In reply to Anne Dobbins.

If the slippery semantics of a statement such as, “Thrivent is not a Christian organization; it is an organization made up of Christians” is some lame attempt to rationalize the organization’s recent fraternal floundering and assuage its corporate conscience, it won’t pass the sniff test for most of us who are a bit more concerned about saving lives than saving face. With all due respect to our brothers and sisters in the ELCA, the response by the gentlemen from Thrivent immediately reminded me of all of the ELCA seminaries’ theological departments that teach “the Bible CONTAINS the Word of God” rather than that “the Bible IS the Word of God.” That’s rather sad and sneaky. I would suggest that a more pragmatic response to Thrivent’s neutrality stance—at least initially—is not to withdraw funds immediately but to take names and kick butt, utilizing your voting power when members of its Board of Directors come up for election and then to insist upon targeted changes in elected and hired personnel who ultimately are responsible for making ill advised decisions such as this “neutrality” fiasco. The bottom line is that a corporate entity that claims both fraternal status and the goal of serving “Christians” does not get the right, privilege or luxury of trying to wordsmith its way out of a spineless decision that flies in the face of God’s inspired and inerrant Word.