Two people who make me proud to be a Lutheran: Pastor Robert Graetz and Pastor Joseph Ellwanger.
Graetz was pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He was a white pastor of a black congregation and openly supported the Montgomery bus boycott. He was personal friends with Rosa Parks. His inspiring story is featured in this PBS story from 2011.
Watch Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Robert Graetz on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.
Pastor Joseph Ellwanger was pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Montgomery, Alabama from 1958 through the mid-1960's. St. Paul is about a mile from the 16th St. Baptist Church where four little girls were killed in the bombing which took place on September 3, 1963. He spoke at their funeral.
Ellwanger actively participated in the civil rightrs movement. He worked with Dr. King to plan the Birmingham demonstration. He was one of the organizers of the march to Selma in 1965.
He later went on to serve Cross Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1967 until 2001 when he retired. I'm honored to have met him. The cross in the sanctuary of All Saints Lutheran Church in Aurora, Colorado, where I serve, is modelled on the sanctuary cross of Cross Lutheran. This portrait hangs in Ellwanger Fellowship Hall at Cross:
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