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Professor Charles Ford Report on Crossroads Ministries 1998-2001

Published on February 1, 2004

The Anti-Racism Project
This article discusses the collaboration of the Northern Illinois District of the LCMS with Wheat Ridge Ministries, Crossroads Ministries, and the Reverend Joseph Barndt in formulating and implementing an anti-racism project.

In 2001, the Northern Illinois District received a three-year grant from Wheat Ridge Ministries for a project entitled “Mobilizing Against Systemic Racism in the Church.” The grant was designed to enable the District to engage Crossroads Ministries as facilitators for the program. The Crossroads training program follows the ideas of the Reverend Joseph Barndt. It can best be understood by reading his books, the most recent of which is “Dismantling Racism: The Continuing Challenge to White America” (Augsburg-Fortress, 1991).
This is not the first time that Wheat Ridge has funded a project involving Crossroad Ministries and it is instructive to refer to an earlier project. In November 1995, Crossroads received a three-year grant from Wheat Ridge entitled “Crossroads Anti-Racism Network.” Crossroads’ final report for this project mentions contacts made with two denominational anti-racism projects, “Damascus Road” of the Mennonite Church
and “Journey Toward Wholeness” of the Unitarian Universalist Association. [1] The involvement by Crossroads in these two projects led to controversy within the two bodies.

The Continuum tool, a summary sheet provided by Crossroads for the projects, included “gays and lesbians” among the “socially oppressed groups” that it champions. [2] By December 1998 the Damascus Road project decided to delete such statements, in response to concerns about homosexuality expressed by the African-American and Hispanic communities within the Mennonite Church. [3] In the late fall of 1999, the
project decided to stop using Crossroads Ministries staff in any of their training events. As one of the project leaders, Conrad Moore, described it “the training needed to reflect our faith-based perspective.” They were gratified that responses from participants to their new model indicated fewer references to being “fed a party line” and none about the new faith based material feeling like an add-on. [4] Conrad Moore later described the decision to end their contract with Crossroads in these words. “We felt a real urgency that the
process be spiritually grounded, that the framework for dismantling racism would be Biblical, rather than having a secular framework draped with Bible verses.” [5]

Crossroads’ involvement in the Journey Toward Wholeness project led to major conflict in the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). Criticism of Crossroads training was expressed in a lecture at the 1999 UUA General Assembly by Thandeka, a faculty member at the Meadville/Lombard Theological School, a UUA seminary. A woman of African descent, Thandeka described what she learned at one of these training sessions. “I learned three things: One. All whites in America are racists. Two. No blacks in America are racist. … Three. Whites must be shown that they are racists and confess their racism.” Her most basic objection is that this violates the covenant to “actively affirm and promote the inherent dignity of every person.” She criticized Barndt’s book “Dismantling Racism” for insisting that whites are slaves to “the original sin of racism.” “In short they need a savior.” she continued. “And in the Barndt theology, this savior
isn’t Jesus but, in a brash leap, ‘people of color.’ ” [6]

Reverend David E. Bumbaugh, responding to Thandeka, agreed with her analysis and said it helped him understand why he was “unmoved and unimpressed” by the “anti-racism agenda.” Having been involved in the movement for racial justice since the 1950s, he was disturbed to realize how the conflict over “issues of race” had come to be used to transfer power from the General Assembly of the UUA to its leadership and staff. The General Assembly had once been a “powerful body” but the conflict had been used to “declare
that the actions by the Assembly were to be understood as advisory, not mandatory.” The Assembly lost its power. “And the General Assembly became a pep-rally rather than a governing body. Distracted by race, we quietly surrendered power. And as it is in our tiny little association, so it is in the larger world.” [7]

A UUA report in spring 2000 reported on the results of replacing Crossroads training with their own. “The first staff-led training received uniformly positive reviews, unlike the contentious responses to the Crossroads-led trainings.” [8]

Perhaps the sharpest conflict resulted when Crossroads was hired to conduct anti-racism workshops at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2000. A statement issued by eight professors at the University describes the workshops as “a program for thought control.” It gives a description of Barndt’s book “Dismantling Racism,” in which racism is described as “exclusively a disorder of white people.” It describes the claims made in the book as “paranoid fantasy that cannot satisfy even minimal standards of scholarship.
Reverend Barndt has written a jeremiad having nothing to do with fact or logic.” [9]

Critics cited above include people who have long been active in the movement for racial justice, including the Mennonite leader Conrad Moore, the Reverend Bumbaugh of the UUA, and several of the signers of the University of Alabama statement. It is precisely from this perspective that they find Reverend Barndt’s analysis and the Crossroads Ministries programs so offensive. It is noteworthy that the further from Christianity the critic, the sharper the criticism. One reason for this is given in Conrad Moore’s description
of the Crossroads program as having “a secular framework draped with Bible verses.” The analysis by the university professors is the so acute precisely because they treat Barndt’s book as primarily a secular analysis.

