To Condemn False Teachings of “Stone Choir”

WHEREAS, Social media (X/Twitter) personalities Corey J. Mahler (@Corey JMahler) and Ryan “Woe” Dumperth (@treble woe) began releasing episodes of the Stone Choir podcast on Oct. 19, 2022, to tackle issues relevant to the Synod that, in their judgment, the pastors and leadership of the Synod were not addressing, leaving Mahler and Dumperth to function as the very stones who must cry out because the clergy are silent (Luke 19:40); and

WHEREAS, The issues on which the pastors and leadership of the Synod are accused by the Stone Choir hosts of remaining silent include: the ostensible necessity of the reintroduction of racial segregation, the ostensible sinfulness of interracial marriage, the ostensibly pernicious nature of the Jewish race today, and the ostensibly fictitious nature of the Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by the National Socialists during World War II; and

WHEREAS, None of the Stone Choir’s positions on these aforementioned issues are taught in Holy Scripture, and indeed their positions on these issues cause great offense to many Christians of good will; and

WHEREAS, Stone Choir hosts Mahler and Dumperth are active on X, and Stone Choir listeners are likely to be influenced not only by what Mahler and Dumperth teach on the Stone Choir podcast, but also by what they post on X; and

WHEREAS, On X, Mahler and Dumperth, among other offensive behaviors, openly praise Adolf Hitler, call for the genocide or deportation of Jews, Muslims, and Blacks from the United States, and condemn as sin the practice of interracial marriage and adoption, causing great offense to Christian consciences; and

WHEREAS, Through their activity on the Stone Choir podcast and on X, Mahler and Dumperth have sought to associate confessional Lutheranism with devotion to Adolf Hitler, opposition to the Jewish race, and a desire for the segregation of Black people from “White society”; and

WHEREAS, Mahler and Dumperth have publicly denounced pastors of the Synod as either apostate or derelict, and on their podcast and on X have attempted to turn their listeners against their pastors; and

WHEREAS, Mahler is excommunicated and therefore under discipline and Dumperth is no longer a member of a congregation of the Synod and is therefore beyond the reach of church discipline, yet both continue to challenge the doctrine and teaching of the Synod; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod in convention publicly condemn the teachings of the Stone Choir podcast and its hosts, for the offense they cause by their public devotion to Adolf Hitler, their stirring up of antipathy toward our Jewish and Black neighbors, their denunciation as sin of that which God has not called sin, and their open hostility toward the pastors and leadership of the Synod; and be it further

Resolved, That the laity of the Synod be warned against the Stone Choir podcast and its hosts, and that the pastors of the Synod be encouraged to admonish members of their congregations whose approval of such racist and anti-Semitic beliefs has become known;

and be it further

Resolved, That pastors and teachers of the Synod be encouraged to examine the teachings of the Stone Choir according to the norm of Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, demonstrating from these clear and firm testimonies how the Stone Choir is in error, and acknowledging that these teachings violate the Fifth Commandment; and be it further

Resolved, That pastors and teachers of the Synod be encouraged to teach the truth of God’s Word that all human creatures of all nations, tribes, languages, and peoples are made in God’simageand redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that pastors and teachers would use Synod and district resources that promote the same; and be it finally

Resolved, That the 2026 Synod convention condemn the teachings of the Stone Choir podcast and its current hosts, and admonish pastors and teachers who promote them or their beliefs.