| The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) took an action rejecting past statements attributed to early Lutheran church reformers and expressed “its deep and abiding sorrow and regret for the persecution and suffering visited upon the Anabaptists during the religious disputes of the past.”
[…] The council acted because past statements have become problematic for the ELCA’s present-day relationships with the Mennonite Church USA and other Christians who trace their heritage to the 16th century Anabaptist reformers, according to the council’s background materials. In the action, the council declared that the ELCA “repudiates the use of governmental authorities to punish individuals or groups with whom it disagrees theologically.” It rejected the arguments of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, two 16th century church reformers, “in which they hold that governmental authorities should punish Anabaptists for their teaching,” the action said. |
As a modern-day Anabaptist Mennonite Christian, do I issue a formal statement of forgiveness?
No.
Because I wasn’t wronged. And because neither the church nor its council wronged me.
But I’m glad to see them repudiating and rejecting the notion of the church using the state to punish others for their perceived spiritual and/or religious misdeeds.
(Is it OK for one church to “punish” another church, though?)