One of the barbs being thrown at Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz is that he is — gasp! — a Lutheran.
And not just any Lutheran. He’s a member of a church affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Far more has been made of Walz’s status as a Lutheran than has been made of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris being a Baptist.
Harris is a member of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, a historic Black church affiliated with the American Baptist Churches in the USA and the National Baptist Convention USA. Walz attends Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minn., which is affiliated with the ELCA.
An article in the conservative Christian Post appears to criticize the church for caring about “woke” things in this prayer listing: “We pray for the loved ones and communities of all victims of gun violence across our country. We pray for those whose lives are altered by climate events. We pray for creation and for an increased will to care for it. We pray for all in the LGBTQIA+ community who face bias, rejection, and violence. We pray that we all may grow in acceptance and each become a voice for acceptance, advocacy, and support.”
The Daily Signal warns that at Walz’s church, “anyone may partake in the Lord’s Supper.”
“Walz is ELCA, an extremely left-wing sub-denomination.”
Mollie Hemingway, editor of The Federalist, expressed: “As a confessional Lutheran, I’m getting a lot of questions about Tim Walz possibly being Lutheran. FWIW, Walz is ELCA, an extremely left-wing sub-denomination. You may be familiar with the ELCA due to some of their congregations using the ‘sparkle creed’ or hosting drag shows.”
The far-far right site Protestia shouted: “Tim Walz’s Lutheran Church is a Trainwreck of Heresy and Blasphemy.”
Christianity Today offered a slightly more nuanced take with this headline: “Walz’s Brand Is More Left than Lutheran Among Minnesota Evangelicals.”
Brian Kaylor, editor of Word&Way, responded: “@CTmagazine headline on Walz says more about evangelicals than Walz. He’s part of largest Lutheran denomination but evangelicals too often want to define mainline Protestants as not real Christians. Article does note ELCA voting data, which undercuts pretty much all the quotes.”
Writing for the ever-conservative World magazine, Levi Secord warned of Walz’s “radical social agenda” and said, “As a Christian in this state, the horrors of his evil agenda are nearly unspeakable.”
Secord is a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The ELCA is the largest Lutheran body in the United States.
Republican and evangelical critics of Walz (and Harris) complain most frequently about his allowances for abortion and gender-affirming care for minors, about his support for Black Lives Matter and the precautions he ordered to keep his state safe from the early days of the COVID pandemic.
In many cases, all these critiques get tied back to his church.
It’s not unusual to be a Lutheran in Minnesota, where 27% of the population identifies with one of the 40 branches of Lutheranism.
Nor is the ELCA an “extremely left-wing sub-denomination” as Hemingway alleges. Instead, the ELCA is the largest Lutheran body in the United States, with about 2.9 million baptized members in 8,640 congregations. The next-largest Lutheran body in the U.S. is the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which claims 1.8 million members in 5,914 congregations.
There are stark differences between the ELCA and the LCMS, however. While the ELCA has taken more progressive stances on women in ministry and LGBTQ inclusion, the LCMS maintains a more conservative posture and has staked its claim with private Christian schools on many campuses. Nationwide, LCMS congregations sponsor more than 800 elementary schools with about 78,000 students. ELCA Lutherans are more likely to be engaged in public schools.
The ELCA was formed in 1988 through the merger of three Lutheran church bodies. According to Pew Research, about 1.4% of Americans are members of ELCA churches.
