LCMS
Last Updated March 4, 2024
These are links and other notes concerning Montana, the LCMS and my abuse
On the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
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In 1987 a group of students sat together at the dining hall in Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, sharing stories about church life. One of the students described events at a congregation near his home. He set the story in the tense times surrounding the Walkout from Concordia Seminary (1974). Members of a congregation suspected their pastor of being a liberal/moderate. Instead of dealing with their concerns in a straightforward way, they began to antagonize their pastor by repeating certain clandestine activities. For example, when the pastor was not present, they would remove a rollaway pulpit and put it in a closet. They would enter his office to remove certain books from his library. When the pastor returned these items to where they should be, again and again members of the congregation would move them in an effort to confuse and discourage the pastor. As the student finished this story, those around the table wondered at the bizarre behavior of those in the congregation. I did not know it at the time but this was my first exposure to a practice that is still widely used in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Known as mobbing, this political activity currently manipulates many church workers into obeying a particular political organization in the synod, known to me as “The Machine.” [1]
Mobbing: Organized Spiritual Abuse in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod -
The new revelations include an uncovered text message conversation that the groups say is of a staff member affiliated with the school and also a law enforcement officer. The groups say the text shows the staff member insinuates they intended to retaliate towards a student who brought concerns about the school. "I can't wait to catch his a-- in traffic," the text reads, implying the staff member, in their capacity as a police officer, wanted to pull over the student in question.
New allegations of 'dehumanizing' incidents spark more calls for change at Racine Lutheran High School -
During homecoming, some students wore shirts reading "Trump's Wall." In a bathroom stall this week, students found a scrawled "N-word" and a swastika. "It's particularly shocking that that dignity has been stolen and attacked by individuals at an institution of faith," Forward Latino national president Darryl Morin said.
Students say Lutheran school fails to act on racist behaviors -
second man is suing Trinity Lutheran Church in Davenport, claiming the church did not respond properly when its then-pastor was accused, and then convicted, of sexual abuse in the mid-1980s.
Trinity Lutheran faces second lawsuit over 1980s sexual abuse | Local Crime & Courts | qctimes.com
The man, identified only as John Doe No. 2, sued the church in Scott County District Court. The former pastor, Paul Faga, is not named as a defendant.
Patrick Hopkins, attorney for John Doe, declined comment. Kenneth Munro, attorney for the church on the first lawsuit of a similar nature filed last year, also declined comment.
According to court documents:
The man grew up in Davenport and took part in Trinity religious instruction. Faga identified Doe's family as one with a pre-teen boy and gained his family's trust. He then used that trust to spend time alone with the boy, whom he touched inappropriately, the lawsuit says.
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Before the alleged abuse on Doe, other children of the congregation had reported inappropriate contact by Faga, the lawsuit says. The church did not "insulate" other youth from Faga or inform families of the allegations. -
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court Thursday, states Concordia’s administrators and staff failed to investigate when a sexually explicit video of the underage girl — taken without her consent — was circulated around the student body. Male students then repeatedly harassed the teen, who was later sexually assaulted in a religion class and a locker room, the suit states.
Lawsuit says Towson’s Concordia Preparatory School ignored student’s reports of assault, harassment on campus -
According to the suit, the then-high school student and her mother, who was a teacher at Concordia at the time, say school administrators suspended the girl and threatened to inform another school — to which she was attempting to transfer — of the punishment if they continued to speak of the assaults.
Two more former Concordia Preparatory School students file federal lawsuits alleging sexual assault complaints were ignored A fifth former Concordia Preparatory School student has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Towson private school ignored her reports of sexual assault and harassment.
Fifth former student files lawsuit against Concordia Preparatory School alleging assault complaints were ignored-
Prosecutors are investigating whether a Lutheran school teacher and coach charged with sexually assaulting a student had more victims. Wayne L. Makela, 27, of Hobart, is charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy he met at Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School where he worked as a youth director, basketball coach and computer teacher.
More victims possible in teacher sex assault case -
Rev. Rob Morris, pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Newtown, Connecticut, participated in a public interfaith vigil with President Obama two days after the Sandy Hook tragedy. Why did this fact generate controversy? Because his denomination, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), states in its constitution that members must refuse “unionism,” mingling Lutheran and other Christian theology or practice, as well as “syncretism,” mingling Christian and non-Christian theology or practice.
Lutheran leaders apologize for Newtown controversy - Denison Forum -
Schauer, a resident of Laporte, Minn., had been a minister for years at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lake George, Minn., until 2008, even though church officials knew, at some point, that he had been convicted in 1983 of sexual abuse of a minor.
