This letter was sent to the members of Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Indianapolis, IN, on 6 February 2025.
On Saturday, 1 February 2025, disgraced former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Mike Flynn posted screenshots to X (Twitter) of a spreadsheet listing federal grant money paid to a number of regional Lutheran Services in America member organizations and Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services). In his post, Mr. Flynn, without any evidence whatsoever, accused these organizations of using “‘religion’ as a money laundering operation” and questioned the validity of the Lutheran faith. Elon Musk, representing the United States DOGE Service Temporary Organization, retweeted Mr. Flynn’s accusations, adding that he and his team would be “rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”
These accusations follow similarly-malicious attacks against other Christian churches and ministries who devote themselves to the service of those who are poor, marginalized, oppressed, refugees, immigrants, LGBTQ+, hungry, or in any need. As the Reverend Elizabeth Eaton, Presiding Bishop of our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said in a video response to these attacks, “Despite misinformation and baseless doubt cast today on funding that supports Lutheran organizations across our country, the ELCA remains steadfast in our commitment and work with our many Lutheran partners and expressions of our church. The ELCA is also concerned for other faith-based communities and organizations who have similarly come under attack.”
Following the sermon preached by the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, at the Service of Prayer for the Nation in the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (Washington National Cathedral) on Tuesday, 21 January, in which Bishop Budde implored President Donald Trump and Vice-President J. D. Vance to “have mercy” on those who are afraid in the current political climate—especially immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, and refugees—House Resolution 59 was filed, which “condemns [Bishop Budde’s] distorted message”. She was also accused of the “sin of empathy”.
When the Office of Management and Budget issued Memorandum M-25-13, ordering federal agencies to freeze funding for federal financial assistance programs in compliance with Executive Order 14163, “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program”, Episcopal Migrant Ministries, one of the only ten nonprofit resettlement agencies authorized by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to refer and resettle refugees, was forced to layoff most of its staff. The memo has since been rescinded, but the confusion left in its wake did not allow EMM to restart its operations.
The Most Reverend Timothy Paul Broglio, Archbishop for the Military Services, USA, and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement expressing concern that “some provisions contained in [President Trump’s] Executive Orders, such as those focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us”; and the Most Reverend Mark Joseph Seitz, Bishop of El Paso and Chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, added: “As shepherds, we cannot abide injustice” and expressed concern that “several of the executive orders signed by President Trump [that] week are specifically intended to eviscerate humanitarian protections enshrined in federal law and undermine due process, subjecting vulnerable families and children to grave danger.” In response, Vice-President Vance attacked the Catholic Church as an institution only concerned with its “bottom line” and reiterated his stance that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can and will breach church buildings—Catholic or otherwise—traditionally respected as places of sanctuary.
Responding to Mr. Flynn’s and Mr. Musk’s accusations, Alesia Frerichs, President and CEO of Lutheran Services in America, issued a statement saying: “As a network rooted in the long-standing Lutheran faith-based tradition of service in caring for our neighbor, Lutheran social ministries provide essential services to people in communities across the country. Lutheran social ministries have been working in partnership with their communities for decades—and in some instances, for more than a century” and “the suspension of funding to faith-based health and human service organizations like Lutheran social ministries… causes considerable harm to people who rely on critical services for shelter, food, and mental health services among other social supports.” Chris Tonniges, President and CEO of Lutheran Family Services in Nebraska, one of the agencies specifically targeted by Mr. Flynn and Mr. Musk, in his statement said: “To allegations that we are somehow ‘money laundering,’ please know that we are highly audited, accredited, and endorsed by the Better Business Bureau and Charity Navigator”, and “our services, along with those of other non-profits in our communities, provide a safety net that allows society to operate with calmness and consistency. We know this is something that Americans value.”
Likewise, Global Refuge responded to the allegations: “Global Refuge condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the false accusations lodged against our humanitarian work. As a faith-based nonprofit, we have faithfully walked alongside legally admitted refugees and immigrants for more than 85 years.”