The harmful effects of draping a radical secular description of racism with theological language is evident from Professor Thandeka’s address to the UUA. She noted that Reverend Barndt has used the classical Christian Trinitarian language of original sin and the need for a Savior in his anti-racist rhetoric. In rejecting his analysis she was led quite naturally to reject Christian Trinitarian theology as well, since they come together in the Crossroads approach.

In the Northern Illinois District, Pastor Mark Hein raised theological objections that challenged Reverend Barndt’s definition of racism. President Ameiss responded that “Crossroads is not determining our theology. They are serving as a consultant on racism only. The definition used by Crossroads is essentially the same as the definition of racism used by the 1994 CTCR document, Racism and the Church.” [10] The Planning and
Design Task Force for this project had created a subcommittee to draft a Theological Statement. The draft released in January 2002 contains a description of racism from the CTCR document. The very next paragraph contains a statement that comes straight out of the Crossroads definition of racism: “Racism is racial prejudice plus power.” As Pastor Hein has correctly observed, this contradicts the description of racism drawn from the CTCR document.
It also refutes the claim that “Crossroads is not determining our theology.” The radical ideology of the Reverend Barndt has not only entered the Theological Statement, it is embedded in the training that Crossroads has been conducting in the District. The Mennonites removed all references to oppressed groups from the Continuum tool provided by Crossroads because it had placed “gays and lesbians” along side
African and Hispanic Americans. This was not enough. A program to combat racism that can also be used to promote the gay and lesbian agenda is incompatible with Christian theology, as the Mennonite program recognized when it subsequently separated from Crossroads altogether.

Wheat Ridge staff have undergone training by Crossroads. With its May 2001 funding of the “Latino Anti-Racism Strategy,” Wheat Ridge continues to fund Crossroads projects. [11] The NID continues to employ Crossroads in its anti-racism project and has already submitted a final report for the project. [12] The original NID proposal to Wheat Ridge calls for promoting this project throughout the Synod. According to this document NID executive staff are to present this project to organizations in Synod like The district
Mission executives, the district executives of Evangelism chairmen, and the Council of Presidents. They are to convene a national conference in the District to which the people from the Synodical office and various districts will be invited. They are then to visit Synodical executives at a conference in the National office, urging them to get their departments involved in this project.
This program of the Reverend Barndt and Crossroads is typical of radical ideological programs that have gained ascendency in mainline denominations. The end result, well described by the Reverend Bumbaugh, is that the national convention becomes a “pep-rally rather than a governing body.”

Professor Charles Ford
Saint Louis University
Member of Timothy Lutheran Church (LCMS)
St. Louis, MO
Notes:
1. Crossroads Anti-Racism Network Final Report.
http://www.wheatridge.org/grants/nov_1995/crossrds.shtml
2. Continuum on becoming an Anti-Racist, Multicultural Institution.
http://www.uua.org/ga/ga98/jun26antirace.html
3. Damascus Road Newsletter, Vol. 1 No. 3, December 1998 (Issue #3)
http://www.mcc.org/damascusroad/newsletter/3.html
4. Damascus Road Newsletter, Vol. 3 No. 2, June 2000
http://www.mcc.org/damascusroad/newsletter/june2000.html
5. Damascus Road founders reflect on history, future.
http://www.charitywire.com/00-01523.htm
6. Why Anti-Racism Will Fail, by Thandeka.
http://www.uua.org/ga/ga99/238thandeka.html
7. Why Anti-Racism Will Fail: A Response, by Rev. David E. Bumbaugh.
http://www.uua.org/ga/ga99/238bumbaugh.html
8. Racism, by Tom Stites, UU World, March/April 2000
http://www.uua.org/world/0300feat1.html
9. Racism Workshops at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa long version. Professors Davis Beito,
Lawrence Clayton, Dwight Eddins, George Rable, Max Hocutt, Lawrence Kohl, Charles Nuckols and John
Swain
10. Meeting Notes, One Faith One Lord Planning and Design Task Force, May 29, 2001
11. Latino Anti-Racism Strategy.
http://www.wheatridge.org/grants/May_2001/latino.shtml
12. Mobilizing Against Systemic Racism in the Church – Final Report.
http://www.wheatridge.org/grants/Nov_2000/racism_fr.shtml

