, or at all. "We must be more courageous about speaking about God in our lives," he said.

The LWF president was responding to a journalist's comment that churches in the Southern hemisphere were growing while those in the Northern hemisphere were shrinking. Asked if he could offer an explanation for this trend, he said, "People in the Southern hemisphere churches can't talk about Jesus outside of the context of their neighbor's physical wellbeing and economic situation." Faith and life were bound together by the circumstances of Christians who lived in the south. By contrast, it was very easy for people in Northern churches to privatize their faith and disassociate it from its place in the world, Hanson.

As an example of the stagnation of Northern churches, Hanson described the situation of the ELCA. Over the last year, membership had dropped by 1 percent representing 53,000 baptized members. The average age of ELCA members is ten years older than the general population. Ninety-seven percent of ELCA membership is white, in a cultural context that is increasingly culturally and ethnically diverse. "Meanwhile, we see growth in the Southern hemisphere," Hanson said, where lay evangelists readily share their faith with others. "We can learn some of the practices of evangelical churches without adopting their theology."

Asked if Northern churches were willing to learn from the experience of the Southern churches, Hanson said he was not sure that Northern churches were prepared for the full implications of what the Southern churches had to share. While Northern churches might want to know how to make their churches grow, they might not be so open to the rest of the story*the economic impact. "Northern churches might just want to hear the part that keeps them feeling comfortable," Hanson said. "But the full story is one that also transforms us." 


Christians Must Maintain a Prophetic Voice and Learn to Deal with Ambiguity
 
"We have not usually thought of religious leaders as prophets," Hanson said, answering a question about his commitment to speaking out against injustice. From biblical times onward, he noted, prophets have been at the fringe of religious communities, not at the center. He said it was very challenging as a religious leader to exercise a prophetic voice when "one is more at the center than on the edge, when one can be seen as aligned more with power than with the victims of that power." 

Hanson pointed out that the separation of church and state did not mean that people of faith should be silent about the state's actions or not participate in the formulation of state policies. "The vocation of every baptized person is to be striving for peace and justice in the world," he said. "The vocation of every baptized person is to bear witness by word and deed to the reconciliation of Christ in the world." 

But within the Christian community opinions differ as to how one bears witness to Christ's reconciling work. Iraq was a good example, he said: How should Christians respond to a dictator who is causing great suffering among his people? He described the situation as a complex one and for which there could not be a simple solution.

But in the months leading up to the war, Hanson said that he was disappointed that more of the churches were not engaged in lively public conversation about what was the moral and just response to the Iraqi situation. "I am trying to lead a church that encourages people to think before a decision is taken, and not just to react once the decision is made," said Hanson. "Complex problems are not easy to deal with in a context where we treat people as simple minded consumers. We look for black and white answers. We have not nurtured a culture that deals well with ambiguity, yet we live in a world that is filled with ambiguity. Iraq was one of those ambiguous situations which called for complex critical thinking," he said.

In recent weeks Hanson has met with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and US elected leaders, and expressed concern about the continuing violence in Iraq, as well as international cooperation in humanitarian relief and peace throughout the Middle East, among other issues. 

(Written for LWI by Linda Macqueen, Editor, The Lutheran, Australia. Macqueen is working with the LWF communication team at this year's Council meeting.)

There are around 100 church representatives including the 49-member Council attending this year's meeting at Chavannes-de-Bogis near Geneva.  In addition there are 70 participants consisting of interpreters, invited guests, LWF staff persons and stewards. The Council is the LWF governing body between Assemblies, normally held every six years. The current Council was elected at the July 2003 LWF Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada, where it held its first meeting. The Council comprises the President, the Treasurer and ordained as well as lay persons drawn from the LWF member churches. The LWF currently has 136 member churches in 76 countries all over the world, representing 62.3 million of the estimated 66 million Lutherans worldwide.  

During the Council meeting, the LWF Office for Communication Services can be reached by telephone at +41 22 960 8282, or at (mobile) +41 (0)76 396 2863.

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(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. It was founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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Pauline Mumia
Editor - English
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