Sex charges against ex-pastor stir online controversy for Minnesota Missouri Synod Lutherans | Detroit Lakes Tribune -
The president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod apologized for his role in the “debacle” that led him to publicly reprimand a pastor in Newtown, Conn., for praying at an interfaith service following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. In the initial incident, the denomination’s president, Matthew C. Harrison, requested an apology from the Rev. Rob Morris of Newtown’s Christ the King Lutheran Church for participating in an interfaith prayer vigil that followed the Dec. 14 shootings. Morris’ role in the vigil broke denominational rules against joint worship with other religions.
Missouri Synod president apologizes for Newtown interfaith ‘debacle’ - The Washington Post -
We are in the process of identifying zip codes across the U.S. where the demographics are favorable to the LCMS but where we don’t have churches.
LCMS President, Matthew Harrison The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has New Strategy to Reverse Membership Declines: Focus on Northern European Americans! – Escaping Christian Fundamentalism -
A prominent Lutheran seminary with two campuses in Pennsylvania is having a stormy moment of reckoning over the early-career, "conversion therapy" work by its first-year president. That moment reached a climax at the United Lutheran Seminary Wednesday, with the school's board of trustees voting to end the Rev. Theresa F. Latini's tenure as president
Lutheran seminary president ousted in controversy over past 'conversion therapy' work - pennlive.com -
On Dec. 1, the synod announced the end to a 2013 memorandum of understanding with the Boy Scouts, citing legal concerns and Scouting’s decision in July to allow openly gay Scout leaders.
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pulls back from Boy Scouts but with little effect so far | Faith & Values | stltoday.com -
The LCMS advocates illegal anti-gay incitement in Finland
International Lutheran Council issues statement on persecution of Finnish church -
HOUSTON (CN) - Parents claim in court that their son's fourth-grade teacher at Trinity Lutheran School had her class start a pen pal correspondence with an accused child molester without telling them, and he shared the letters with other jail inmates convicted of sex crimes against children.
John and Jane Doe sued Trinity Lutheran Church / The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod dba Trinity Lutheran School, in Harris County Court.
Jane Doe on her own behalf and as next friend of the couple's children, Child Doe 1 and Child Doe 2, who both attended the school until the pen pal assignment was made known to parents.
The Does claim Trinity pastor Michael Dorn had a lax policy on protecting students from child abusers, as he was aware that 4th-grade teacher Laura Perry's fiancé, Blake Perry, had been indicted for possessing child pornography in Harris County, Texas.
The only action admitted by Dorn to have been taken was to tell Blake Perry that he was to have no interaction with children, and then to rely on his trustworthiness that he would abide," according to the complaint. "Upon information and belief, this recommendation was widely ignored, that Blake Perry had contact with the children's classrooms and may have even participated, while under indictment, in the coaching of children's sports at Trinity. This was first made known to the parents generally, and the adult plaintiffs here, at a meeting headed by Dorn on March 26, 2012.
Parents Say School Had Kids Write to Child Molester | Courthouse News Service
Further, and more alarmingly, Laura Perry proposed a classroom activity by her 9- and 10-year-old students to begin a pen-pal relationship with an individual awaiting trial for child molestation in Comal County, Texas. This individual, Ricky Rea Rowlett, was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, a crime for which he was convicted on March 22 (Exhibit 2 as is readily available in the public records accessible online).
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In the 19th-century German Kingdom of Saxony, Lutheran pastor Martin Stephan and many of his followers found themselves increasingly at odds with Rationalism, Christian ecumenism, and the prospect of a forced unionism of the Lutheran church with the Reformed church.
Wikipedia Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod -
After two months, the Saxon immigrants purchased land in Perry County, Missouri, at the confluence of Brazeau Creek and the Mississippi River. Here they built homes, towns, schools, and churches. The organization of the community was disrupted when Stephan was accused of sexual misconduct (as he had previously been in Germany[5]). Pastors G. H. Loeber and C. F. W. Walther told lay leaders of this confession. Walther made two trips to Perry County to prepare Stephan's deposition.
Martin Stephan
Stephan soon became embroiled in additional allegations. On May 30, 1839, Stephan was deposed and excommunicated from the community on the grounds of sexual misconduct and embezzlement, leaving C. F. W. Walther as the senior clergyman. -
While educated Christians cannot avoid the knowledge that arises from the natural sciences, especially when that knowledge has a direct bearing on the interpretation of Scripture and the formulation of theological knowledge today, disagreements persist among Christians about whether or not specific claims in the sciences are inconsistent with the Christian faith. For example, as recent as the year 1925 the leading theologian in the LCMS, Dr. Franz Pieper (1852-1931), asserted that the Copernican Theory of a heliocentric solar system must be rejected as contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture, and thus contrary to the Christian faith.[2] While few in the contemporary LCMS would agree with this view, perhaps a majority of Christians in the LCMS would still agree with the statement against “evolution” in a document that Dr. Pieper and others authored shortly before his death:
The Scandal of the LCMS Mind | The Daystar Journal
We teach that God has created heaven and earth, and that in the manner and in the space of time recorded in the Holy Scriptures, especially Gen. 1 and 2, namely, by His almighty creative Word, and in six days. We reject every doctrine which denies or limits the work of creation as taught in Scripture. In our days it is denied or limited by those who assert, ostensibly in deference to science, that the world came into existence through a process of evolution; that is, that it has, in immense periods of time, developed more or less out of itself. Since no man was present when it pleased God to create the world, we must look for a reliable account of creation, to God’s own record, found in God’s own book, the Bible. We accept God’s own record with full confidence and confess with Luther’s Catechism: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures.”[3] -
He told police that Beish became his communion adviser when he was in seventh grade and over the years, the two would go to the movies, golfing and to amusement parks in addition to tutoring in Bible studies.
