We share our name, theology, support of social agencies, and perhaps most convicting: history.
The U.S. Senators and Congresswoman who represent me have been representing my views fairly consistently thus far during the Trump administration. But I am also a Lutheran, so the members of the U.S. House and Senate who share that affiliation are representing me – us – to the country and the world too. I have decided to claim that constituent identity, and encourage others to do the same. Just as we can communicate and apply pressure to those in whose district we reside, we can speak with moral obligation and out of a shared theology to our fellow brothers and sisters in our faith group. We do not want to be members of a church that knew what was happening was wrong, but colluded with authority despite that knowledge. We remember Martin Luther’s homeland in the 1930s and 40s, and want to believe that like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others who led the Confessing Church there, we too would speak out against evil visited upon our neighbors, whatever the risk.
American Lutherans are diverse in our commitments, but the Executive Order declaring a travel ban from 7 countries made our common work (ELCA + LCMS at least) through Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service an obvious place to start the conversation. I even joined Twitter so I could tweet @ them without a return address. All the feedback adds up. And they are carrying my Christian “family” name out there, so I want us siblings to be in conversation!
Practicalities: This 2017 Pew Forum article told me that there are 26 Lutherans between the House and Senate, but did not list specific names: http://www.pewforum.org/2017/01/03/faith-on-the-hill-115/
The 2015 article did, though: http://www.pewforum.org/2015/01/05/members-of-congress-religious-affiliations/
By checking up on every Lutheran listed in the 2015 article, I found that 2 had left office since, so my list of contacts only includes 24. There are 2 mystery Lutherans in our legislature!
Lee Ann M. Pomrenke 