Bishop Mark Hanson: Speaking out

Lutherans need to serve those in need and speak out for justice, Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said February 14.

Bishop Hanson attended The River of Hunger Global Mission Experience held at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma. He delivered the keynote address, met with youth and small groups, and answered participants’ questions for close to an hour.

In introducing Bishop Hanson, SW Washington Synod Bishop Rob Hofstad said the day’s events would take participants through basic training in the Christian faith and help them be effective advocates for the poor and disadvantaged. He reminded listeners of four tools for Christians—prayer, worship, study of scripture, and ministry of daily life.

In his remarks throughout the day, Bishop Hanson repeated themes of advocacy and intersections of Lutheran faith and morals and the needs and issues affecting society locally and worldwide.

He spoke of his recent trip to the Middle East other ELCA bishops. In the midst of the recent Israeli incursion into Gaza, “fear was palpable” for the people they met. The situation is a crisis of justice, he said, and calls for a commitment to work for peace.

“Fear won’t prevail,” he said. “Extremists will win the day unless people like us speak up for peace and justice. Fear makes people distrustful, anti neighborly, especially to the new or different person.

“We have to create a safe environment where we can name our fears. A life in Christ frees us to turn to others to serve them, as Christ has done for me.”

Referring to the music he loves, the blues, Hanson said service to all people is the basic chord structure for a life in Christian faith. He reminded participants of the words of batptism and confirmation, “God’s faithful people,” not just Lutheran people.

Drawing a chuckle from the audience, especially pastors who prepare annual reports, the bishop asked, “How is your congregation improving the lives of the poor in your community? That is the only statistic that’s worthwhile.

“We will strive for justice and peace for all people,” he continued. “We expect pastors to be doing this and speaking out. In the ELCA constitution, it says that’s what pastors should do.”

There is much for the church to do. There is an intersection of hunger and other issues such as climate change, fuel, disease and so on. Climate change is already making an impact in coastal zones, and it’s having a disproportional impact on the under developed areas of the world. Our nation, he said, needs to restructure its foreign aid programs to provide aid, not idealism.

As for the economic recession affecting all nations, “We are waking up from the worst hangover any of us have ever had,” Bishop Hanson said. “We were intoxicated by our greed. We need a massive intervention.”

Lutherans and the ELCA have been part of the hangover and must do things differently in the future.

“We must look at the long term connections between people and the environment. Ethanol once seemed a wise idea that would help the environment, but it has had some longterm adverse impacts on the food supply to poor people,” he said.

The bishop reported that he has joined other church leaders in advocacy on issues ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to lobbying Congress and Presidents Bush and Obama to make morally justifiable decisions and a morally based federal budget that doesn’t hurt the poor.

The church needs to continue to support hunger programs.

“We will be about $1 million short of our hunger appeal for 2008,” he said. “The decline in contributions started last September. In hard economic times, there’s a temptation to become preoccupied with ourselves and our families instead of those we should serve and love.”

The disconnect between congregations and the larger church is “the biggest problem we have in the ELCA,” Hanson said. “Seventy-seven percent of the 5 million members of the ELCA do not know anything about what the ELCA does outside of their congregation.

“We are trying to reposition ourselves, branding ourselves so that people know what we’re about,” he said. Through focus groups, a theme of “God’s work, our hands,” has been created, and in tests in Denver, it has been very effective in promoting the ELCA.

This year will be an important year for the ELCA and its policies on issues dealing with sexuality and rostering of Gay pastors. The Task Force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality was to issue its recommendations on February 19, and the issues will come up in synod assemblies and the churchwide assembly.

“We (people in general) have a strong tendency to listen to ourselves, to talk about ourselves. As long as straight people control the conversation, it will not be a conversation that includes all persons. The church must accept all of God’s people,” he said.

The church shouldn’t hold itself back by expecting younger people to live and act in the same ways as the older generation, he said.

“We have to realize how young people are leading the church and get out of the way,” he said. “Where are they? What activities are they involved in? How do we support them?

“My son, who’s not prone to going to church, told me: What work I see Christians doing in India is fantastic. Why don’t I see Christians doing that in the US?”

He said the church and worship needs to be transcultural, cross cultural, contextual of its culture, and counter cultural.

“Rather than fight about pipe organs versus praise bands, we need to look at worship through the lens of those four things,” he said.