Former church employee charged with sexual assault | Local News | newburyportnews.com
By the time he was 16, the victim would accompany Beish to his Newburyport apartment, where he began washing the teen’s feet while reading scripture to him. Over the next several months, the touching became more involved, according to the report.
By the time Beish began visiting him in college, the touching reached the point where the young man considered it criminal. The touching continued when he returned to Newburyport and visited Beish at his apartment. -
OSHKOSH - A former pastor says he regrets what prosecutors called "sexually aggressive" online chats with who he thought was a 13-year-old girl he planned to meet for sex while in town for a pastor's conference.
Former pastor gets prison for child enticement
Joshua C. Scheil, 29, formerly of Trevor, was sentenced Thursday in Winnebago County Circuit Court to two years in prison, three years of extended supervision and 15 years of probation for child enticement and causing a child 13 or younger to view sexual activity. -
MILWAUKEE — A former Hales Corners Lutheran School teacher was sentenced Thursday to more than six years in federal prison for receiving nude pictures from a Franklin teen — a former pupil with whom he allegedly had sex.
Former Waterford teacher sentenced to 74 months for receiving child porn | Crime and Courts | journaltimes.com
Craig Stephen Perino, 33, formerly of Waterford, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, to 74 months behind bars plus five years on supervised release for receiving the nude photos sent to him by a then-16-year-old former pupil. He also was ordered to pay $3,106.42 in restitution to the girl, federal court records show. -
A former Monroe pastor is facing criminal charges in Ohio.
Former pastor at Monroe church charged with crimes in Ohio
Robert Auxter, 75, of Monroe, who had been a pastor and a deacon at Monroe’s Grace Lutheran Church, is charged with two felony counts of gross sexual imposition by the Ottawa Common Pleas Court of Ottawa County in Port Clinton, Ohio.
Auxter was charged Nov. 21 and had an initial arraignment Nov. 28. According to court documents, he is charged with having sexual contact with a person younger than age 13 between March 1 and 31, 2022, in Ottawa County, Ohio. The second charge of gross sexual imposition is for sexual contact with a person less than age 13 between June 1 and Aug. 31, 2022, in Ottawa County. -
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - A man facing felony sex charges in Ottawa County was serving as a pastor in a Michigan church until he resigned in October.
Former Monroe pastor facing sex charges in Ottawa Co.
Robert Auxter was charged with two felony counts of gross sexual imposition on November 21. The charges allege sexual contact with a person under the age of 13.
Auxter was serving as a pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Monroe as recently as October, which he resigned.
Pre-trial hearings are scheduled for December 28 and January 18, with a jury trial scheduled for January 31. -
A Westgate pastor was sentenced Monday in Fayette County District Court to 20 years for sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in June 2009.
Former pastor to serve 20 years for sexual abuse | The Gazette
Timothy Parker, 40, a former pastor with St. Peter Lutheran Church in Westgate pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree sexual abuse in November. Each abuse charge carries a 10 year prison term and judge ran them consecutively.
According to the criminal complaint, on three separate occasions, Parker fondled or performed oral sex on the girl. Deputies said the alleged incidents took place at the church parsonage in early June 2009.
Victim impact statements were read during the sentencing but First Judicial District Judge John Bauercamper would not release the written statements to the media.
Parker still faces four counts of violating a no contact order in September. He is accused of attempting to contact the victim and family members by giving letters to Pastor Ronnie Koch, who was visiting Parker at the Fayette County jail. Koch, 44, of Fredericksburg was charged as an accessory for allegedly mailing the letters.
From the Church's Facebook -- in the center, president of the LCMS, Matthew Harrison
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It is deplorable that Darwin Schauer was hired as a pastor when officials knew that he had abused children in the past. Charges of negligence should be brought against these officials for placing this predator in a situation where he easily could – and did – abuse another child. We hope that justice will be served for the newest victim of this predator.
