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‘Misinformation’: Lutheran Leader Dismisses Musk’s Claims About Church Aid Groups

Por Jack Jenkins
eaton musk misinformation
Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, speaks out in a recent to correct claims made online by Elon Musk, seen in a fall 2024 rally. (TRR Graphic / Video screengrab)

A prominent Lutheran leader invoked the story of a martyr while defending work to help the needy after Elon Musk, a billionaire who runs the Department of Government Efficiency, described federal funding for Lutheran aid organizations as “illegal” over the weekend.

Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran denomination in the country, publicó un video debunking comments by Musk and others on Sunday.

“Despite misinformation and baseless doubt cast today on funding that supports Lutheran organizations across our country, the ELCA remains steadfast in our commitment and work with our many Lutheran partners and expressions of our church,” Eaton said. “The ELCA is also concerned for other faith-based communities and organizations who have similarly come under attack.”

Eaton recounted the story of Saint Lawrence, a deacon in Ancient Rome. In the presiding bishop’s retelling, the Roman emperor demanded the Christian church turn over its riches, but Lawrence responded by selling the church’s possessions and giving the money to the poor. When the emperor finally confronted him and demanded the riches, Eaton said, Lawrence pointed to the “hungry, the poor, the naked, the stranger in the land, the most vulnerable.” He then declared: “These are the treasures of the Church.”

“He was martyred for that,” Eaton concluded. “Be of good courage, Church, and let us persevere.”

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refugees immigrants migrants
Lutheran Services Carolinas outreach coordinator supervisor Sarah Lewis, center, teaches an English class for recently arrived refugees, April 11, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco, File / RNS)

The controversy began late Saturday evening, when Michael Flynn, a Catholic and retired Army general who previously served as an adviser to President Donald Trump, published a post on X alongside screenshots of a spreadsheet detailing federal funding dispersed to Lutheran groups in the last two years.

The spreadsheet — which also included organizations that were not Lutheran — listed groups such as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (now Global Refuge), one of several organizations that partner with the federal government to resettle refugees; Lutheran colleges such as Pacific Lutheran University; and various local chapters of Lutheran Social Services.

Without citing evidence, Flynn accused the groups — who have longstanding funding agreements with the government — of “money laundering,” a federal crime. He also insisted the numbers amounted to “billions” of American taxpayer dollars, a claim not supported by the attached spreadsheet.

Musk, who describes himself as a “cultural Christian,” quote-posted Flynn’s claims, saying, “the (Department of Government Efficiency) team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”

Global Refuge was quick to respond to the post, with CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah saying in a statement she “condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the false accusations being lodged against our humanitarian work.”

“As a faith-based nonprofit, we have proudly served legally admitted refugees and immigrants for more than 85 years,” she said in a statement to media. “This includes Afghan Allies who risked their lives to protect U.S. troops, as well as persecuted Christians, all of whom have been extensively vetted and approved by multiple U.S. government agencies before traveling to our country. We also remain committed to caring for legally admitted unaccompanied children forced to flee to the United States.”

She added: “Across Democratic and Republican administrations, we have partnered with the U.S. government to ensure vulnerable children are safe from human trafficking and can be safely reunified with their parents or guardian.”

Flynn’s post also noted funds granted to Lutheran Social Services of the South, the legal name of a Texas-based group that does work under the name Upbring such as assisting parents who wish to adopt a child.

elon musk
Elon Musk speaks as part of a campaign town hall in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Folsom, Pa., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Efforts to reach DOGE — also known as as the U.S. DOGE Service, which is the new name of the U.S. Digital Service — were unsuccessful.

The targeting of Global Refuge comes after Trump already all but froze the United States Refugee Admissions Program in one of his first executive orders, shutting down the entry of refugees into the country aside from rare exceptions. Seven of the 10 groups that partner with the federal government to resettle refugees are faith-based, including Global Refuge. Several of the groups condemned Trump’s executive order at the time and have since vowed to aid refugees in whatever ways they can.

In addition, Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, recently acusado U.S. Catholic bishops of “resettling illegal immigrants” — a claim made without evidence — in an interview with CBS, as well as acusando prelates who defend the work of only being concerned with their “bottom line.”

Over the weekend, the Trump administration also began dismantling the United States Agency for International Development, with Musk saying on X early Monday morning that his DOGE team “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” In the past, USAID has partnered with religious groups that do international work, such as Lutheran World Relief y Catholic Relief Services.

jack jenkinsJack Jenkins es un periodista galardonado y reportero nacional de Religion News Service.