While our beloved partners at Lutheran Child and Family Services of Indiana/Kentucky were not specifically named in the posted allegations, it is important for us to reiterate and reinforce the relationship we have with LCFS and other community partners. Bethlehem has long been a valued partner and supporter of LCFS. Just last Sunday, Sven Schumacher, Executive Director for LCFS and the CEO of the Foundation for Lutheran Child and Family Services worshiped with us, and personally thanked me for Bethlehem’s continued support and prayers.
LCFS has served our community for the last 140 years. In 2023, they took care of 163 residential youth, served 275 people through their INSPIRE program, and provided housing for 49 people. 55,149 people were served 595,162 pounds of food at LCFS’s food pantry, the Sharing Place; and 182 families were able to select gifts from the Christmas Store.
Across the United States, the LSS network serves 1 in every 50 Americans, and is consistently listed as one of the top aid networks in the country. It is one of the few areas in which the ELCA and the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod still work together, disciples of Christ putting aside our theological differences for the sake of the good of our neighbors. I cannot stress enough how remarkable it is that the ELCA and the LCMS still work together here.
The allegations, that LSS and GR are money-laundering operations and that GR traffics undocumented persons into the country, are easily proven false. As recipients of significant federal funding, these organizations are required to undergo rigorous audits annually, and these audits and tax filings are available to the public. Global Refuge, as one of the ten agencies tasked by the federal government with resettling refugees, and one of only two agencies that handles unaccompanied minors, only deals with legal refugees specifically assigned to them who have already undergone the strenuous, years-long process of being vetted and approved by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United States Resettlement Support Centers, the United States Department of Homeland Security, and other federal offices and intelligence agencies.
While one can (and many do) question the usefulness or appropriateness of the federal government funding non-profit organizations through grants and contracts to provide social services to the community, the charge that LSS and GR are criminally misusing the funds they receive is a bald-faced lie. And it is a lie that, in the current political climate, can cause and already has caused irreparable harm to these ministries and seriously impacted their ability to serve our communities.
I join Bishop Eaton’s call to “strongly urge political leaders at all levels of government to use their offices and platforms responsibly.” More than that, I strongly urge all of us to speak out when such attacks are made against our ministries, our churches, our partners, and our faith. I am heartened by responses from our siblings in Christ, especially in Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches, who have come to the defense of us Lutherans in this matter. When their time in the crosshairs comes, I hope we will do the same.
I was reminded this Sunday of Jesus’s words to the crowds in the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel according to Luke: “Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven.” Attacks against the Church and her ministry to those who are poor and oppressed in the world are not new, even if they are new to us American Lutherans who pride ourselves on rarely ending up in the evening news. We worship a God in Jesus Christ whose death on the cross and resurrection from the dead freed us from bondage to sin and death, and freed us to love and serve our neighbors, even in the face of resistance. The promises made to us in our baptisms give us the strength to overcome resistance to the Gospel, good news made real and incarnate in the many ways in which we love and care for our neighbors. I urge all of us, as a community of faith and as individuals, to increase our support, materially and with our time and labor, for LCFS and other organizations ministering to the underserved in our community.
It will not always be easy. In messages addressing these and other attacks on the church’s mission in the world, the Reverend Tim Graham, Bishop of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod, called on us to “act boldly with justice and love wherever we can,” because “these actions directly oppose the core gospel values of love and acceptance that we hold dear. Indeed, these new orders may now challenge or even hinder our collective and individual efforts moving forward.” And yet, “God is with us. Together, we are the Indiana-Kentucky Synod, and we will find a way together in times like this.”
I close this letter with a prayer received from our partners in ReconcilingWorks: Lutherans for Full Participation:
May the God of love and liberation hear our lament.
May each of us be bold in our witness.
May we all work to bring an end to this attack
against people God has named beloved.
Peace,
Ken Ranos ⳨
Pastor
Living an Ecumenical Life 