ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, December 8, 2001: To the Rev. David Benke, the ceremony at Yankee Stadium a month ago was a blessing, an opportunity to join other religious and civic leaders in offering comfort to a nation raw from the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. He joined the celebrities and politicians on stage to sing patriotic songs and to pray. But some fellow clergymen took quite a different view: They saw his participation in an interfaith event as heresy. Last week, six pastors from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the nation’s second-largest Lutheran denomination, filed formal charges calling for Benke’s expulsion from the church. Benke “participated in idolatry by participating with non-Christians,” one of the dissident pastors, the Rev. David Oberdieck said, objecting to Benke’s “syncretism,” or promoting the view that all religions are equal. Benke insists that the Yankee Stadium ceremony was not a formal worship service, and thus was not off-limits to Missouri Synod members. A Hindu priest was part of the service, along with Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and Christians.
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