Letter from Dan Ford to Synodical Delegates

Published on July 5, 2001

July 5, 2001

Dear Delegate,

Let me introduce myself, I am Dan Ford, a laymen in the Northern Illinois District. My June 18th letter included these words “We want to bring a matter to your attention—but want to use a light touch while we do it.” I included several quotations from a clergyman who is heading up a LC-MS District’s program. I then asked: Can you deduce who he is, and what is the title given to the program?

None of those who responded identified either the author or the program. Perhaps that should not be surprising, considering delegates have already received two or three books and eight to ten letters. So much for the light touch!

Why the mystery? First, I really wanted you to consider his theology before you considered his program. Second, in spite of a report to the district convention in June 2000 and two lengthy articles about the program in the April 2001 District newspaper, The Northern Light, his identity has been kept a mystery from the average pastor, laymen, and synodical delegate. The program title is found on page 94 of the Convention Workbook in the concluding paragraph of report R5-05-22 of President of the NID, William Ameiss. (Exerpted Article from April 2001 issue of the Northern Light)

In early 2001 the Northern Illinois District received a grant from Wheat Ridge Ministries to fund in part a project aimed at disabling systemic racism in our congregations and communities! Under the title ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE GOD AND FATHER OF US ALL, this three year-project will train teams of God’s people within congregations and institutions of the District to deal with the still-persistent evil of racism! (President Ameiss Report to 2001 Convention)

The title and the project sound just wonderful—two exclamation points! Now reality: this program has been presented to various secular institutions and Universities as well as non-Christian and Christian groups over the years. It is generally called anti-racist training it is always labeled “inter-faith” never “Christian”. This secular program cannot possibly be titled “ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE GOD AND FATHER OF US ALL.” Those who assigned that label either do not know the program itself, or do not care about this deception.

The District staff and our mystery leader prepared a Workbook for the April 20-22 weekend training for the NID’s District task force. The Northern Light stated, “There is an introductory event to sample the training process”. I went to that event. The training Workbook was the same as the Workbook used at the University of Alabama six months earlier except for the unionistic worship, and the copy given me was missing the page with the name of the mystery leader. (Exerpted Article from April 2001 issue of the Northern Light)

Next, I want to present the man, his theology and the program he has developed over the last thirty-five years. Then I want to examine the bizarre way this program was bought into our Church and how it is to be spread throughout the Church.

The man: He is the Reverend Joseph (Joe) Barndt an ELCA clergyman who is the founder and director of Crossroads Ministry an interfaith anti-racism training organization, an ELCA RSO. I sent you three pages of quotes from three of his books. They are Why Black Power? published in 1968, Liberating Our White Ghetto published in 1972; both are out of print, and Dismantling Racism, published by Augsburg in 1991 and available for $15.00 from Crossroads Ministry-Chicago, 425 S. Central Park. Ave., Chicago IL 60624. (http://www.elca.org/)

The three pages give some vivid examples of Rev. Barndt’ career long commitment to “Liberation theology” Before I give my analysis of his theology and program, let us hear from others who have examined his book or experienced his training.

In October 2000 Rev. Barndt did training at the University of Alabama. Eleven professors, lead by Prof. Max Hocutt, who in 1965 fought legalized segregation at the University as a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, sent a letter reviewing his book Dismantling Racism to the Tuscaloosa News, which was published on Nov. 11, 2000. Here is part of their letter:

We regard as paranoid fantasy (the claims of Barndt’s book) that cannot satisfy even minimal standards of scholarship. Reverend Barndt has written a jeremiad having nothing to do with fact or logic.

However, programs such as this are invariably followed by attempts to institute mandatory sensitivity training, restrictive speech codes, and other aspects of political correctness.

