The Apostasy of Lutheran Colleges
The acclaimed Lutheran colleges in Minnesota Concordia College in Moorehead (and borders Fargo, North Dakota) and St. Olaf in Northfield are both known for their schools of music and their respected musical ensembles. I saw the Concordia Choir twice in 2012, and in 2017. I also got a chance to see the St. Olaf Orchestra for the first time in 2017, and man these future musicians can play with the best of them. If you never saw any of these ensembles live, they will knock your socks off if you seek quality music.
With that said, I do have to point out the dominating apostasy in these colleges and how far they have strayed from its Lutheran protestant roots and more toward a worldly progressive theology. Both colleges are affiliated with the misnamed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which has radically gone far left ever since it approved of homosexuality clergy and same sex marriages in 2009. Since the formation of the ELCA in 1988 there were four different splits from the denomination in attempts to salvage the Gospel while not embracing the theology and doctrine of the more conservative bodies of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).
Still with Concordia (Moorehead) and St. Olaf in fellowship with the ELCA, the apostasy within those colleges was allowed to creep and eventually take over. These colleges both have respected choirs with the same signature piece "Fairest Lord Jesus/Beautiful Savior" as they signature piece. However, there is a dark side to these acclaimed schools. Looking at the breakdown of the student body of St. Olaf, 43 percent claims to be Christian (Lutheran and otherwise), 42 percent claims to be either "no preference or unknown" or "Non-Christian." The ELCA's quest of unity at all costs is only marginalizing the real saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, and is only dividing people who not only hold a Biblical worldview but those who are sympatric to them.
In a December 8, 2017 article in The Daily Wire, they point out how Concordia's Student Government Association voted 28-2 to rescind their financial support for an on campus visit and speech of the online publication's editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro. Their reason?
"Shapiro's harmful messages targeting LGBTQ+ communities and other marginalized identities is in direct opposition to the dedication of Concordia and Student Government Association to support diversity, equity, and inclusion of all persons from all backgrounds and identities."
Your typical leftist claptrap of diversity, equity and inclusion at all costs. That also includes compromising what God has commanded to be an abomination. The Young Americans for Freedom chapter at Concordia responded to this rescindment.
"All the YAF chapter at Concordia wants is for SGA to help offset the cost of bringing a conservative speaker to campus. Instead they compromise their integrity and call for a rescinding of the vote due to vocal opposition from students on campus not one week after we received partial funding. Bringing Ben Shapiro to campus would be a sign from Concordia College that they value intellectual and political diversity and that they care about the marginalized and underrepresented conservative voices on campus."
The reality is that they don't want these conservative voices because like they said they want be on the side of "love," and that means we love our LGBTQ friends and we don't tell them that they need to repent of their abomination against a Holy God. You love the same sex, your sexually attracted to the same sex and you know it is so unfair and so ancient to call homosexuality a sin, so we are going to change that and fight for your right to be accepted as part of the LGBTQ community.
We would hope that other Christians would see that our cause is just. Some just might, but God himself and his Holy Word stay the same. He calls it an abomination then and still calls an abomination now. Those who sympathize with these right-wing Christians (Ben Shapiro is an Orthodox Jew) must be marginalized and demoralized. For the record Concordia invited Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King in January of the very same year.
The "Exposing the ECLA" blog published a post on December 4, 2017 that exposes the depravity that St. Olaf has become. They point out key pages at St. Olaf's website allowing its readers (without surfing around for them) to see how far they strayed from God's Word and what he commands for his people. For instance, at their wellness center they offer sexual health information that would go against God's Word to abstain from sexual activity until marriage. St. Olaf has also been sympathetic to the cause of civil rights for the LGBTQ since 1989.
Other sites have shown their support of Planned Parenthood, transgenderism, and inclusion of other non-Judeo-Christian faiths especially Islam, and with that inclusion, sympathize with Palestine and the demise of Israel (even if Martin Luther had his issues with the Jewish people in this life). The politics of St. Olaf is just as far left as your typical mainstream liberal arts campus. Open communist Angela Davis was brought to St. Olaf to give a speech, and conservative students at St. Olaf have reportedly been threatened with violence by the much greater progressive student body majority. St. Olaf's race relations are also quite sour, as proved in in the Spring of 2017 when the college had to deal with civil unrest protests.
Parents if you are a Christian especially if you also call yourself Lutheran and attend a more conservative or level headed Christ seeking Lutheran church and are looking for a Lutheran liberal arts college for your child, I would urge you to not send them to Concordia (Moorehead) or St. Olaf. The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod operates 10 universities under the Concordia University System, and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod has affiliated with Wisconsin Lutheran College out of Milwaukee.
Even if you are not attending a Lutheran church associated with LCMS or WELS and are part of a Lutheran domination that recently broke away from the ELCA, I still would recommend looking to Lutheran colleges and universities that are not affiliated with the ELCA. The spiritual well being of your child may depend on it. That is more important than their two or three years (maybe four if it's their orchestras) of fame in their famous music ensembles. The ELCA and its colleges and universities have abandoned Lutheran Christianity for a worldly progressive religion.
