|
Virginia Interfaith Center
P.O. Box 12516
Richmond, VA 23241
804-643-2474
email
|
|
Faith and Public Life
Serving as an associate office for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s state public policy network, the Virginia Interfaith Center works with Lutherans across the state engage in faithful citizenship to fulfill their call to advocate for dignity and justice for all people. The Center is both proud and honored to partner with the ELCA and considers itself a practical way individuals and parishes can live out the church’s mission.
An Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Perspective
The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy believes that it is impossible to fully understand the work of the Abrahamic faiths without appreciating the commitment – demonstrated in word and deed – to the physical and social wellbeing of the people our sacred texts describe. Nor can we understand, and therefore emulate, the ministry of people, such as Jesus, if we understand it to be private. The ministry of Jesus was not and is not just about how people become right (righteous) in their relationship with God. The public ministry of Jesus was and is about how people live out their right relationship with God in their daily interactions with God's human creatures and, indeed, with the whole of creation.
The Center envisions a world in which all people live in communities of economic and social justice. This vision is not original to us. It has its roots in the Jewish prophetic tradition that judged the righteousness of the ancient Israelite society on the basis of how that society cared for the most vulnerable people in it, typified by "the widow, the orphan and the foreigner." In addition, the ancient prophets held the governing authorities, whether kings, judges or priests, responsible for the welfare of all the people, especially the most vulnerable.
In her new book, The Public Church: For the Life of the World, (Augsburg Fortress, 2004), Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda asserts that from ancient times through the Reformation period and into the 21st Century, the church has accepted and embraced (in varying degrees) its responsibility to care for peoples' souls and also to care for their bodies and for the health and welfare of the larger community. Martin Luther, according to Dr. Moe-Lobeda, would have found the concept of the "separation of church and state" not only foreign, but morally unacceptable. In our secular, pluralistic and democratic society, however, in recognition of the universal human right to be free from religious coercion, we have developed the "separation" tradition as an important safeguard protecting the rights of all people from the tyranny of some people.
Yet the concept of separation between church and state has too often been understood as allowing no interactions between the two spheres. The traditional Lutheran concept of the "Two Kingdoms of God" has too often been misunderstood as limiting the church's responsibility to the "spiritual realm." The sole mission of the church, according to this view, is to get people into heaven. Contrary to that view, Luther taught that Christians as individuals and in community also share responsibility with government for the ordering of society. In other words, the concern of the church is not just about how to "get people into heaven." It is also about how we live together in the meantime.
The founding documents of the ELCA articulate this dynamic. According to the Constitution of the ELCA, the purpose of the church includes:
[Serving] in response to God’s love to meet human needs, caring for the sick and aged, advocating dignity and justice for all people, working for peace and reconciliation among nations, and standing with the poor and powerless and committing itself to their needs….(ELCA Constitution 4.02.c.)
[Nurturing] its members in the Word of God so as to grow in faith and hope and love, to see daily life as the primary setting for this exercise of their Christian calling, and to use the gifts of the Spirit for their life together and for their calling in the world. (ELCA Constitution 4.02.e)
The ELCA Constitution goes on to describe the relationship between church and state: To fulfill these purposes the ELCA will
"…work with civil authorities in relationships of mutual endeavor, maintaining institutional separation of church and state in a relation of functional interaction." (ELCA Constitution 4.03.n).
Learn more about ELCA policies <click>
Advocacy in the ELCA
In order to carry out this ministry at the intersection between church and state, the ELCA, since its formation, has maintained a variety of advocacy offices. Under the current ELCA structure, the ELCA’s Division for Church in Society (DCS) has an Advocacy Department that consists of four offices. The most well known of these advocacy offices is the ELCA’s Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA) in Washington, DC.
LOGA works to help people in the legislative and executive branches of the United States government to adopt policies that are consistent with public policy positions of the ELCA. Less well known than LOGA is the Lutheran Office for World Community, the ELCA's advocacy office at the United Nations in New York City. The ELCA also supports twenty State Public Policy Offices (SPPOs) that seek to influence public policy in their respective states.
Finally, the ELCA has an Office of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that works to influence the behavior of corporations in the United States. In all of the ELCA advocacy offices the policy agenda is determined through a vigorous process of moral discernment that invites the involvement of all members of the ELCA, all 11,000 ELCA congregations, all 65 ELCA synods and their bishops along with the churchwide staff of the ELCA. In all cases, the policy positions of the ELCA are ultimately determined by vote of the biennial ELCA Churchwide Assembly or by the ELCA Church Council that is elected by the Churchwide Assembly to direct the work of the ELCA between Churchwide Assemblies.
The Virginia Interfaith Center is an associated partner in ministry with the ELCA's Division for Church in Society as well as both the Metropolitan and Virginia Synods. The public policy issues addressed by Center and the relative priority given to each issue are determined by the Interfaith Center's balloting process. However, we attempt to work with Lutheran parishes on specific positions advocated by the Center by relating ELCA Social Statements, Messages and Resolutions adopted by Churchwide Assembly or the ELCA Church Council when possible.
It is important to note that the ELCA, as with most faith groups, does not understand its public policy positions to be binding on the consciences of ELCA members. Rather, ELCA public policy positions are intended to be educational resources for ELCA members. They are, however, binding on the ELCA's own work in the public sphere. In other words, while individual ELCA members may hold positions and even actively work against the public policy positions adopted by the ELCA, the ELCA's own advocacy offices represent the ELCA position. The positions of the Virginia Interfaith Center are consistent with the Social Statements of the ELCA.
|
|
 |
