Just where did that Thrivent abortion advocacy money go?

Non-Lutherans probably are not aware of Thrivent, a fraternal insurance organization created by the unfortunate merger of LCMS-oriented Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL) and ELCA- oriented Lutheran Brotherhood. The church bodies in question share little in common except the name "Lutheran" in their names (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been compared to the Holy Roman Empire, which- as every history major knows- was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. Admittedly the ELCA is in America, though).

Controversy has recently arisen over Thrivent's decision no longer to provide matching funds for member and church donations to organizations dealing with abortion, given the opposite positions taken by the two largest church bodies using the name "Lutheran" in the United States.

Anyone interested in where the matching funds were going can find the figures here.

This is a good illustration of the problems which arise when groups which do not in fact share the same religion pretend that they do.