In reply to Robert Meyer.

Robert, with all due respect, I have a better question for you - what are you doing on behalf of those who have been elected your leaders, whether you voted for them or not? As God places governments in the civil realm, so also does he for do the same for His Church.

The atmosphere created by President Harrison so far is the finest I have seen in all my years in the LC-MS in terms of trying to transcend the partisan pettiness and bickering that has accompanied too much of our history. But it can only go as far as what the people of our synod, regardless of how they may have (at least previously) aligned themselves politically, are willing to come together and attain our initiatives as one church.

I tired long ago of the we vs. they mentality that is found in way too many corners of our church body through the years - everywhere from differences of opinion in worship styles to different emphases of the perception of the vision and direction of our church.

The enemy is Satan - not those who have a different church political philosophy. The enemy is being strengthened by emptying pews, a generation that cares less and less about church, regardless of who is in charge, and a society that is becoming downright antithetical to the Christian philosophy and roots of our great and free nation.

So I ask again - what are you doing on behalf of those who have been elected as your leaders, whether you voted for them or not? Are you praying for them every day? Are you giving them the respect that comes with the Office of the Presidency of our Church Body? Are you genuinely trying to work in your own little corner at furthering the initiatives of the church, realizing that they are for the ENTIRE church?

In my years, I have gotten to know, to respect, and to seek out the opinions and counsel of Presidents Barry, Kieschnick and Harrison. I am grateful for the service each of them (along with former Presidents Bohlmann and Kuhn, who I did not get to know) have provided to our church.

Questions like yours, which may or may not reflect your own personal view towards our current president, build in a false assumption that things need to be done a certain way or the game of, "He isn't MY president" will be allowed to commence. Nothing is more harmful to the church, especially as we enter the twenty-teens, as that attitude.

We are all best served both in prayer, finding ways to work together, and leaving behind questions that would seek to divide us.