The World Loves Christian Capitulation via Unionism and Syncretism

A faithful and well-meaning Lutheran pastor discovers that even the "good side" is full of vipers and liars.

Rev. Jim Roemke¹ recently delivered a benediction at the Republican National Convention ongoing in Milwaukee. He was told it would be a definite article benediction (the benediction) to close the day’s proceedings, but he was blindsided when it became an indefinite article benediction (a benediction). No sooner had he concluded the Aaronic Blessing than a Sikh woman was mounting the dias to deliver a prayer to “the same God as Jews and Christians” - the very definition of syncretism.

For several cycles in the modern era, the Republican Party has gone full mask off to reveal and revel in America’s “In God We Trust” being whatever god is malleable for the moment, just as long as that deity can be counted on to deliver mammon, power, prestige, and popularity.²

Pr. Roemke is a faithful confessional shepherd who would never knowingly participate in a stunt to imply that Christ Jesus is one of many ways to heaven. Pr. Roemke has apologized for being hoodwinked.

So, this is surely a final lesson for our LCMS pastors, officials, and laymen: Do not participate in activities that risk unionism and syncretism unless you have an enforceable contract with the organizer that expressly forbids interfaith activities. If the requesting party refuses to sign, don’t participate, no matter how many heartstrings are pulled or evangelism chits are dangled.

Pope Francis speaks at a multi-religious National September 11 Memorial & Museum gathering. Photo: Ray Stubblebine.

“If anyone comes to you and does not bring this [pure] doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.”
(2 John 10–11, NKJV)

Renouncing Truth

The repudiation of Christianity in the West and subsequent apostotization of many churches was primarily accomplished through unionism and syncretism, which deliberately negates the Bible’s unambiguous distinctions between Truth (eternal life) and Error (eternal damnation). Consequently, an orthodox congregation will have much trouble in this world.

For example, the LCMS is nearly invisible to the American public eye because it mostly rejects and resists the siren songs of unionism and syncretism that would otherwise give our pastors attention and access to social and institutional capital. Therefore, we have no Joel Osteen, Kansas City prophets, or Crystal Cathedrals. Amen, and so be it. The Office of Holy Ministry is not a multilevel marketing scheme. God alone provides the faith and the faithful according to His good will, so let us at least be Christian enough to believe, teach, and confess that despite the obvious “market reach” handicap.

Nobody wants to be called mean, bigoted, or disrespectful, so those labels are quickly slapped on us if we dare to insist on Christian supremacy within and without our churches and refuse to bow to false doctrine. We have been ruthlessly propagandized to believe that America requires equal toleration and platforming of all religions and cultures. The result is paramountcy for one degenerate civic religion that openly discriminates against Christians, and holds absolute sway in classrooms and state houses from sea to shining sea.

We must be wise as serpents about America’s continental drift from the borders of its founding Christian identity, substance, and purpose. Where the first colonies demanded some form of theological subscription, now the only acceptable and enforceable religious confession is submission to a transnational cult that celebrates sodomy for an entire month, enrolls little children in millstone-worthy deviancy, sends American jobs abroad, floods the country with illegal aliens, plots to conscript our daughters to die in foreign lands in the name of bizarre ancient blood feuds, is determined to ignite hyperinflation, and shrugs at 100,000 drug overdose deaths per year. If you don’t submit to this agenda, you are required to be quietest and impassive to the cult’s creeds, deeds, and sigils ― or suffer “cancellation.”

Peace at Any Price?

To maintain the regime’s preferred balance of power, there is never a shortage of cries for “peace, peace” when there is no peace. Are we really so soft and complacent to capitulate and give it all away in the name of turning our cheeks left and right all day long? Is that our Christian witness and confession?

That’s a long-form way of stating that the kings and priests of Baal and Moloch rule over us at the corporate, international, federal, state, county, municipal, school board, and even church levels. Satan has achieved institutional capture in the West, displacing our Godly princes who once demanded pure doctrine in their realms upon pain of death. If we refuse to make the public square explicitly Christian, then it will necessarily devolve into idolotary and virulent Christophobia.

"In the second place, the unity of the Church is disturbed by syncretism, or the religious union of dissenting parties in a brotherly and ecclesiastical fellowship in spite of dissension, so that either the errors in doctrine on the part of the dissentients or at least the erring persons themselves are tolerated within the communion of the Church and the latter are regarded as brethren in Christ and coheirs of eternal life. Either class of tolerance, however, is sinful."
CFW Walther, quoting J. W. Baier

We would do well to understand how the idol of free speech has been weaponized to suppress Christianity while elevating the doctrines of demons. The same idol was and is used to unleash chaos within the Evangelical Lutheran Church generally and our Synod specifically. Do not be afraid to be Christian and to demand Christian schools, a Christian culture, and a Christian state to complement and shield the Holy Christian Church. To demand is not to wait on someone else to deliver it, but we should roll up every sleeve and labor together to reclaim and achieve it, however long it might take.

“…the Christian Electors and Princes, and the Estates of the Holy Roman Empire embraced the pure doctrine of the Holy Gospel and had their churches reformed in a Christian manner according to God’s Word.
Preface to the Formula of Concord: Solid Declaration

1. Rev. Roemke is the pastor of Messiah Lutheran in Kenosha, WI. He was contacted about this article before publication.

2. The Overton Window has moved so far and so quickly that the Republican Platform has weakened its position on abortion and no longer regards traditional marriage as sacrosanct.