LCMS President Harrison letter about U.S. immigration and Lutheran organizations

Feb. 6, 2025

Some facts and reflections about the confusing and complex situation surrounding Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and LCMS Recognized Service Organizations

Dear Saints of the LCMS,

Grace and peace in Jesus!

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Eph. 1:15–23)

As many of you are aware, General Mike Flynn (retired) publicly took to task Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and several other Lutheran social ministry agencies for receiving large federal grants for work with immigrants. That got the attention of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). I was surprised at the dollar amounts involved. The post on X accused LIRS and the other agencies bearing the name Lutheran of “money laundering.” I am writing to provide you with some facts about this complex and confusing situation.

The LCMS is a law-abiding and patriotic church body. We don’t invite or support illegal immigration. We don’t say much to or about the government. We don’t have government contracts. Not one. We leave issues of government to our 1.8 million members and 5,700 active pastors, who act in the civil realm according to their Christian consciences as good citizens. We have spoken as a body to certain issues. The Bible and reason teach us that the unborn have the God-given right to life (Luke 1:39–45). The government has no right to infringe upon religious freedom, including the free exercise of religion. “Thoughts are tax free!” said Martin Luther. All our people are trained from Sunday school and catechism class, and every Sunday sermon, to be good citizens and advocate for just laws, punishment for evildoers and mercy for those in need. Specific views on the details of how the government is involved in this are left to the individual as a citizen.

The LCMS uses legal means to fight for First Amendment rights when those rights are under attack. We have suffered formal legal action and much more as we have watched as DEI philosophy (formally rejected by our church body along with white supremacy) has pervaded nearly every aspect of government activity, even as the U.S. government has burgeoned beyond all ethical and rational propriety, in effect stealing the future from our children. We’ve been inundated with government attacks on those First Amendment rights. This subjects us to anxiety in the workplace, fear and lack of promotion in the military, and constant attacks at public schools and universities for merely following the Bible and sound reason on matters of sex. Our children are subjected to coercion at public schools. Millions of fellow Lutheran saints around the globe are chagrined at U.S. embassies and programs preoccupied with LGBTQ issues in their many different countries, as this program has been carried out globally.

The LCMS loves all people. We believe “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). We are sinners loved by Christ. And Christ bids us, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 19:19). When our congregations, pastors and people come into contact with individuals who are not legally in the U.S., particularly when such individuals find themselves in our churches, we welcome them. We tell them about Jesus’ forgiveness. We also always urge and often assist them in doing the right thing, that is, becoming legal residents. The LCMS is officially pro-immigrant. Our church was founded by German immigrants.

The LCMS is no longer part of LIRS. At its inception, LIRS assisted with the resettlement of many Europeans suffering the devastation of WWII. We still have many people in our church who were children in the late 1940s and early 1950s, who were resettled in the U.S. by LIRS in partnership with our local congregations. They are eternally grateful. That partnership happened again in a remarkable way in the 1970s with many southeast Asians in the wake of the Vietnam War. LIRS was at one time officially related to a number of American Lutheran church bodies, with specific board positions reserved for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and LCMS representatives. As the ELCA wandered away from the clear biblical teachings on sexual morality, this and other intersections of the ELCA and the LCMS (such as Lutheran Disaster Response, institutional chaplaincy, military chaplaincy, Lutheran World Relief and so on) became ever more challenging. As LIRS secularized, it hired a non-Christian, Hindu person to serve as president and CEO. The agency reorganized to become fully independent of its former partner church bodies. This diminished Lutheran identity is reflected in its new name, Global Refuge. For the past five years, the LCMS has provided no funding to LIRS and has provided no official representation on the board.

The post-WWII push within the LCMS toward one Lutheran church body in America that precipitated the disastrous events of the Concordia Seminary Walkout in 1974 brought the LCMS into the Lutheran Council USA, and into various cooperative agencies. Lutheran World Relief likewise became and remains a rebranded independent entity apart from the LCMS. Like LIRS, it does charitable work as a government contractor. There is no specifically Christian content, no sharing of the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.

More than a decade ago, I was part of an LCMS delegation that attended what would be our last Committee on Lutheran Cooperation meeting at the ELCA headquarters in Chicago. The ELCA bishop prayed, avoiding “Father” and “Son” in his prayer. I told him that we would no longer meet. Among other things, including the ELCA’s teachings and statements on sexuality, I told him, “I’m no longer sure we are praying to the same God.” It is difficult enough to carry out what we call “cooperation in externals” (for instance, doing mercy work together without church fellowship for the benefit of people in need) when we no longer agree on what the Gospel is. It is impossible when we can’t even agree on what the Law is.

The LCMS grants special status to certain agencies as Recognized Service Organizations (RSOs). Like LIRS, we have no ownership of, governing authority over or hand in the financial management of such agencies. They are independently audited. Some of the organizations on the list circulated by Flynn for public scrutiny are LCMS RSOs and at the same time retain affiliation with the ELCA. Because of the public uproar over Flynn’s post, many of our LCMS people are asking for a review of these RSOs. Rightly so. We are following up on these concerns. To maintain RSO status in the LCMS, an agency must agree to “[respect] and … not act contrary to the doctrine and practice of the Synod.” In short, our RSOs are not to give themselves over to ELCA doctrine and practice.

Let me just note (and this is NOT an official position of the LCMS): I’m personally pleased with DOGE. The federal government is bloated beyond all rational limits. It can’t fund its activities without accumulating debt. And it’s failing in its basic tasks. Christians believe the government should protect its citizens, maintain just laws, prosper marriage and family, and punish criminals. I think the government is failing across the board. The bigger government becomes, the more it meddles in what should not be its business at all, such as promoting faddish, unscientific philosophies of sex and family to the detriment of those who in good conscience cannot agree — and never will agree no matter the coercion.

I’m sure that General Flynn meant well with his muckraking, but he misses the mark in two ways. First, though I do not agree philosophically with every operational aspect of LIRS, if there is something legally amiss, the blame falls squarely upon the federal government. LIRS — and even our own LCMS RSOs — simply does what the government asks and pays for them to do.

During his first term, President Trump and the First Lady visited one of the LCMS RSOs currently under scrutiny. The president wanted to ensure that the institution would be a place to deliver outstanding care to unaccompanied minors. That agency has been quietly doing this work since that visit. They take the work with profound seriousness and love. They did not and do not deserve the broad brush of disdain brought upon them.

Second, οur immigration laws are a mess. I can safely say our LCMS people are all for removing criminal bad actors from this country. Caesar “beareth not the sword in vain” says St. Paul (Rom. 13:4). There are indeed millions who have broken federal immigration law. That is wrong. It is also true that millions have been enticed and encouraged to enter illegally into this country by contradictory American voices at all levels: federal, state and local. I cannot but be sympathetic to their plight. At the same time, a well-regulated border, sound immigration policy, and welcoming space for persecuted refugees are all fundamental parts of a God-pleasing answer to the question: Who will contribute to this marvelous and blessed American experiment?

Blessings to you all.

In Christ,

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