Rev. James Siefkes (1929-2016)

A third generation pastor from Texas might not sound like the beginnings of a significant LGBTQ+ ally, but James Siefkes defied expectations.  Actually born in a Lutheran parsonage in Iowa in 1929, Siefkes went to high school in San Antonio, Texas,.  Then, he matriculated to Trinity University on a football scholarship.  He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity in 1951.  From there, he earned a Masters of Divinity from Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa in 1955.  After serving in congregations in both Iowa and Texas, Rev. Siefkes accepted a position as Stewardship Director in the South Central Region of the American Lutheran Church (ALC, predecessor to the ELCA).  He later moved to the Western Region.

As Rev. Siefkes worked with congregations on finances, he felt that many were going through the motions of traditional Sunday church, but not necessarily serving the people in the community.  In San Franciso, Rev. Siefkes developed a program called Matrix.  Matrix brought clergy and church leaders into the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Fransicso and housed them at the YMCA.  Participants met with the Black Panthers and received presentations from the National Sex Forum.  They  met with people from all walks of 1960’s San Francisco life:  draft counselors, drug addicts, environmentalists, homeless, and the LGBTQ+.

In 1969, Rev. Siefkes moved to Minneapolis to start an office at the ALC headquarters called “Congregational Social Concerns.” Rev. Siefkes later recalled that the ALC seemed to expect him to create a manual for congregations.  Instead, he took the Matrix program national.  He would host a five day Matrix experience in one large city, but invite clergy from other cities to attend.  Then, they would arrange another Matrix experience in their cities, expanding bit by bit.

Rev. Siefkes organized a two day seminar on sexuality in Minneapolis.  He invited people from the YWCA and Catholic Social Service as well as Lutheran Social Services and the University of Minnesota Medical School.  This kicked off a partnership with UM that became the Program for Human Sexuality.  PHS intended to educate medical students and clergy on sexuality issues.   Siefkes related that the partnership provided political cover for both groups:

“The interesting thing about the combination between the two disciplines is it was welcomed by Dean [Neal] Gault at the Medical School and it was welcomed by at least the social work interests in the church. This got people stirred up in the State Legislature and it got people stirred up in the church. I worked very closely with Richard Chilgren and if the church was under fire, I could go and talk and say, ‘Well, look, it can’t be all bad because the Medical School is doing it,’ and vice versa… If the Medical School got into debates about this, well, they could simply say, ‘We’ve had a lot of support and participation by a mainline Protestant denomination.'” [1]

In June 1974, Rev. Siefkes invited contacts in the gay and lesbian community to meet in Minneapolis to discuss sexuality and religion.  This group formed Lutherans Concerned for Gay People. Lutherans Concerned would go on to lobby for the inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community in the Lutheran church for decades in the ALC and then the ELCA.

The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) awarded Rev. Siefkes their Humanitarian Award in 2010.  The ELCA Presiding Bishop, Rev. Mark Hanson, sent Rev. Siefkes a congratulatory letter reading in part: