A statement from President Harrison on the death of Justice Scalia

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 79, was found dead at a Texas ranch on Saturday morning, Feb. 13, 2016.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!” (Rom. 11:33).

We have received the news of the death of Justice Scalia with deep shock. 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. 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 progressivism 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. 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.

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.

Matthew C. Harrison
President, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
St. Louis, Missouri