Such heavy handed if well intentioned, tactics are not likely to promoted racial harmony. In fact, racial segregation has worsened on campuses where these measures have been adopted. (http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/)

Other groups are supportive of Rev. Barndt’s training. Pax Chrisiti USA, National Catholic peace movement has adopted his goals as one of their four initiatives. One of the people trained, Florence Steichen, wrote the following:

We saw that all the isms: sexism, militarism, consumerism, age-ism, class-ism, heterosexism, and able-ism need to be dealt with from an anti-racist perspective.

Some of the learnings were hard to acknowledge, i.e. that all institutions were established to further and protect white power, and it is the nature of institutions to maintain the status quo. Furthermore, the systems in our society are all inter-related: banking, military, media, criminal justice, welfare, heath care, education, BIA, INS, IRS, etc. They are all oppressive to people of color. (http://www.paxchristiusa.org/)

Now let us together—you and I—analyze Rev. Barndt’s book and program. Carefully read the following paragraph from page 25 of his book. This great deliverance of Israel, by God alone, recorded in Exodus is the subject of thousands of verses of Scripture. To this very day, all believers worship and glorify God for this gracious act.

History shows that when people are pushed to the bottom, they refuse to stay there. From the time when Moses led the uprising of the Hebrews, through the rebellion of oppressed people all over the world in our own day, those who are stripped of dignity and their basic human rights will rise in strength, demanding that which God has promised to all people.

Note how Barndt is treating God—he is mocking Him by turning the teaching of thousands of verses of Scriptures on their head and robbing God of His Glory. God liberated Israel by His power alone. There was no uprising–period. The Hebrew’s part was to pray—and complain! Very much like what we Christians often do today!

Why does Barndt mock God? Because to acknowledge God’s liberation would ruin Barndt’s pet theory of Liberation, which is the real subject of the paragraph. Perhaps we can say Barndt’s favorite god is his theory of History. He rewrites history, having the oppressed deliver themselves, thereby shoving God to the back of the bus.

Next, the Workbook Barndt prepared begins on page 4 with the first part of a two-part attack that Pharisees so often use. First, he diminishes God’s Law—which he does by pretending he is introducing a practical matter. Remember that Luther’s Small Catechism teaches that sin originates in the heart, consider, now his definition, which is fundamental to Barndt’s training.

1.) If we want to work on solutions to racism, we need a common definition and a common analysis of racism.

2.) Racism is not the same thing as individual race prejudice and bigotry. All people are racially prejudiced (regardless of racial/ethnic identity.) It is part of the air we breathe. It is socialized into every person. But this does not mean that everyone is a racist.

3.) Racism is more than race prejudice. Racism is the collective actions of a dominant racial group.

No. Barndt—and all those who fund, promote, and accept your training-Not all people are racially prejudiced! Racism is not a part of the air we breathe, and you have slandered my mother and the teachers of the Lutheran School who educated me and the Pastor who confirmed me, and millions of other people in our country, Christian and non-Christian who have not allowed racism to be socialized into their children, students, friends, and associates.

Let me just ask you delegates. Are your parents and teachers and friends all racist? And does your God not care when people, by their prejudice despise their neighbor in their hearts?

Now comes the second attack that Pharisees use. After he has diminished God’s Law, he introduces his new law-which is more rigorous than God’s Law and favors one group over another.

Barndt’s new law-which is, in truth, a New Racism-is in his definition of Racism which is found in his book Dismantling Racism and is the heart of his entire training program.

If we define racism as prejudice plus power, the obvious question is, who’s got the power? And the answer is equally obvious. In the United States, only one racial group has the power to impose its will upon and exploit other racial groups. Only one racial group has the power to pretend that racism does not exist. Therefore, in the United States, racism is a white problem and only a white problem. (p34)

Every white person participates in and benefits from the system of racism…(p35)

We (all white people) have been empowered to go beyond guilt to the next step, which is to face our unwitting and unwilling imprisonment in racism, which continues even after we have repented, confessed, and been forgiven. As white Americans, we are racist oppressors, even when we don’t want to be. (p45) emphasis in the original

Does this mean that people of color are not racist? In the United States, people of color cannot be racist because they lack the power to enforce their prejudices. (p35)

What is wrong here? Barndt, merely by proclamation-by definition-has judged millions of people and slandering then and labeling them as sinners.

Barndt presumes powers of discernment no medieval Popes ever claimed over their subjects.

The Pharisees-and their admirers-piously expect you to accept their new law, or at least be silent. Their new law is clever, bold, timely, and so chic, and it is popular with those in power-or soon to be in power.

