Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
Here’s a strange question: Why is Elon Musk lying about Lutherans?
The richest man on earth recently forced good people across the country to interrupt their community work to respond to his lies and threats.
Lutheran social service agencies offer crucial assistance related to adoption, foster care, domestic violence, and more. They also support immigrants and refugees, helping new Americans learn English, find homes and jobs, and settle into their new communities.
Like many nonprofits, they often get federal support to offer this help.
But in early February, as Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” was forcing its way into government, right-wing activist Michael Flynn posted on social media that federal contracts with Lutheran social services organizations amounted to “money laundering.”
Musk responded that DOGE was “rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”
Neither Flynn nor Musk offered any evidence against these experienced and reputable social service providers. Instead, smearing Lutheran social services was seemingly just a tactic to justify massive cuts Musk wants to impose on social spending.
Already the administration’s spending freeze has disrupted these agencies’ work, causing “considerable harm to people who rely on critical services for shelter, food, and mental health services among other social supports,” according to Lutheran Services in America.
News outlets in Ohio, Nebraska, South Dakota, and elsewhere agreed, pointing out the range of good work being done by Lutheran social service agencies. But I don’t think Musk cares.
Using false claims to justify widespread harm seems to be the operating principle behind Musk’s cruel crusade. Consider the brutal dismantling of USAID carried out by Musk with President Trump’s support.
USAID has boosted U.S. influence around the world while providing desperately needed humanitarian assistance to fight disease, prevent starvation, and provide a lifeline to people displaced by political violence.
The agency enjoyed bipartisan support for this work for over 60 years. Then Musk and Trump suddenly (and illegally) shut it down, abruptly cutting off countless people from lifesaving support. Musk bragged heartlessly about “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
“In its simplest terms, the apparent demise of USAID is the result of the world’s richest man ending a program that helps millions of poor people,” wrote Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor at large for America magazine, a Catholic publication. “You don’t need a Ph.D. in moral theology to see why this is an evil. You can just read Jesus’s parables on the rich and the poor.”
Lutherans aren’t the only people of faith being smeared. When Catholic bishops criticized a policy change to allow immigration agents to arrest people in churches, Vice President J.D. Vance suggested the bishops weren’t concerned about the human cost of these policies but about their own budgets.
Since then, no less than Pope Francis himself has condemned mass deportations and the dehumanizing rhetoric behind them.
Sadly, it’s no longer surprising to see conservative Christian activists attack and demean the faith of other Christians who disagree with the Trump team’s actions. When Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde respectfully asked President Trump to show mercy toward immigrants, LGBTQ people, and their families, she became the target of vicious smears and threats.
Bishop Budde has stood her ground, but others have not.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, whose state is home to the nation’s largest Lutheran congregation, refused to answer when a congressman asked if she believes Lutheran Family Services is a money laundering operation. Reynolds is smart enough to know it’s not, but she was unwilling, like many elected officials, to say anything that might invite the wrath of Trump or Musk.
The Americans who will be harmed by these lies deserve better than this senseless cruelty.
