JOHN HINDERAKER: Get woke, empty the pews. “This is the sort of left-wing nonsense that the ELCA spews on a regular basis. It is not coincidental that the ELCA is a failing denomination. The ELCA had over five million members when it was formed out of a merger of three Lutheran churches in 1988. As of the end of 2020, it had shrunk to 3.3 million, with no end in sight. Why is the ELCA failing? One obvious reason is that it has made clear that Christians who are not hard-core liberals–that is, the overwhelming majority of the population–are not welcome. Many of my friends have left the ELCA, unwilling to support its ill-informed leftism.”