The unfortunate answer is: we don’t know. And that’s the problem. It’s a really, really big problem.

2018 marked a major watershed moment in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Up until then, no African-American woman had ever been elected bishop in our church. That year, we elected two.

On 5 May, the assembly of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod elected the Reverend Patricia A. Davenport as their bishop. One day later, the assembly of the South-Central Synod of Wisconsion elected the Reverend Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld as their bishop. The church celebrated these historic elections and hoped they meant brighter days ahead.

Thirteen months later, Bishop Thomas-Breitfeld resigned.

It’s the circumstances of her resignation that are in question. At the time, the South-Central synod council put out a letter indicating that she was asked to resign following an investigation into some medical issues and other concerns, and after the investigation Bishop Thomas-Breitfeld was asked to resign by the Presiding Bishop. A letter from Bishop Thomas-Breitfeld was sent out and she stepped aside. We now know that the letter sent out was not the letter the bishop wrote, which explained in more (but not complete) detail what happened.

Even at the time, many African-descent Lutherans saw evidence that racism influenced how the situation was handled. It would appear that everyone involved is under a non-disclosure agreement, as no one has shared exactly what happened and why, including Bishop Thomas-Breitfeld.

The reason all of this is coming up again is because of a different, recent situation involving former Pastor Nelson Rabell. The short (and inadequate) version of the story is that Pastor Rabell, a Latinx pastor deeply involved in Latinx mission ministry, was a candidate for bishop in his synod until, the day of the election, he was required to disclose accusations against him concerning past conduct. Even on that day, other Latinx Lutherans noticed that the other two candidates for bishop didn’t have to disclose accusations against them: one was Pastor Rabell’s supervisor during the time Pastor Rabell is accused of misconduct and was involved in the handling of the accusations; and the other, who was eventually elected bishop, was and still is fighting a lawsuit against them concerning their actions as a pastor in their former congregation. Both of them are white. Pastor Rabell is not.

The burning questions here are how much racism had to do with the removals of Bishop Thomas-Breitfeld and Pastor Rabell, and whether the processes themselves were out of line (they were). Bishop Thomas-Breitfeld served a synod where, five years earlier, Bishop Bruce Burnside struck and killed a jogger while driving to church on Sunday morning, texting while driving, and with a blood alcohol level significantly over the legal limit. While he agreed to step away from his duties, he was not asked to resign, and finished out the rest of his term as bishop under indictment while an interim bishop handled his duties. He is serving a ten year sentence in prison. Burnside is white. Thomas-Breitfeld is black.

Bishop Megan Rohrer, the first transgender bishop in the ELCA, who was elected over Pastor Rabell, now has the distinction of being the first person suspended from Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, a group that has advocated for and supported LGBTQ+ ministers in the ELCA since the 1990s, because of a disturbing and long pattern of racist actions against ELM members. There has been no other disciplinary action taken against Bishop Rohrer for this or the lawsuit they face. Bishop Rohrer is also white.

Bishop Rohrer removed Pastor Rabell from his call at a Latinx Lutheran mission start on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the most important days in the Latinx Christian community. He was then removed from the roster of ministers of Word and Sacrament, not through the constitutionally mandated disciplinary process, but through a process not meant to be used for discipline. When Bishop Rohrer was accused of mishandling the situation, some in the church reached out to the Presiding Bishop to intervene. Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton responded that the office of the presiding bishop doesn’t have the authority to intervene in a synod matter.

But we know, from the Southeastern Pennsylvania synod council’s letter concerning the resignation of Bishop Breitfeld-Thomas that the Presiding Bishop was asked, and did intervene, there. And the ELCA constitution does seem to say that the Presiding Bishop can. The process by which Bishop Thomas-Breitfeld was asked to resign and removed from office is also vague, raising questions on whether it was handled properly.

I do want to point out that in both cases, of Bishop Thomas-Breitfeld and of Pastor Rabell, there may have been good reasons why their calls were ended. We don’t know, which is part of the problem. But the discrepancies between the way their situations were handled and the way other serious situations are being handled, both related to race and proper disciplinary procedure, are troubling questions that so far the ELCA churchwide and synod offices have failed to address. The church has instead responded as a corporation would–with silence, chosen or enforced.

The only good news is that, unlike in the past, the people in the church are rising up and speaking out against these and many other instances of the church failing to live up to the expectations of its Christian identity. We are not as complacent as we once were. Change is, I hope, coming, and not soon enough.

— Pastor Ken Ranos

UPCOMING QUESTIONS:

Is God’s love unconditional?

Can we thwart God’s will?

Antisemitism and Supersessionism.

PREVIOUS COLUMNS:

Ask the Pastor, Nov. 2020 (Heaven and the Resurrection)

Ask the Pastor, Dec. 2020 (Faith and Belief)

Ask the Pastor, May 2021 (The Gnostics)

Ask the Pastor, July 2021 (The Nicene Creed)

Ask the Pastor, August 2021 (Forgiveness)