How the Church Got Here ยท Chapter 12
How has the church admitted its wrongs, and how is it working with other Christians now?
Churches are made of forgiven sinners, so churches get things wrong too. Sometimes very wrong. Today you'll see how Lutherans have said sorry out loud, and how Christians who once fought are learning to pray together.
Start this chapterSorry and together
Luther wrote cruel things about Jewish people late in his life. Centuries later, the Nazis used them to stir up hatred against Jewish people. In 1994 the ELCA rejected those writings and said it was deeply sorry for the harm they caused.
Many churches, including Lutherans, took part in harming Native peoples and in slavery and racism. In 2016 the ELCA rejected the Doctrine of Discovery, the old idea that Christian nations could take Native lands. In 2019 it apologized to people of African descent, and in 2021 to American Indian and Alaska Native people. The ELCA said these apologies were a first step, and that the work of repair would continue.
Lutherans and Catholics split in the 1500s. They went to war, and they stayed apart for centuries. In 1999 they signed a joint statement agreeing on basic truths about the heart of the Reformation: we are made right with God by grace alone, through faith in Christ, and not by anything we do. Some differences remain. In 2016 Lutheran and Catholic leaders prayed together in Sweden to begin marking 500 years since the Reformation.
The ELCA is also in full communion, sharing the Lord's Supper and ministry, with several other churches, including Episcopal, Presbyterian, Reformed, Moravian, United Church of Christ, and United Methodist churches. Jesus prayed that his followers would be one.
Read it in your Bible
- Ephesians 2:14. Paul says Christ is our peace. He has made two groups into one and broken down the wall of hostility that divided them.
Words to know
- Repent. To admit a wrong and turn around, something churches do too. The church lives by forgiveness. That includes asking for it.
- Apology. What the ELCA offered in 2019 to people of African descent. An apology names the wrong. Then the work of repair begins.
- Ecumenism. Christians of different churches working and praying toward unity. It comes from a Greek word for the whole inhabited world.
- Unity. What Jesus prayed for: that his followers may all be one. Unity doesn't mean everyone is the same. It means we belong to one Lord.