Thrivent and LCMS

[wildboar]

I think the "Evangelical Catholic Church" or "Evangelical Orthodox Catholic Church" would be cool but then everyone would think we were Roman Catholic. It seems like a name change would just cause more confusion. A logo change where the cross actually meets together would be nice or better yet a crucifix.

 

[Tangible]

Western Evangelical Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confessions WECUAC "We-Quack"
The new symbol could be a big white duck bearing a cross.

Then we could ditch Thrivent and hop into bed with AFLAC! 2X brand recognition! The Ablaze! folks would love it.

For shorthand, we could be called "The Quackers".


OK. I'll stop now.

 

[BigNorsk]

The biggest problem I have with Thrivent is that they will not let their money be used for anything that is controversial in society. They have a program were Lutheran charities can sign up and people can donate funds to them through Thrivent and get a partial match, but organizations like "Lutherans for Life" are not eligible because there is no consesus in the larger society and it is considered controversial.

The standard isn't even whether it's controversial among Lutherans but it actually uses the standard of our society.

Now they don't enforce it that way but technically, if you teach that Jesus is the one way to be saved, you shouldn't be eligible for Thrivent money. Because our society teaches there are many ways to be saved, and saying there is one way and that's Jesus is controversial.

They haven't actually done that, but that's why they won't let Lutherans for Life participate in their programs. Nor for that matter any other Lutheran antiabortion or right to life group.

That is causing some stress in the realtionship between groups like the LCMS and Thrivent.

Marv

 

[wildboar]

Who actually funds Thrivent to provide the matching dollars? Where does the money come from? My church has gotten matching Thrivent funds and I guess I go back and forth on it. If we went with a secular company for our mutual funds or whatever else I'm sure that they would be funding a whole lot of things we don't agree with as well.

 

[LutheranChick]

Who actually funds Thrivent to provide the matching dollars? Where does the money come from? My church has gotten matching Thrivent funds and I guess I go back and forth on it. If we went with a secular company for our mutual funds or whatever else I'm sure that they would be funding a whole lot of things we don't agree with as well.

The funding basically comes from the 'profits' generated by investments- ie, people's insurance policies, mutual funds, etc, if I understand it correctly. So, instead of paying taxes on their profit (as a for-profit business would do), and the gov't spends the taxes any way it wants, at least the $ goes to helping Lutheran churches, or the needy. I still see this as better than it all going to taxes- my church can't apply for matching tax money to add to a fundraiser for someone in need!

 

[BigNorsk]

Like other insurance companies, Thrivent makes money through investing the insurance premium dollars.

But it doesn't pay them out in profit or stock dividends, Thrivent is not-for profit.

So you see the money coming out of Thrivent really is kind of like the dividend for doing business with them.

And it's quite a bit. They are a Fortune 500 financial services company, rated by Ward as one of the top 50 life/health insurance companies.

I've kind of always wondered why the money wasn't more distributed to the actual policy holders. I really don't know the history behind that.

Marv

 

[RadMan]

Western Evangelical Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confessions WECUAC "We-Quack"
The new symbol could be a big white duck bearing a cross.

LOL--ROFL

 

[Joshua G.]

I have Thrivent. But I don;t think they could legally take my insurance away from me just because I converted. I often wondered about this too. I figured (and it seems by this thread) that it's just associated by name. That's not the LCMS's fault. It probably started to fill a specific need that had to be addressed in the Lutheran community but, like all successful businesses, they grow out of their original situation and spread out.

HOWEVER, it is interesting that for whatever reason, when they changed their name, they had to advertise that it was for Lutherans. But what agreement or legality compelled them to that? It's intersting.