The Feb. 13 death of conservative, long-time U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 79, at a resort in West Texas was received “with deep shock,” writes LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison in a statement released the following day on the Synod’s Facebook page.
“On the moral issues, on which The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has taken a public stand (life, marriage and religious freedom), we and all creedal and biblically oriented Christians had no more stalwart friend on the Supreme Court than Justice Scalia,” Harrison writes.
“He articulated the voice of consistent rationality and unchanging natural law — the very voice and sentiment of the founders of this nation — in the face of progressives on the court, which has left our nation morally depleted.
“Unfortunately the death of a great man is often a harbinger of worse things to come,” the statement continues. “Can the Supreme Court harm this nation even more than it has? Are 57 million abortions not enough? Unfortunately, we may well fall to even deeper depths of degradation.”
Harrison’s statement ends with a prayer: “Spare us, O God, from what we deserve, and give this nation leaders and justices who recognize the unchanging and rational truth of natural law, which accords with the Ten Commandments. And grant us justices and leaders who recognize, as did our founders, the great benefit of a religious citizenry for the well-being of all. Amen.”
Read complete statementPosted Feb. 15, 2016
