This letter from President Harrison appeared in the Friday, January 28, 2011 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Ignored again

On Monday, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country , including many from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod , gathered in Washington, D.C., to stand up for unborn children and the sanctity of life during the 38th annual March For Life.

Sadly, many people are unaware that this event even occurred. The march, despite the impressive crowd it drew, largely was ignored by many in the mainstream media. In the years since the U.S. Supreme Court tragically legalized abortion through its Roe v. Wade decision, the message that human life is sacred and valued has become almost background noise for many. How can that be? How can we ignore the fact that an estimated 52 million babies have been aborted since 1973?

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, with its 6,200 congregations across the country, has a vast array of Lutheran agencies and partners that care for the neediest, providing adoption and foster care, senior care, care for the developmentally disabled, etc., both domestically and internationally. We shall continue this ministry of mercy, along with Christians the world over, even as we weep and pray by the tomb of the American conscience, until it rises again.

The Rev. Matthew C. Harrison • Kirkwood President, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod