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Response to Charges I am a 55 year old Christian, baptized at age two weeks into the faith at Gospel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by my maternal grandfather, Dr. J.F. Boerger. My maternal great-grandfather Julius Friedrich founded twenty LCMS congregations in western Wisconsin; my maternal grandfather was the President of the Wisconsin District of the LCMS and a half-century shepherd at St. John Lutheran Church, Racine, Wisconsin. I was brought up in that family tradition. I have clung to my baptismal promise through life in the way of any good Lutheran Christian - we are born again on a daily basis through baptismal renewal, confessing sin and receiving divine mercy and grace in Christ without any merit or worthiness in us. My two brothers, Michael and Robert, are LCMS pastors in Reno, Nevada and Concordia, St. Paul, Minnesota. I was ordained at Christ Memorial Lutheran Church in Milwaukee on June 12, l972, and have served in four pastoral positions since that time, all in urban settings - in central St. Louis at Zion Lutheran, in Queens New York at Martin Luther High School, in East New York Brooklyn New York at St. Peter's Lutheran (twice), and as President of the Atlantic District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod with offices in Bronxville and home in Queen New York. What is to follow is my response to charges placed against me with the President of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod for false doctrine, specifically syncretism. These charges have been filed by seventeen Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastors and one LCMS congregation under the LCMS Handbook Bylaw 2.27g. I wish to state from the outset that I bring no pretensions of personal perfection or self-righteousness to this official response. Instead it is my desire through the explication of events and decisions in my life and public ministry in New York City following the destruction of the World Trade Center complex on September 11, 2001, to serve both Lord and Church. I will proceed as follows: 1) Introductory remarks 1) INTRODUCTORY REMARKS "There are (also) once-in-a-lifetime situations. It is virtually impossible to anticipate all such situations or to establish rules in advance." (CTCR Report encapsulated in 2001 LCMS Convention Resolution 3-07A and adopted for continued use and guidance) (Attachment 1) On September 11, 2001, a disaster fell upon the citizens of the metropolitan New York City area of a magnitude unmatched in the history of the United States of America. Over 3000 people were killed in a terrorist attack upon the World Trade Center complex. Thousands upon thousands more have been traumatized physically, emotionally, spiritually and financially. My pastoral judgments as the result of what we all pray will be a once-in-a-lifetime disaster in our country are what lie behind the charges filed against me As residents of New York City for the past 28 years of our lives, my wife, Judy, and myself along with 13 million others were and are stunned, shocked and overcome by what happened on September 11. For New Yorkers, there is no distance between September 11 and January 11, 2002. "Once-in-a-lifetime" continues as New York City leaders in the civic, religious and business spheres face together the horror, the tragedy and the unique opportunities (for me they are Gospel opportunities) that appear every day. I need to state this clearly from the very beginning of my response:
I have stated it this way frequently: for those in metropolitan New York "Ground Zero" is a hole in the ground sixty miles in circumference and six feet deep. It is a hole re-opened with every funeral, every memorial service, and every new body part brought up to the surface. It is a hole re-opened whenever and wherever the psychological, social, spiritual and tangible needs of children and adults surface who have been impacted by the loss of a friend, a family member, a coworker, or by the loss of a job or a home or an opportunity or a sense of hope. Sixty five parishioners and family members of Lutheran school children were killed at Ground Zero - when we do the math it is multiplication, not addition. We are not watching this on TV, or on videotape. It is live, every day. The absolute nature of the destruction must be mirrored by the absolute dedication of God's baptized people to bring Christ's healing and mercy in word and deed to every new day. That dedication describes the direction in ministry of every pastor, every missionary, every parish, every mission and every school and ministry in the Atlantic District, LCMS, which I serve as President while also serving as Pastor of one of its parishes, St. Peter's in Brooklyn. It also describes the direction in ministry of the Lutheran Disaster Response team, which I co-chair. The Atlantic District is composed of 102 congregations with 41,000 baptized members, 15-20 preaching stations among mostly immigrant groups from around the world, 54 schools, three high schools, Concordia College, and a twelve institution consortium of social service organizations. The territory of the Atlantic District extends from the tip of Long Island up to Canada in the eastern half of New York State. Eighty five percent of its congregations and all but two of its preaching stations are located in the New York City metropolitan area. Last year the Atlantic District began more new ethnic and urban missions than any other Synodical District. There are two missions to Jews, two to Hindus, three to Muslims including Indo-Pak and Bengali, five preaching stations among African immigrants of all backgrounds, two new Chinese missions targeting Buddhists, three Korean missions, new work among the Deaf, a new Japanese outreach, and a new mission field developer among Hispanics. There is also a strong African American and Caribbean presence in the congregations of the District. All are in the metropolitan New York area. We have labored long and hard in staff and volunteer service for the sake of the ministry of the Gospel among our own incredibly diverse constituency every day since September 11. I suffered a heart attack on July 31 at the LCMS National Youth Gathering in New Orleans. I was entering, I thought, an autumn of reduced work load so that I could acclimate to the medications prescribed for me in a less stressful environment. September 11 changed all that. For weeks thereafter I could sleep no more than three hours a night. Stress has become my middle name. And yet, as a friend has said, "Even though you can't stand the pain, you can get through the pain, because the ministers of the Gospel of Jesus understand that to be with Him and in Him is to share in His sufferings." Charges that could lead to my removal from the roster of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and my positions of pastoral leadership at many levels of church work in New York at this time are therefore extremely serious not only personally but in terms of the spiritual lives of thousands of people and the continued strength of many important Lutheran institutions. For that reason, I will attempt to answer these charges completely, vigorously and evangelically. The times and the state of the church here demand that level of response. 2) "Lifting Up the Poor with the voices of Faith" and September 23, 2001 One of our outreach involvements was in the urban housing success story called the Nehemiah Plan. Sponsored by a 55 congregation ecumenical consortium called East Brooklyn Congregations, the Nehemiah Plan has brought about the rebuilding of entire neighborhoods through the construction of 4000 single family homes on previously devastated Brooklyn acreage (along with thousands more homes across the country through the national Nehemiah Plan). A key component of the Nehemiah Plan has been the development of an interest-free loan pool made up of ecumenically produced funds. At my urging, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod was the first denomination to commit financially to the Nehemiah Plan. During the mid-1980s there were many ecumenical inter-Christian and inter-faith public events and dedications connected to the Nehemiah Plan. LCMS leaders including the Secretary, Herbert Mueller, and the First Vice-President, Robert Sauer, attended and participated in these events and were on the podium with religious dignitaries, including the Roman Catholic bishop as well as Protestant and Jewish leaders. (Attachments/Exhibits 3 and 4) These events included invocation, benediction, prayers, speeches and songs. They were universally approved by LCMS top leadership including then President Ralph Bohlmann and then Mission Executive Ed Westcott as being civic events at which prayer participation was permitted and encouraged as an aspect of an expanded pastoral role in "full Gospel" incarnational mission outreach. Each LCMS leader present both participated and attended these civic events at the behest and with the permission of the wider church. LCMS pride in ecumenical and interfaith housing activities nationally and locally resulted in my guest appearance at the 1986 Synodical Convention in Indianapolis. The purpose of LCMS participation in the Nehemiah Plan was to further mission outreach by bringing people to devastated urban neighborhoods even as the Gospel was proclaimed in word and deed to poor and working poor populations. The Nehemiah Plan has succeeded beyond every level of LCMS expectation. It did so striding boldly into the public square in real world financial and homebuilding/homebuying assistance that absolutely transformed burned-out neighborhoods into renewed and restored communities. This was invariably accompanied by outreach for souls and appropriate joint prayer and celebration all along the way. Therefore in 1998 when a grave civic difficulty in work among the poor surfaced in New York City, after consultation with local pastoral leaders I
participated in the prayer service for the poor entitled "Lift Up the Poor with the Voices of Faith" at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The distinctive features of this involvement that made it a different type
of participation were pointed out to me by then Synodical President A. L. Barry at a meeting held with the Synodical Praesidium (President and five Vice-Presidents) on October 22, 1998. Those differences were: An apology was prepared for me by the Office of the Synodical President and presented to me prior to my speaking on October 22, 1998, with the specific provision that action to suspend me from the clergy roster of the LCMS would commence were I not to sign the apology by that evening. After making several important adjustments to the presented apology, I signed an amended version (attachments 5 and 6). Because the apology had been prepared for me, I asked questions regarding its contents throughout the proceedings. The area of biblical and confessional witness, mentioned from the papers of Dr. Barry in the charges submitted on November 12, 2001, by the initial five pastors, surfaced during that question period. Rev. Charles Froehlich, First Vice President of the Atlanti District, who flew out to serve as my witness at Atlantic District expense, offers his observations regarding the Barry papers and their pertinence in Attachment 7. Dr. Barry had declared the case "resolved" on October 22, 1998 (Attachment 8). Subsequently, particularly after the publication of "The Scandal Is In The Specifics" (see above and attachment), questions were raised by one of the five pastors pressing the November 12, 2001 charges about whether the apology was sincere (Attachment 9). I had written to Dr. Barry a strongly worded response regarding such additional charges (Attachment 10). Dr. Barry subsequently declared the case "closed" at the end of 1998 in a written response. I had held that the basis for the sincerity of my apology would be whether I upheld its terms (see attached letter to a questioner, November, 1999). In point of fact I did uphold the terms of the apology rigorously, refraining from participating at another major ecumenical prayer service at St. Patrick's Cathedral at a time of civic crisis (Attachment 11) (in this case an empty chair was actually left in front of the altar signifying the spot I would have filled), and refraining from serving as an officiant at an interLutheran installation, among many such opportunities declined. In conclusion, therefore,
Prefatory Remarks: I would like to begin by acknowledging what I consider to be true spiritual leadership. I have found that leadership in the person of LCMS President Gerald B. Kieschnick. First, all readers should know that he called me on September 11 in the morning and pledged his support to all efforts and comfort and renewal even as the devastation unfolded in front of our eyes. He prayed with me over the telephone on September 11. He prayed with me every day for the next eleven days. Furthermore, from day one, he brought to bear the forces of his office to ensure the rapid organization of disaster response and communication of our need. Within three days, he made sure he found a way to come to New York City, and did so on September 19. He did this within days of his inauguration into office, dropping all of the other obligations of his office to be with us in New York and to stand with us in our every action. This is genuine spiritual leadership. I speak not only for myself, but for the congregations, pastors, missionaries, missions, schools, teachers and administrators, and baptized members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in the Atlantic District. As stated above, we in metropolitan New York City have not been watching on TV or videotape what has transpired since September 11. The constant sight of the site of the devastation is an open wound in our consciousness. The one sight mirrors
I will now describe some of what it was like for me to be alive and in New York from September 11 through September 23. It is salutary for me to do so for my own sake. It is salutary for those who have supported me every step of the way to walk those steps with me. It is salutary finally for those who have brought these charges and opposed my presence at Yankee Stadium. For them, I want to assist in an understanding that the micro-examination of every syllable that I spoke at Yankee Stadium does not get at the reasons for my participation, nor get to the level of what was being communicated by the presence of an LCMS clergyman offering a prayer in the Name of Jesus there that day. Watching the entire program on videotape again does not begin to address the significance of the program in the context of real life in New York at that time and up until today. For us it continues, unabated. Tuesday, September 11 At 8:50 AM, I received a phone call from Rev. William Wrede, who told me that a plane had struck the World Trade Center; he asked for permission to go into Manhattan and minister to those involved. I told him to go, hung up the phone, uttered a brief prayer, and began looking for an on-campus television. Soon the second plane hit Tower Two. Within an hour and a half, both buildings had fallen. We convened our staff meeting, spent most of it in prayer, and then I told the staff that everything had changed ineradicably in the Atlantic District. The shape of our mission and ministry would be altered, I said, in directions we could not as yet know or see. I contacted Judy, who had seen the second plane hit from the bridge crossing. She was now assisting frantic parents in picking up children. She eventually went home and found the return trip of 20 miles took 4-5 hours, as bridges were closed and outbound traffic jammed. I then left, and had my first non-televised sighting of the destruction and smoke as I crossed the Throg's Neck Bridge. To a New Yorker, the smoke and fire there, and now the absence of the Towers from our unique skyline, is a continually transfixing experience. I went home, changed clothes, and left for St. Peter's church and school, where I serve as Pastor. The school staff and children (150 enrolled, from ages 3-7) were extremely anxious as parents arrived, recounting how they had fled lower Manhattan. Many parents arrived covered in dust, shaking with fear, concerned for family members, neighbors and friends. They filled the sanctuary, seeking refuge in the house of God. A congregational member, Richard Ramirez, was known to have been in Tower One; his mother called to say he had left a message that he was OK, but they didn't know if he made it out. More prayers were prayed. ELCA Bishop Bouman called and asked if I would tend to the needs of those at Lutheran Medical Center in western Brooklyn. I left the church to go to the hospital. Since all the major roadways into Manhattan had been closed under police order, I had to receive permission to take the Belt Parkway to the Medical Center. I was the only non-official car on the road, and for about five miles, the only vehicle on the road. Turning the corner of the highway to the north after the Verazzano Narrows Bridge, the true devastation of lower Manhattan came into view, along with rolls of smoke. The ELCA chaplain at Lutheran Medical Center met me, and we toured the hospital. The emergency area seemed relatively empty, with only a small percentage of beds taken, many of them with firefighters and others suffering from smoke inhalation; this was due, he said, to the designation of Lutheran Medical Center as a major trauma center in case of disaster/emergency. The tragedy, as I viewed it, was that there were so few trauma cases. All the medical personnel knew that this meant that virtually all of the people under the rubble and smoke that we could see from the window were dead. The shape of his ministry that night was to reach out to the emergency teams in their anxiety. We prayed together and I left the building around 9 PM. Outside the police were gathered in great numbers. The neighborhood near the hospital holds the largest concentration of Arab Muslims in New York City. There was great fear of retaliatory violence. The neighborhood had literally been cordoned off. I immediately thought of our many East Indian and Muslim-oriented missionaries in the Atlantic District, and prayed that they would not now face discrimination and violence because of their background or skin color. All too soon, that did begin to happen. I found out on the way that Richard Ramirez, the parishioner who had been in Tower One, had made it home. And all the parents of St. Peter's School had come to pick up their children. Wednesday, September 12
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