Wisconsin Lutheran bishops issue statement

The six Wisconsin bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, representing 460,000 Lutherans in the state, issued a letter on Monday calling for mutual respect, and special concern for the poor, in the budget battle currently being waged in that state regarding collective bargaining rights for public employee unions.  "We pray that partisanship will give way to community-building and shared effort for the public good," the bishops said. 

We ask that the rights of all workers, public and private, be held in high regard. We ask that decisions that involve the livelihoods of those workers be made with compassion and shared understanding.

We ask that you defend the rights of those in our state who are most vulnerable. We ask that legislation pending would defend those whose needs are met through medical assistance, job training, child care, hunger assistance and fair and equitable housing support. We assert, with respect, that future legislation not place undo challenges on those in our state who can least afford to bear those burdens.

We agree that there are serious financial challenges before us all. Our consciences demand that we earnestly defend the rights and the dignity of the weakest and poorest among us. We hope you will seek to do the same.

The letter is obviously carefully worded, as ecclesiastical documents tend to be, but its intent clearly seems to be supportive of labor in the current dispute and social programs for the poor in the budget itself.  In fact, at least two of the Wisconsin bishops have been quite vocal in regard to budget cuts that affect the poor.

The bishops who signed the letter were the Rev. James A. Arends, ELCA La Crosse Area Synod; the Rev. Jeffrey S. Barrow, ELCA Greater Milwaukee Synod; the Rev. Bruce H. Burnside, ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin, Madison; the Rev. James A. Justman, ELCA East-Central Synod of Wisconsin, Appleton; the Rev. Duane C. Pederson, ELCA Northwest Synod of Wisconsin, Chetek; and the Rev. Thomas A. Skrenes, ELCA Northern Great Lakes Synod, Marquette, Mich. 

Comments

[Brad Fallon]

That was a letter asking for a little consideration for all the workers who put themselves in the service for the country and people that they should be given just compensation that they deserved. I hope whoever is the recipient of the letter will have a kind heart to understand the situation and find ways to meet their needs.

[John Petty]

I thought it was a pretty pastoral letter, while still getting its point across.

[Co Yeti]

Am I the only one who finds it disconcerting that, 41 years after the Lutheran Church decided that women might be fit for ordination, there isn't even one among the six ELCA bishops of Wisconsin?

[John Petty]

There USED to be. April Larson was bishop in the LaCrosse Area Synod. Course, that was awhile ago.