You’ve gone to church almost every Sunday. You’ve gone through confirmation. Your friends go through confirmation. You’ve gone through parochial schools and their mandated religion classes. You may have even gotten married in the church. Your pastor always appears happy to see you. You got your people in the congregation but for the most part they seem pretty good.
Then something… something doesn’t seem right. Jack’s* teenaged daughter is pregnant out of wedlock, and the congregation is split, half leaving because they’re upset that she’s not excommunicated for her sin. But what about the father? Or maybe it was a teacher who was caught doing sexually inappropriate things around his students. Why aren’t the students being supported and encouraged to report his actions? Or maybe it was your pastor being uprooted and sent to another congregation – and you hear he may have been having an affair – with a child from youth group. Why wasn’t the pastor held accountable?
These stories are only a few coming from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).
What is WELS?
From Wikipedia: “The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), also referred to simply as the Wisconsin Synod, is an American Confessional Lutheran denomination of Christianity. Characterized as theologically conservative, it was founded in 1850 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
As of 2022, it had a baptized membership of 340,511 in 1,250 congregations (churches) located in 47 US states and 4 provinces of Canada. The WELS also does gospel outreach in 40 countries around the world through missions. It is the third, or fourth, largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. The WELS school system is the fourth largest private school system in the United States.”
…but how would the WELS describe themselves?
from WELS’ website:
“WELS is a group of more than 330,000 men, women, and children in nearly 1,300 congregations across the United States and Canada united by a common faith in Christ’s saving love. We are committed to a common calling—encouraging each other in our faith and sharing God’s gift of a Savior with the rest of the world.”
They’re a Christian denomination in a sea of Christian denominations. They also commit similar sins crimes (alleged and otherwise) that other Catholics Christians commit in said denominations. These are their stories.
*name has been changed for privacy