Rick Steves and his new bishop girlfriend are emblematic of what's gone wrong with Tim Walz' Lutheran denomination and with politics in the Pacific Northwest

 Rick is a board member on the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

NORML, get it?

He identifies with liberalism and progressivism.

His Wikipedia entry says he divorced his wife in 2010 and is a fan of liberation theology lol, a 1971 invention of the recently deceased Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Peruvian Catholic Theologian.

LINO. Lutheran in name only.

Minnesota Lutherans are a forgiving lot

But in 2006, his campaign repeatedly told the press that he had not been drinking that night, claiming that his failed field sobriety test was due to a misunderstanding related to hearing loss from his time in the National Guard. The campaign also claimed that Walz was allowed to drive himself to jail that night. 

-- https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/tim-walz-2006-campaign-falsely-described-dwi-kfile/index.html

Walz repeatedly saying that he retired with a rank he achieved but did not retire with ...

Walz nodded in agreement at that statement -- despite the fact that, according to military records and his own admission, he had never served in Afghanistan. ...

Walz appears to have been aware prior to his retirement that his unit was under consideration for deployment. ...

However Walz did not remain in the role long enough to keep the title in retirement. Still, Walz repeatedly referred to himself as a "retired command sergeant major" for years.

 

-- https://abcnews.go.com/US/walz-previously-faced-criticism-characterized-military-service-records/story?id=112833386 

Lefty ELCA Lutheran Tim Walz in 2018 promised a moderate "One Minnesota" governorship, instead gave them a culture war good and hard

 

 Walz won the governor’s mansion in 2018. But rather than sticking to the moderate “One Minnesota” approach that he promised on the campaign trail and that characterized his time in the House of Representatives, Walz’s priority has been “more of a war on our culture,” Johnson said.

Johnson, an advocate for a Christian nonprofit, pointed to a host of progressive policies his administration enacted: signing a law that makes abortion a right in the state at any point in a pregnancy, legalizing marijuana, giving driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, and making the state a “refuge” for those seeking gender transitions.

His COVID-19 era policies also earned chagrin from conservatives as he restricted church gatherings and set up a hotline for people to report those who breached social distancing policies. ...

While the denomination is progressive, the politics in the pews of ECLA churches present a more mixed picture. In 2020, a slight majority of ECLA Lutherans voted for Trump, noted researcher Ryan Burge.

Among the ECLA, around 43 percent identified as or leaned Republican, and 47 percent identified as or leaned Democrat, Pew found. Around 24 percent identified as liberal, 41 percent as moderate, and 32 percent as conservative. 

The LCMS, meanwhile, identified as or leaned Republican by nearly 60 percent, with 27 percent identifying as or leaning Democrat. A much higher percentage (52%) identified as conservative, compared to only 33 percent as moderate and 10 percent as liberal. ...

“The whole way he’s being presented to us is that he’s just a moderate country boy from Minnesota,” Seltz said. “He’s a very, very progressive, very, very left-wing governor.”

-- From Christianity Today, "Walz’s Brand Is More Left than Lutheran Among Minnesota Evangelicals"

Best comment on this Tim Walz story

 

Five faith facts about Harris pick Tim Walz, a ‘Minnesota Lutheran’ Dad :

Tim Walz is to Lutheranism what Joe Biden is to Catholicism.

I say RINO, You say CINO, I say LINO, You say DINO, MEOH, MYOH,  Let's call the whole thing off.