Issuance of the Action Alert related to the Equality Act on April 13 elicited strong reaction communicated through social media and other channels. Anger, deception, confusion, and contribution to a deepening of harm already part of the lives of many LGBTQIA+ members and other siblings surfaced, along with questioning advocacy process and accountability in the ELCA. For presenting a lack of care on these deep-felt issues, we apologize.
In an attempt to express a diversity of opinion and views around the Equality Act, the message of our bedrock knowledge of the value of each and every one of us as children of God was lost. The presentation of the message calling for support of the Equality Act was careless and hurtful. We need to do better.
There is tension in the legislative process as the Equality Act comes closer to being a foundational law of the land. The Action Alert has been rewritten to better place acknowledgement of the tension around religious exemptions in our understanding as many of us use our faith-informed voices to urge passage of the bill.
We’re also thankful for your comments pointing to the need for a diligent process of interaction and accompaniment with most directly impacted siblings on issues of interface between ELCA priorities and federal policy opportunities. We commit to this going forward.
The blog post, “Equal Rights and Religious Freedom,” remains public on our ELCA advocacy blog not for prescriptive purposes but as background on “a false choice between equal rights and religious freedom.” Anticipated is a guest blog post that will provide further perspectives.
We hope you will use the reissued Action Alert, personalized in your voice from your faith-informed convictions, to advance passage of the Equality Act. Thank you for helping us improve our advocacy ministry, and for your engagement envisioning a world experiencing the difference that God’s grace and love in Christ make for all people and creation.
For ongoing communication, please be in touch with the ELCA advocacy staff at washingtonoffice@elca.org.
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