I think this district problem deserves your attention because of three important synodical connections.

First: the role of district presidents. Most have given honor to the office, but at the last synodical convention the delegates, wisely, made clear the authority over them of President Barry, and his successors. Given the actions of the district president of NID, I hope you will continue to support the authority of the synodical president.

Second: the bizarre way a district convention was by-passed. The Northern Illinois district convention never considered or passed this program. What occurred was the previous NID board of directors, in May 2000, just a month before the district convention, passed a grant request of $50,000 to Wheatridge for the program. At the convention the District President announced his support for the program, but the delegates were given no details and had no opportunity to act on it. The only congregational request that remotely related to this program was a resolution from Trinity, Roselle, IL-the founding place of Jesus First.

The leading light of the previous NID board of directors was Rev. Charles Mueller Jr. the head pastor of Trinity, Roselle. Right after Jesus First was founded in 1999 they announced that he would be one of the four members of their synodical “convention team”.

Third: the RSO involved, Wheatridge Ministries. The TB Sanatorium of Wheatridge, Colorado, so many of us fondly remember was sold 40 years ago. Today’s Wheatridge is a pan-Lutheran organization headquartered in a suburban office complex 10 miles from Trinity, Roselle. Rev. Charles Mueller Sr. is a staff associate there and a leader at the founding meeting of Jesus First. (http://www.wheatridge.org/)

This is Wheatridge’s third grant to Barndt’s organization. The grant includes the expectation that the NID staff will be spreading the program throughout the Synod. The Synod seriously needs to look at how RSOs are being used to bypass Synodical authority and undermine our faith, our confession, and our Unity.

May God protect you as you travel and bless your work at the convention!

Dan Ford

Letter from Dan Ford to Convention Delegates

Published on June 18, 2001

Dear Delegate,

Thank you for your willingness to give of your time, your mind, and your heart to serve our Lord and His Church.

We want to bring a matter to your attention-but we want to use a light touch while we do it. Please enjoy a little mystery and perhaps earn a very modest reward.

In your Workbook is a district program being lead by a clergyman. The following quotes are from three of his books published in 1968, 1972, and 1991.

Can you deduce who he is?

What is the title given to the program?

The first three delegates who give us the correct answer to both questions will earn a $50.00 gift certificate from CPH.

So put on your thinking caps, and e-mail us your answers.

Our next letter will give you the names of the three winners, the program, and the leader.

Table Talk editors.

Attached Quotes

1968

Only if the church is able to see itself and describe itself as a source of freedom and power can it communicate with the world and participate in the revolutionary changes that are taking place.

In conclusion, the enemy—cause of powerlessness, poverty and despair—cannot be found in the minority ghettos of our land. What can be found there is only the damage and destruction that the enemy has brought about. The residence of the enemy is the predominantly white, middle and upper income church and community. That is where freedom is most lacking, powerless is most evident, irresponsibility is most devastating, self-determination is least to be found.

In the plainest and simplest of terms, what is already taking place in the black ghetto must also take place in the church and in the white community: REBELLION! Theologically necessitated rebellion against all that imprisons us and keeps from acting as responsible children of God. We must rebel against our fear, rebel against our neurotic needs to oppress. We must rebel against the systems and structures in the church and society that foster, support and perpetuate racism. We must rebel against a racist culture that inculcates prejudice and hatred on every level on every level of consciousness. We must rebel against all that holds us powerless to act in love and justice toward our fellowman.

A special call to rebellion should be issued to the “church dropout.” The rank of civil rights workers, black and white, as well as other groups seeking change in our society are filled with individuals who would like to believe what the church teaches but can no longer tolerate the way the church acts. The rebellion that is so desperately needed within the church cannot take place without these people, whose conscience has led them to disassociate themselves from the church. If these people were once again a part of the church and carried out their rebellion within the church, Christianity in America would never be the same. If the insights of these people, their courage, their honesty and their demand for change came from within the church and not from without, it would be all that was necessary to lead the church in a new direction.

