Thanks to the chaplain for the Fort Dodge Police Department, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has passed a resolution in support of police in response to the killing of officers in Dallas July 7.

The Rev. Al Henderson said the support has meant a lot to the officers.

When it passed, “as quickly as I could I took a picture of it. I’ve got it on my phone,” Henderson said. “I sent it back to the State Troop commander, sheriff, chief of police, and the fire chief.

“Since I’ve gotten back, and I’ve gone around, each one of them has wanted a paper copy.”

Phil Sompsen, head chaplain at the hospital, also requested a copy to show the emergency room workers, Henderson said. He also texted a copy to former Fort Dodge Police Chief Tim Carmody, now chief in Council Bluffs.

And one of the workers at the Fort Dodge city building requested a copy to take to her own pastor, to see if her church could do something similar.

Henderson presented the idea at the national convention of the Missouri Synod, held July 9-14 this year in Milwaukee. The gathering brings together pastors from across the nation and all over the world every three years.

Henderson is also pastor of the St. Paul Lutheran Church in Fort Dodge. As chaplain, he was getting some ride along time with Fort Dodge officers when he heard about the shooting in Dallas that killed five officers and wounded seven others.

“I was riding with an officer until about midnight on Thursday, and my wife started texting me regarding Dallas. It came across very clear on the phone – honey be safe,” he said. “And of course the officer and I began to wonder, and beg for more information.

“Then he started talking with other officers out on the street that night, as far as what was going on. It was kind of a pressurized evening.”

On the six hour trip to Wisconsin, he had plenty of time to think.

“Listening to the news and talk radio, and where my interests are, it was tough,” Henderson said. “So I made up my mind it would be great if our convention could say something or do something because of Dallas.”

Henderson thought he might be able to get an amendment added to an existing resolution, and he spoke to one of the committees about this.

Instead, Committee 14 took to heart what he was saying, and by Monday had drafted a full resolution, numbered 14-11.

“It didn’t make its way to the floor until Thursday. “We leave at Thursday noon. So now I’m concerned,” Henderson said. “But committee 14 comes in, and their first resolution was 14-11. They pulled it from the back to the front of their list.”

The resolution calls attention to the human propensity to sin against one another, and says “Our sin often results from our failure to help and befriend our neighbor, and often causes our neighbor bodily harm.”

Drawing on the example of charity and love in Jesus Christ, the LCMS encouraged its congregations to pray for courage and strength for public servants, and for peace and necessary reforms in communities stricken by violence. It stated Jesus came to redeem both victims and perpetrators of violence, and “commend(ed) our nation’s first-responders for their generous and sacrificial devotion to helping others.”

Henderson had great appreciation to the synod for writing such a resolution and getting it through on time.

“I’m quite pleased,” he said.