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15 Respuestas

  1. Better hold onto your hats folks. Ihopkc, Daystar, Morningstar, Gateway, etc are just the beginning of God’s exposure of corruption in the church. Soon we’ll find out that many of our big name church “humanitarian” agencies are not what they claim to be.

      1. Bob, any sentient being is well aware that a politicized court allowed the selective prosecution of President Trump. You know that Joseph of biblical record was also a convicted felon. Actually did a lot of prison time. Yet God elevated him to the highest civilian post in Egypt and used him to save his entire people.

  2. I find it ironic that Elizabeth Eaton used that particular illustration. “The Roman emperor demanded the Christian church turn over its riches, but Lawrence responded by selling the church’s possessions and giving the money to the poor. When the emperor finally confronted him and demanded the riches, Eaton said, Lawrence pointed to the “hungry, the poor, the naked, the stranger in the land, the most vulnerable.” He then declared: “These are the treasures of the Church.”” The Trump administration is cutting off government funding of church activities, NOT demanding payment from churches, as her story illustrates. Lawrence used church funds to help the needy, which is what these religious organizations should have been doing all along. Now they are free to do their charitable work without government red tape and interference.

    1. No, they will just provide less assistance. They are contracted to provide certain social services, i.e. providing housing for the homeless. And the “red tape” is to ensure that grant recipients are spending taxpayer dollars on what they are supposed to. Compare to large churches with huge coffers that only use them to enrich the lead pastor and do nothing to serve their communities.

      1. General Flynn’s spreadsheet covers 2 months (11/13/24-1/22/25) not 2 years as stated in the article. The article correctly states not all of the agencies are Lutheran, but it is almost inconsequential. They are a public school district, a Lutheran hospital, and a university. They account for $3 million of the outlay. That leaves a whopping $625 MILLION going to just Lutheran social service agencies in just 2 months! While jumping to the conclusion of “money laundering” might be going too far, DOGE has a right to question if such massive amounts of money are really being spent as intended. Real accountability goes beyond a CPA’s annual report. I think that any agency which can give solid evidence that all the funds given them have been spent appropriately, they should have their funding restored, similar to Trump’s 10 hour tariff war with Canada and Mexico.

      2. You make some good points. But speaking of huge coffers, did you look at the spreadsheet mentioned in the article? General Flynn’s spreadsheet covers 2 months (11/13/24-1/22/25) not 2 years as stated in the article. The article also states not all of the agencies are Lutheran. There are 3 non-Lutheran agencies on the list: a public school district, a Lutheran hospital, and a public university. They account for $3 million of the outlay. That leaves a whopping $625 MILLION going to just Lutheran social service agencies in just 2 months! While jumping to the conclusion of “money laundering” might be going too far, DOGE has a right to question if such massive amounts of money are really being spent as intended. Real accountability goes beyond a CPA’s annual report. I think that any agency which can give solid evidence that all the funds given them have been spent according to the requirements of the grants, they should have their funding restored. After all, Trump’s tariff war with Canada and Mexico got the intended results and was over in 10 hours.

      3. Many are known to set the “new immigrants” in housing and then after a short while, those same “new immigrants” become a burden on local services. There is so much money involved, corruption follows as night follows day. And every dollar dispensed by the government comes with strings.

    2. The emperor didn’t claim to be Christians in a Christian nation. Republicans claim to be Christians and claim this is a Christian nation.

    3. Dan, the US Govt Sponsors a Refugee Program and they have contracts for Refugee Resettlements with social service agencies such as Catholic Charities. It’s a separate organization from local Catholic Churches which collect donations for a variety of their local ministries.

      It’s a misnomer that the Federal Government is supporting Church activities when it’s more accurately providing specific contracted services.

      This is not about supporting church programs.?

  3. Troy Stevens, Please let us know your soon-to-be-seen evidence that the Lutheran refugee services are not “humanitarian.” I am not Lutheran but have seen this group do good work with refugees in the past.

  4. In all her posturing, Eaton never actually addressed Musk’s comment. No way she really could because what Musk said was true. It is illegal to take taxpayer money and use it to fund aid programs run by any religious organization. So the Lutheran organizations recieving these funs are breaking the law by taking the money and the government is breaking it’s own law giving the money to those organizations. But thats the lasting beauty of fungibility.

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Hola. Vemos que este es el tercer artículo de este mes que ha encontrado que vale la pena leer. ¡Estupendo! ¿Consideraría hacer una donación deducible de impuestos para ayudar a nuestros periodistas a continuar informando la verdad y restaurar la iglesia?

Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $50 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you can elect to receive a copy of “Safe Church: How to Guard Against Sexism and Abuse in Christian Communities’ by Dr. Andrew Bauman.