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Month: August, 2015

Harrison defends freedoms before House committee

Monday, August 3, 2015
Harrison defends freedoms before House committee

On Thursday, February 16, 2012, LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison was one of several witnesses to provide testimony during the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's hearing, "Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?"

Watch a video and read a full transcript of President Harrison's testimony on the LCMS website here. You also can read the written testimony, submitted before the hearing, which will become a part of the Congressional Record.

The LCMS views the recent birth control mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as one that infringes on our religious rights. Harrison told the committee members: "While we are opposed in principle, not to all forms of birth control, but only abortion-causing drugs, we stand with our friends in the Catholic Church and all others, Christians and non-Christians, under the free exercise and conscience provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Religious people determine what violates their consciences, not the federal government."

"To paraphrase Martin Luther, the heart and conscience has room only for God, not for God and the federal government," Harrison said. "The bed is too narrow, the blanket is too short. We must obey God rather than men, and we will."


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Harrison releases letter on landmark Supreme Court ruling

Monday, August 3, 2015

Harrison releases letter on landmark Supreme Court ruling

By Adriane Heins

In a landmark 5-4 ruling June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry in any state in America, even in states where same-sex marriage currently is not recognized.

“Today was a tragedy in the history of Western and world civilization,” LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison said soon after the ruling. “Five justices cannot rewrite all of history, much less can they redefine what God has defined.”

Harrison

LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison

Speaking to the future, he said, “We will continue to be faithful to the institution of marriage as conceived by our founders. If those who wrote the Fourteenth Amendment could have known that it would be misused for this purpose, they would be absolutely shocked and horrified. Truth does not change. God’s Word does not change.”

As for the LCMS, Harrison noted, “We will continue to be faithful to God’s institution of marriage and natural law, and we will also be compassionate to people who are damaged by this misdirection.”

Harrison also released a letter to the church today, noting that “We respect the divinely given dignity of all people, no matter their sexual preference. We recognize that, under the exacting and demanding laws of God, we are indeed sinners in thought, word and deed, just as are all (Rom. 3:9ff.). We confess that the ‘blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all our sins’ (1 John 1:7).”

In his letter, Harrison also encouraged LCMS Lutherans to “continue to reach out to those who continue to be harmed by the ethic of radical sexual freedom, detached from God’s blessing of marriage.”



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