SNAP blasts LCMS officials, calls for criminal investigation - SNAP
We applaud Rev. Don Kirchner for taking the fight to the LCMS church and district officials and getting to the truth of this situation. Yet Kirchner should not be acting alone; law enforcement officials should be investigating to see what laws, if any, were broken when these officials hired a known sex offender and put him around children. We hope that anyone – whether involved with the LCMS church or not – who may have any knowledge of Schauer’s crimes or the complicity of LCMS church and district officials (such as District President Don Fondow) to immediately report what they have seen, suspected, or suffered to police. -
St John’s Church, with its affiliated school, is part of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. The senior pastor, Andrew Farhat, is central to this disturbing story. CBS News reported this story in a Former Denver church, school worker charged with raping 13-year-old girl in church: “I couldn’t believe this was happening to me.” The female student was in the school when Diego Marroquin allegedly raped her. He was the music director for both the church and school.
St John’s School and Church Likely Face a Significant Lawsuit for Mishandling the Sex Abuse of a 13-Year-Old Teen -
The anti-gay Michigan pastor at the center of a Grindr controversy told a young parishioner he would go to hell for being gay.
Michigan pastor caught on Grindr told gay teen he was going to hell: reportRetrieved on July 20, 2023 -
A Lutheran pastor was arrested after a girl told police he had sexually abused her for nine years, beginning when she was 6. According to a police report, the girl said Edouane Jean abused her hundreds of times, sometimes at his office before and after school. The abuse ended in 2001, after the girl's mother confronted him, it said.
Fla. Pastor Accused of Sexual Abuse -
A 31-year-old former kindergarten teacher from Franklin was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for having a sexual relationship with a student. Elizabeth Dillett was charged in April with sexual assault of a child by a person who works with children and sexual intercourse with a child age 16 or older. She pleaded guilty last month to two counts of assault by someone who works with children. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed six other counts from an amended complaint, including a more serious felony, second-degree sexual assault of a child.
Teacher gets prison for sex with student -
In April 1994, a Duluth jury found Redeemer [Lutheran Church], its leaders, and former pastor Daniel Reeb liable for sexual abuse that David Samarzia suffered from the ages of 11 to 14 in the late 1960s. The Minnesota Court of Appeals and the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld Samarzia's $644,000 award.
Church Nearly Closed After Lawsuit -
In the first, Huebschman said Monday, a "clear majority" voted to excommunicate Seward resident Arlen Meyer from an overall church membership of about 2,100. A second motion -- meant to identify those who may have failed to act on knowledge of Meyer's alleged sexual misconduct against students at the school from as long ago as the 1970s -- was "soundly defeated," he said.
Church excommunicates former teacher -
An Irvine high school English teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday to meeting an underage student to engage in lewd conduct and was immediately sentenced to 120 days in jail. When the case was filed in May 2012, prosecutors said Dominic John Augustus Witter texted nude photos of himself to a 15-year-old student in April of that year and arranged to meet her for sex.
O.C. English teacher pleads guilty to sexting student -
A former broadcaster for a local Christian radio station admitted Thursday that he molested six girls who ranged in age from 4 to 14.
Ex Disc-Jockey Admits to Molestation Accounts -
Judge William Speare recently suspended a 10 year prison senetence for a Billings man who pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges. In this particular case, Ron Williams (reported in the March 21 Gazette) admiteed to molesting a young girl for four years. The girl was approximately nine years old when the abuse began.
Speare's Sentence Fair?
After pleading guilty to felony sexual assault charges, all he got was a verbal reprimand from Speare. Williams only has to spend 15 nights in jail on work-release and pay for the victim's and his own counseling, but does Speare's sentencing seem fair punishment when the child was abused for four years of her young life? -
The grizzled veteran of a career spent with the FBI as a profiler paused before repeating an observation I was to hear consistently in my early training and preparation for forensic work: "The profile of the typical sex offender is that he is male, white, educated, and religious." Over the years, I heard other presenters repeat the same observation. But what I didn't learn until much later was why so many sex offenders had extensive church backgrounds.
Sex Offenders and Church -
Wayne L. Makela, 28, of Hobart, is charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy he met at Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School, where he worked as a youth director, basketball coach and computer teacher.
Ex-Pilgrim Lutheran teacher convicted on sex charges -
Three men alleging that a Lutheran pastor in Bell Gardens sexually abused them when they were children filed lawsuits Wednesday seeking compensation from the church. The complaints filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court for unspecified damages contend that church officials were aware of the pastor’s pedophile behavior during his 18 years as head of the Lutheran Church of San Pedro y Pablo but sought to cover it up and silence the victims.
Former Lutheran pastor in Bell Gardens accused of abuse -
The school’s headmaster “withheld and mischaracterized his knowledge that over two dozen female students at [Concordia] had been sexually harassed, sexually assaulted, or cyberbullied from 2016-2021, often more than once,” her lawsuit said.
Five former students allege sexual assault, misconduct at Lutheran school near Baltimore