A call to rebellion may sound a bit frightening, but it is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ has always been. And our teacher and example in the art of rebelling is none other than our Lord himself. His life and ministry, his teaching and his command direct us to defy and destroy the evil powers that seek to take away our freedom and render us powerless to love effectively and justly. (pages 120-122)

1972

But there is only one Christianity, not two. And the Christian is deceived whose primary identity is not with the oppressed. The gospel of Jesus Christ is, and always has been a means of freedom for enslaved people. Jesus Christ lived and died for the sake of the downtrodden, and the poverty stricken, the suffering, the sick and the dying—all who were and are now the oppressed. (page 24)

The Christian gospel has not changed. It is the same today as it always has been. It is a gospel of liberation for oppressed people. It is good news to the poverty stricken in the ghettos of our land. It is the proclamation of liberty to the captives in our prisons and our reservations. It is sight for the blind, strength for the lame, community for the lonely. It is freedom for the oppressed people of America and the world. And it must be : that is all the gospel there is! There are not one Christianity for those who need freedom and one for those who don’t. There is one gospel of Jesus Christ: it is the gospel of liberation offered to those who identify with the oppressed. (page 25)

The present educational system in our white racial ghetto is another of our white racial problems. It presupposes the validity of segregation; it perpetuates the existence of ghettos; and it enslaves the minds and bodies of children, teaching them to tolerate and adjust to it. It does not free people or create conditions within which humans can thrive. A true educational process will first of all help the ghettos gain their freedom, and must therefore, first work for the collapse of our present ghetto-preserving educational system. (page 89)

1991

History shows that when people are pushed to the bottom, they refuse to stay there. From the time when Moses led the uprising of the Hebrews, through the rebellion of oppressed people all over world in our own day, those who are stripped of dignity and their basic human right will rise in strength, demanding that which God promised to all people. (page 25)

More specifically, the hope for white America, as well as the entire white western world, is that we will be able to relinquish our power and control, and write a positive ending for our fable before it is too late. Not only because we’re afraid of what will happen if we don’t change, but also because it is right, because it is just, and because it is the will of God. (page 25)

The most important means for breaking through our anesthesia are the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. In Baptism we receive a vision of the whole human family as one, with all the walls that divide us torn down, melted away, gone. (page 143)

Holy Communion has even more power to break through our anesthesia. In the words, “Do this to remember…,” we see Holy Communion as a means of creating new consciousness in people suffering from the anesthesia. We are a forgetful people. Our anesthesia encourages us to forget the wall, forget injustice, forget racism. Holy Communion helps to restore our memory. To remember Jesus is to remember everything for which he died; everything for which he gave his life. The most important thing to remember is that we are a community, a restored community, a community that transcends every wall, every barbed wire fence, every national boundary.

Holy Communion reminds us of the incredibly exciting and joyful reality that those who live beyond our prison walls are our family. Holy Communion reminds us that our purpose in life is to tear down walls that divide us. (page 144)

Minutes of the NID Board of Directors

Published on May 21, 2001

Minutes of the Northern Illinois District
Board of Directors
May 21, 2001
EXECUTIVE SESSION
FOR BOARD OF DIRECTORS ONLY
EXECUTIVE SESSION 1
11:15AM-12: 30PM

Materials were handed out concerning the “Mobilize Against Racism” issue.

It was noted in the discussion that according to the Bylaws of the NID Board of Directors are responsible for all programs of the District. The District President has theological oversight.

A suggestion was made to table the issue until the next Board of Directors Meeting, giving the board time to consider the issues.

Other suggestions and discussion followed.

Motion was made to appoint two pastors from Board of Directors to be involved in the theological development of the program. The motion was seconded.

The motion was amended “all four pastoral members of the Board of Directors are invited to be involved”. The amendment was seconded. No discussion. The amendment was approved.

The amended motion went before the Board. Discussion followed. The amended motion was passed as amended below:

“Invite the pastors on Board of Directors to be involved with the Task Force in Developing the Crossroads materials”

Moved and seconded to “Respectfully decline the request of the Ford brothers to speak to the Board of Directors at todays meeting.” Discussion followed. The motion was approved.

The secretary is directed by the board to correspond with the Task Force director, Rev. William Griffen, concerning this decision of the board.

President Ameiss and Rev. Mark Hein will meet and discuss with the Ford brothers the Board’s decision. They will also advise them to drop the issue. They have brought their concerns to the board and now need to let the Board do it’s work. They should stop and decease their efforts.

This Executive Session adjourned at 12:30 PM with prayer.

Minutes of the Northern Illinois District
Board of Directors
May 21, 2001
Executive Session
For Board of Directors Only
EXECUTIVE SESSION II
2:45-3:40PM

Executive Session II was called to order at 2:45PM.

