A Lutheran minister suspended for publicly praying "with pagans" at a New York City interfaith service following the September 2001 terrorist attacks has been reinstated by a church panel.
In an order dated April 10 and released Monday, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's dispute-resolution panel cleared the Rev. David Benke, the top New York leader for the conservative Protestant denomination.
The case dates back to Benke's appearance at an interfaith service at Yankee Stadium 12 days after the World Trade Center was destroyed.
The clergyman attended the service with the blessings of the Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, national president of the 2.6-million-member Missouri Synod, based in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood.
But after the televised event, 18 pastors and three congregations in his denomination filed complaints against Benke for praying with Muslim, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh representatives.
Benke was suspended last June. Issuing that decision, the Rev. Wallace Schulz the Missouri Synod second vice president ruled that "to participate with pagans in an interfaith service and, additionally, to give the impression that there might be more than one God, is an extremely serious offense."
Last month, the three-person panel restored Benke's church membership to "good standing," overturning the suspension while ruling that Schulz followed church protocol in handing down the punishment.
The "Rev. Benke's prayer, even though criticized by many, was Christian," the panel wrote in its ruling.
Schulz has opted not to appeal the ruling to another panel, effectively ending the matter, the Missouri Synod said in a statement Monday.
Benke said the ruling was vindication for participating in an event he has called more patriotic than religious. The flap, he said, "reveals what I would say is the hard side of Christianity in that there is an authoritarian strain that wants to prevent people from getting the messages out."
Schulz did not immediately return calls to his home Monday.
Kieschnick was asked to recuse himself from ruling on the complaint against Benke, so the decision fell to Schulz. The president then asked for a review of Schulz's decision.
Schulz also was pulled from his role as the chief preacher on "The Lutheran Hour" gospel radio program the synod's prominent pulpit last July by Lutheran Hour Ministries after making his ruling.
While Lutheran Hour Ministries, carried by more than 1,000 radio stations, took no stand on Benke's conduct, Schulz's decision unwillingly dragged the independent auxiliary of the Missouri Synod into the debate, spokesman Jim Telle said.
"It really has rocked our church," Telle said last year. "It's been an absolute landslide of acrimony."
The synod's 1847 constitution demands that its congregations and pastors reject syncretism, or the mingling of Christian and non-Christian beliefs. Traditionally, Missouri Synod leaders did not lead prayer services with leaders of other religions, or even other Lutheran denominations.
But at the church's 2001 convention, Kieschnick said, a resolution let synod leaders lead services with those of other faiths at civic events. With that in mind, Kieschnick signed off on letting Benke say a 10-sentence prayer during the "Prayer for America" event at Yankee Stadium.