Beloved Members of the Southwestern Washington Synod,
I find myself at a loss for words in this moment. I sit shocked and heartbroken, crying out to God, asking where we are to turn in a time as our divisions continue to grow and what has become normalized is so shocking and startling. As your bishop, I find myself deeply concerned for our hearts, our communities, our families, and ourselves.
Along with the violence and hate we see on display daily, I am concerned to what extent that level of dehumanization and desensitization has taken hold among us. I am troubled and concerned that violence, hate, and rhetoric have become so normalized that we risk embracing the very things we claim to be crying out against.
I am troubled that these efforts to dehumanize others may lead many to walk away from what we hold as Lutherans to be true: that two things can be true at the same time, for we are people of “and,” not “either/or.”
The gospel calls us to live in this tension, not to escape it. We are called to resist the normalization of dehumanizing those with whom we disagree and to rise above the forces that would harden our hearts. There is nothing more antithetical to the gospel than denying the humanity and Imago Dei of another. When we begin to do so, we begin to embrace that which we know is not true and not of God.
In this moment, I invite you to guard your hearts and minds from the violence and hate. Do not blind yourself to it, nor ignore it, hoping it will simply go away. Rather, I invite you to follow the way of Christ: praying for all who grieve, naming injustice wherever it occurs, and refusing to let fear, anger, or ideology eclipse our calling to love our neighbor, to stand with the marginalized, and to bear faithful witness to the gospel.
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 4:7
Rev. Keith Marshall
Bishop, Southwestern Washington Synod