The Minutes of the previous Executive Session were moved and approved.

An update on Karl Kahlfeld was shared by President Ameiss.

President Ameiss and Rev. Mark Hein updated the board on their discussion with the Ford brothers following the first Executive Session. Discussion followed and the items of information were reviewed.

Secretary should convey our support for the process of developing Crossroads to Bill Griffen, in the form of the letter from Board of Directors.

Issues from the Board of Directors.

Discussion followed concerning the “open” and “closed” nature of the Board of Directors meetings. We should confer with our attorney.

The issue of the similar activities which occurred at the last NID Convention was also presented by President Ameiss. He will also check this matter with the attorney.

Discussion of Church Worker recruitment followed.

Rev. Mark Hein shared a letter he sent to the M&M Board of Directors.

The meeting adjourned at 3:40PM with the closing remarks of thanks for the boards work from President Ameiss.

Closing Benediction.

Respectfully submitted by
Your Servant In Christ,
Rev. Daniel J. Teller, Secretary, NID

Letter from Dan Ford to those attending the Listening Event

Published on May 3, 2001

To: All those attending the “listening event”, the anti-racism task force, and the NID congregations of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Please listen,

The leader/facilitator of the program/process, Rev. Joseph Barndt, an ELCA minister mocks God’s great act of liberating Israel from Egypt, in his 1991 book DISMANTLING RACISM, published by Augsburg Fortress.

History shows that when people are pushed to the bottom, they refuse to stay there. From the time when Moses led the uprising of the Hebrews, through the rebellion of oppressed people all over the world in our own day, those who are stripped of dignity and their basic human rights will rise in strength demanding that which God has promised to all people. (25 Barndt).

This great deliverance of Israel, by God alone, is the subject of thousands of verses of Scripture. To this very day, all true believers worship and glorify God for this gracious act.

The most important point of the “listening event” is that the task force has—in fact—two very different presentations. The first presentation is a slide show you will see tonight. The slide show correctly calls racism a sin—this is from the LCMS’s CTCR study done in 1994, Racism and the Church, and this is the definition our congregations are totally familiar with.

The goal of the “listening event” is to get our congregations to agree to encourage individuals to participate in training. A fifty page Participant’s Workbook has already been prepared for this training and is-very carefully-being kept from you. Please read these quotes from the Participant’s Workbook attached to see the to see the second-very different-definition of racism that will be used in those training sessions.

Race Prejudice + The misuse of power by systems and institutions = Racism (4 Participant’s Workbook).

All salespeople recognize this practice as “bait and switch”.

Your congregation has never used, or perhaps never seen this definition of racism before and it would not be acceptable to the vast majority of our members.

The workbook definition comes from Barndt’s book. His confused thinking has lead him to conclude: “In the United States, racism is a white problem, and only a white problem.” He also pontificates that “In the United States, people of color cannot be racist because they lack the power to enforce their prejudices.” Please read the quotes from pages 34,35,36,37 of his book.

Racism Is a White Problem
If we define racism as prejudice plus power, the obvious question is, who’s got the power? And the answer is equally obvious. In the United States, only one racial group has the power to impose its will upon and exploit other racial groups. Only one racial group has the power to pretend that racism does not exist. Therefore, in the United States, racism is a white problem, and only a white problem.

This conclusion will be traumatic for many readers of this book. The first difficulty is the assertion that racism is only a white problem, that it is exclusively a disorder of white people and not of people of color. The second and most important difficulty is that if racism is a white problem, it changes dramatically the way we look at and attempt to solve it. (34-35 Barndt).

Does this mean that people of color are not racist? In the United States, people of color cannot be racist because they lack the power to enforce their prejudices. (35 Barndt).

The racial problem of the United States is not a minority problem. It is a majority problem. The cause is in the white society. The effects are felt in the communities of color. The problems of African American, Native American, Hispanics, and Asians are only the symptoms of European America’s sickness. (37 Banrdt).

To turn Rev. Barndt’s thinking into something acceptable to thinking Christians is a fool’s errand. To invite this mocker of our Lord and His deliverance into our Church and expect our Lord to bless our work is even more foolish.

Dan Ford

Letter from Bill and Dan Ford to Rev. Ameiss regarding the Colloquy of Rev. Thomas Streiter

Published on September 1, 1998

September 1, 1998

Dear Rev. Ameiss,

Your fax concerning Rev. Thomas Streiter amazed me.

