In the 14th Chapter of Mark, we read that on this day of Jesus’ final week of ministry, one of the 12 disciples at the Last Supper would betray him. When pressed to name whom the betrayer was, Jesus replied, “The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

Now let’s flash forward to this past Sunday, Palm Sunday, in Fargo, North Dakota, where 28-year old “pastor” Micah Louwagie, the first openly transgender Lutheran in North Dakota with a congregation to lead, had a message for the flock – the Nashville school shooter was betrayed just like Jesus, you know.

Now I’m about not judging lest I be judged, but I also know a few other things about the faith. You’re not supposed to keep the children from coming to Christ, especially by shooting them dead when they’re in a school where at least part of the curriculum is learning about Christ. Jesus frowned on those who kept children away from Him.

I also know that betraying Jesus’ meaning and message by comparing Him and His plan of salvation for all of humanity to that of a mass murderer of children and other non-combatants is, well, to translate from the New Mandalorian Edition, “This is not the way.”

Louwagie was installed to lead St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in February of 2023, and it took this person exactly six weeks to go off the rails in a sermon on the most significantly important week on the Christian calendar. There are a lot of big themes pastors could and should use on Palm Sunday – sacrifice, humility, redemption, perseverance, but mostly, the love and passion for all of humanity God in human form showed by knowing the fate that awaited Him, a medieval, tortuous brutal death for a crime He did not commit, so that he could bear the full weight of all sin for all time. That wasn’t exactly Louwagie’s message.

Instead, this person who shot and killed six innocent lives in cold blood was sacrificing just like Jesus did, apparently. In addition, Louwagie also went on a tangent by saying the transgender community in America today is facing conditions no different than Jews faced during the Holocaust, or what Japanese-Americans faced in internment camps during World War II. It’s not only a deluded message, it’s vile and evil. Yes, invoking Godwin’s Law is also not something often taught in seminary school as a teaching aid for the big holiday sermons.

Christians are taught to hate the sin and love the sinner. Louwagie seems to be conflating those two points, and that Jesus would love the sinner so much today that He wouldn’t say, “Go and sin no more,” He’d be totally cool with the continued debasement of society.

Again, I’m no theologian, nor am I one to say my idea of Christianity is the only true path to God. I know we are all sinners and we are saved by Grace, not by works. Fair enough. I also know that pastors are held to a fairly strict standard when it comes to what and how they teach. Old and New Testament references warn leaders of churches, especially ones in teaching positions, what happens if they stray from what the Bible actually says.

In 2 Timothy, Chapter 4, Paul instructs young Pastor Timothy, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom; preach the word.” There is nothing in the Word about proper pronoun use or preaching that sexual immorality, all sexual immorality, isn’t sin.

In Mark, Chapter 7, Jesus confronted the religious leaders of the day by saying, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition… thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.” I’m pretty sure from my Bible studies the traditions young Micah Louwagie is currently keeping isn’t something Jesus would have much to do with.

In the 4th chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses warns the next generation of teachers, “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commands of the Lord your God which I command you.” I don’t think adding in the Nashville school shooter as a modern-day Jesus is the kind of addition that would cause Moses to rethink this.

And in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, Chapter 22, John warns, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”

If I were one of the parishioners in St. Mark’s and Romans Chapter 1 was either altered or omitted entirely, or if I heard anything like this coming out of a person claiming to walk in the ways of the Lord, I would certainly seek fellowship elsewhere.

As we look to Good Friday, where sin was defeated once and for all on that Cross, I know that at least one of those lashes Christ took were on me. I also know it’s my job as a believer to do everything I can on a daily basis not to be responsible for more of what Jesus bore. My job certainly isn’t to convince myself and others in God’s name that the sin they are engaging in is totally acceptable now because God is living in a more modern era. He that created eyes can see. He that created ears can hear.