Thoughts on Thrivent
What should we do with Thrivent?
Here are some thoughts about Thrivent’s recent decisions. Please note I am not a financial expert in any way, just a pastor. And I am a Thrivent member, and have been since the AAL days through my parents. And while writing this I’m wearing a Thrivent shirt that makes up about 25% of my wardrobe like many LCMS professional church workers.
But also, like many of you I was upset with Thrivent’s choices this summer during pride month (June). Pres. Matthew Harrison mentioned it in this article. They posted this on their official Instagram page at the beginning of the month:
Here’s a screenshot:
Here is an employee Pride Month box
After submitting a note of disapproval I was given this as a response:
Dear Jonathan Buescher:
This letter is in response to feedback you shared with Thrivent regarding a recent social media post about Pride Month. We appreciate hearing from our clients and thank you for taking the time to write to us.
As an organization, we focus on helping people achieve financial clarity, enabling lives of meaning and gratitude. We want to help people put their faith into action through community service and proper financial planning. We know that our clients and workforce hold a broad array of personal views and beliefs, and we want to make sure everyone feels valued, respected and supported. This includes clients and employees who are members of the LGBTQ+ community.
We value your opinion and your business, and we will share your feedback with senior leadership.
Sincerely,
Thrivent Client Relations General Counsel's Office
History
But these choices shouldn’t have come as a surprise. A few years ago Thrivent changed its logo when it had a cross and heart. And I joked with my dad: Are they going to take out the cross or the heart? Unfortunately, they chose to remove the cross in 2020.
Before that, in 2014, they dropped “for Lutherans” from their marketing, Here’s an article about that change, as they opened membership to all Christians. Although it still remains their legal name, as their website footer still shows:
©2023 Thrivent. All rights reserved.
Thrivent is the marketing name for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
There have been other concerns from wary Lutherans about Thrivent’s choices. There was this debate about Thrivent’s choice dollars program directing funds to pro-abortion organizations.
You can easily find a history of Thrivent on their own website, or even Wikipedia. The short story is that AAL (Aid Association for Lutheran) and LB (Lutheran Brotherhood) merged to form Thrivent in 2002.
It seems that in order to have a “bigger pool” they widened their membership base from their foundational members: LCMS Lutherans (AAL) or the Norwegian Lutherans (LB). In 1966, AAL allowed any Lutheran to join. Now, any Christians can join as mentioned above.
Here is a more in depth history of AAL. It began because Lutherans were looking for death benefits that only fraternal organizations like The Lodge were providing.
I believe his basic conclusion is that no faithful Christian can remain a part of Thrivent. However, I disagree with his call to action.
What should we do?
One option that many people have taken is to abandon ship. Many who were displeased at the social media post decided to take their money elsewhere. This kind of financial protest has worked elsewhere (Bud Light, for example). But, so far, it doesn’t seem to have gotten the attention of the powers that be.
What other option is there? Stay and fight.
It usually happens that more liberal people come into existing institutions and bring it to “the left.” And instead of creating their own institutions they capture existing ones. When conservatives see this happening the natural tendency it to jump ship. However, two things occur when this happens. 1) The institution becomes more liberal that much more quickly with fewer conservatives remaining. 2) Those who left now need to build a new “pure” institution. That requires a lot of effort and resources.
The LCMS has an example in its past about bucking this trend and recapturing its institution: Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, during Seminex. Aaron Renn has several resources on this idea that I have found very helpful. Here is an interview about Seminex in particular:
Here is an article about this idea of recapturing institutions.
And more recently an interview about a movement called Reconquista about recapturing Mainline church bodies going through this very issue:
Can we do this with Thrivent? We cannot expect to win if we continue to retreat. The best way to do that right now is with the elections for the national board of directors. Of course if you have already pulled your money, you are no longer able to vote, but to those who remain let’s vote wisely.
Elections
If you are a Thrivent member, you should have gotten a notice by now about national board of directors elections. I have a Voter’s Guide for you to consider to help move Thrivent in the right direction.