You apparently know little about the last ten years of the ELCA and its Metropolitan Chicago Synod, both of which headquarters are practically next door to you.

A radical group called Lutherans Concerned has torn apart the ELCA and is attempting to silence God’s Word. Their statement introducing their organization-which I sent you and which you mistakenly call an “ELCA document” sees an “injustice” in the “scriptures” being used to condemn homosexual “orientation that is in their God-given nature.” It is their only reference to the “scriptures.”

Their program, now called “Reconciling in Christ” was very deceptively introduced as acceptance of homosexuality-that is homosexual conduct-under the guise of ministering to homosexuals.

Rev. Streiter is not some innocent bystander as your fax suggests. He was one of the very few ministers who persuaded his congregation to adopt the Reconciling in Christ program. He immediately introduced the program when he accepted the call to Trinity Lutheran Church, Chicago ELCA, in 1990. In 1991 he was a leader in getting the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the ELCA to be come a Reconciling in Christ Synod. In 1995 he very publicly promoted the policy of ordaining sexually active homosexuals into the ministry of the ELCA. Just ask him, he will not be able to deny it.

The radicals were defeated 60/40 at the 1995 ELCA Church-wide Assembly. But they did succeed in intimidating the leadership of the ELCA into being silent about God’s Word of judgment against homosexuality and blessed forgiveness for repentant homosexuals.

The amazing fact is that ELCA which has prided itself on speaking to the issues of the day, has admitted it is unable to speak on the issue of homosexuality; witness its 1996 document “Sexuality: Some Common Convictions.”

Since 1993 Lutherans Concerned has used the radical ELIM/SEMINEX model to subvert the regular call procedures of the ELCA. This is called the Extraordinary Candidacy Project. What is “extraordinary” are the clergy persons being promoted for ordination and placement are sexual active homosexuals. Radicals call this leading “the church by example.” They claim, “We cannot wait for everyone in the church to understand how acute the need is” Again reference the Lutheran Concerned statement I sent you.

Now let us speak from our hearts. God’s condemning judgment on homosexuality-which you rightly see in Romans 1 and elsewhere-and His promise of forgiveness to homosexuals-and all other sinners-for the sake of Christ, is so clear in the Scriptures, that those who confuse Law and Gospel at this point are not fit for the Holy Ministry.

By perverting God’s blessed forgiveness of sins into a license to sin, these false teachers attempt to make nothing the Grace of God, which Christ earned with His bitter suffering and death. They would instead lead homosexuals to eternal destruction. This permissiveness is the very opposite of the true love that our Lord and a faithful pastor have for all sinners. It is vitally important that faithful pastors have the courage to pronounce God’s Word of Judgment on any and all sins so His blessed Word of Forgiveness will be meaningful and liberating for poor sinners. These false teachers also lead heterosexuals to ruin because they will falsely conclude that their sins which are great are small if homosexuality is accepted in the Church.

Therefore we must totally disagree with you, that there is a “similarity” between the Biblical model of ministry, as is evidenced by the LCMS document you kindly provided us, and the false teacher model of the Lutherans Concerned document which you mistakenly call the “ELCA document.”

Further , your statements about Rev. Streiter evidence a lack of comprehension of the nature of the Holy Ministry. For you to meet with Rev. Sreiter to “determine if he can comfortably live with this statement of the LCMS,” show a very low view of the office of the Pastor. Pastors are to be forthright proclaimers of God’s Holy Word. This is a far cry from comfortably living with it.

Finally, your second statement that you “expect the LCMS document and the approaches it represents to be followed in NID congregations and would act and respond accordingly were it not followed” shows a lack of understanding of your office. You are not a mere institutional shopkeeper. You are a minister called to a most important office of being a pastor to pastors. And in light of innumerable statements in the Sacred Scriptures regarding the dangers of false teachers in our midst, your office requires a high degree of discernment-going beyond a mere thorough understanding of synodical guidelines.

We hope you will seek God’s guidance in this very serious matter. The ELCA statement and the Lutherans Concerned documents are all available on the internet.

Dan and I are copying President Barry and Vice-president Kuhn. The Colloquy Board certainly did not give you the help that you needed in this matter.

We will pray that our God’s perfect will still be done. We will send you more copies of these documents by mail.

Bill and Dan Ford