Re: “Lutheran Leaders Respond to Senator Mastriano”

To All It May Concern: July 31, 2020

This letter is in response to the deliberate and unwarranted attack by Lutheran pastors, against PA State Senator Douglas Mastriano. As a Christian myself, after reading your remarks, I was left with no choice but to respond. Although I am not a scholar on Martin Luther, I have a substantial knowledge of God’s Word – in which you yourselves agree to be “Holy.” Yet, I find it profoundly quizzical that you misquote, the very truth that you say you uphold. You throw God’s grace around as if you, yourselves are sinless. How dare you openly attack a man in public, without addressing your concerns with him first – in private. If you want to throw scripture around and use it against your fellow man, here let me give you a taste of your own medicine. This letter will also be on an open forum. I am an international author and blogger and my posts reach far and wide.

If you want to discuss St. Paul, let’s discuss. Does not scripture tell us to privately address what we perceive as sin, to confront the sinner in person? “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the -testimony of two or three witnesses. If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.’” (Matthew 18:15-17) Nowhere in the above scripture, does it state to address sin publicly until AFTER there were attempts made to discuss the matter in person. According to Senator Mastriano not “Mr. Mastriano,” no attempt by any member of the Lutheran clergy was made to contact him in private. You have looked at what you think to be a plank in his eyes, while refusing to see the ones in your own. Let’s continue.

I find the following statement by the Rev. Fr. Elias Yelovich quite hypocritical, due to the above scriptures that he as well, so blatantly disregarded. “Grace, you see in our understanding, is His own self-giving for the good of those Whom He created. As we submit in faith, we take on the likeness of Him; His attributes become ours. We grow to become the kind of people who through our love for Him, show love in actions of service and care for others.” Have you not, once again, ignored your own faith by the way you have treated Senator Mastriano? You say you are to show love in action of service and care for others. I would like to know how this applies to him. Is not his life also important? Almost fifty of you, signed a letter and placed a full-page ad in the Gettysburg Times, discrediting a PA State Senator. Who by the way, as you know full well served our country for thirty years and retired as a Colonel from the United States Army. Did you show care and concern for his reputation by trying to dismantle it? Of course not. Did you discuss your concerns with him first, before you decided to gang up against him and rip to shreds his own convictions? I personally would like to know, just who you think you are? If we are to, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31); or “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12), how did you show him love and furthermore, would you like your own sins to be publicly displayed?

Let’s go one step further. Do you remember how Noah’s son Ham, did not cover his father’s nakedness? Noah cursed Ham’s son, Canaan because of what his father did. Does not the Blood of Jesus cover our sin? Yet, you by your self-righteous religion, exposed what you to believe as Senator Mastriano’s sin publicly. You talk about how you bow your heads in reverence to Martin Luther. But shall we discuss the “Edict of Worms” or “Diet of Worms” and how the Holy Emperor banned the writings of Martin Luther? Was he not considered an outlaw or rebel because he defied the orders of the Emperor and was excommunicated from the Catholic Church? Is this not precisely what you have done to an elected official? Martin Luther that great theologian refused to give in to the pressure to recant his position. Did he not do what Senator Mastriano is doing – standing up for the good of the people? You say that “we are bound in love to serve our neighbor.” I find, there again, your double mindedness to be incredibly repulsive.

You called Senator Mastriano’s “support of those who resist responsibility for others during the pandemic, an ugly embrace of selfishness and a despicable denial of the essence of service for the welfare of others.” Why have you not addressed how Governor Wolf and Dr. Levine were responsible for the deaths of over 4,000 innocent elderly victims in PA nursing homes? Why have you not addressed how Governor Wolf and Dr. Levine made having an abortion essential during the pandemic? Why have you not addressed how all lives are precious to God, when in fact a sign at the Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg, states that “BLACK LIVES ARE PRECIOUS TO GOD.” Since you are so concerned about what you observe as Senator Mastriano’s obvious disrespect for human life, what about your own? How is it that only Black lives are precious to God and not every other race that He created? Are you not aware that some of the Black Lives Matter movement joined with Antifa and have murdered, looted, and rioted? Are you not aware that their anarchy is sin against God? Yet you, by your sign support them. What other conclusion can be made?

Furthermore, you state: “A social message on Christians’ responsibilities as citizens in our democracy, just adopted last month by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, accurately cites both scripture and Martin Luther in stating that Christians’ decisions should always be made in the best interests of the neighbor. Neighborly love and responsibility for the entire community is a higher priority than personal freedom. We are connected. We are each other’s keeper. The well-being of one is predicted upon the well-being and health of all.” As a literal neighbor to the Lutheran Seminary Chapel, as a white woman, how is this sign being neighborly and how is it showing love to other races that are also precious to God? I find your lack of humility revolting. Yet, you use God’s grace as a means to overlook the sin in your own back yard! You are so fast to point out the sins of the Senator, but failed to acknowledge that as “pastors” and “reverends” who teach the Word of God, you are held to a much stricter standard – “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” (James 3:1). “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31). Or have you forgotten that scripture. Perhaps your Bible is missing a few pages because surely the fear of the Lord has escaped you.

As for the issue with the mask, not everyone has the walking on water kind of faith that it takes to believe they are protected from COVID-19. I feel it is up to each individual how they choose to live their lives. This is America, not a communist country. Though many would like to see it a Socialistic country, as engraved on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Washington Square in Philadelphia, the “Birthplace of America” – “Freedom is the light for which many men have died in darkness.” Freedom is what Senator Mastriano as a real Patriot is professing, not tyranny that is coming from the Governor. Yet, you say that “neighborly love and responsibility for the entire community is a higher priority than personal freedom.” With that statement and your ill-gotten beliefs, you have trampled on the blood of every soldier who ever died for this country. How dare you!!!

It is here, I would advise you to read my book, “God’s Government and Satan’s Socialism.” https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Government-Satans-Socialism-Juliana/dp/1726803651 You can find it on Amazon. Let me also state that I am by no means connected to the entire human race. I am not everyone’s keeper either. People choose how they want to live their lives. My personal freedom is not contingent upon whether or not you believe that is how it is supposed to be. I choose to only wear a mask when I am shopping and I only cover my mouth. With lung issues, I do not have to wear one. Yet, you called me someone who “resists responsibility.” I also find that statement to be inappropriate and offensive. It clearly states in the Declaration of Independence, “But when a long train of abuses an usurpations pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, IT IS THEIR RIGHT, IT IS THEIR DUTY, to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

I am not, nor is Senator Mastriano responsible for the failed leadership of this Commonwealth. That blame rests solely with Governor Wolf and Dr. Levine. It is their failed policies that the virus rapidly spread the way it did. Why were masks not mandated back in March, April and May, when the virus was at its worst? Senator Mastriano and those of us who stand with him, it is our right and it is our duty – to stand against the Wolf Administration for the devastation it has caused to so many innocent people. Both Wolf and Levine, have proven to be incompetent, and it is difficult to follow leaders who also do not care for the citizens of this state, the way Senator Mastriano has demonstrated!

In closing, we are incredibly fortunate to have a man like the Senator fighting for the freedom, and the health and wellbeing of this Commonwealth and not just his constituents, while Governor Wolf has been missing in action since the pandemic began. If you want to pass the blame, make sure you do not misfire again and aim it at the right people – Governor Wolf and Dr. Levine! To those of you who signed the letters to the good Senator, you are a disgrace and you should apologize to him immediately!

Juliana Love
Creative Director – Love Studios