A government money-laundering scheme might take the form of the government imposing clean air rules on automakers and then those automakers purchasing credits from an EV car maker (rather than actually making their own cars more efficient). Maybe that's more a scam than money laundering, but you get the idea. Our tax money going to the eventual richest man in the world while saving his unprofitable car company is much more like money laundering than Lutheran Services receiving money in order to provide services to make sure legal refugees get housing or abuse victims get help they need.
My hot take on Lutheran Services Florida when I volunteered for the organization in Jacksonville was that they were not terribly organized with their volunteers, so I sometimes wasted good portions of my day to help out. While that was frustrating, it wasn't scammy, and I'm sure volunteers who help at all kinds of non-profits complain about the coordination of their time. So I will say that I saw potential for improvement in how some parts of Lutheran Services ran their refugee resettlement program in Jacksonville, but it wasn't stealing or scamming or laundering.
Lutherans all over the country should probably come to the defense of organizations that are listed as a Recognized Service Organizations. The posts on X about the organizations implied the groups were hiding behind religion, were laundering money, and were illegally collecting money. Furthermore, adjacent posts claimed that terrorist groups scammed our government in similar fashion, which means we now have millions of MAGA faithful associating Lutheran Services (and, frankly, Lutherans) as pretty awful people who support an awful service organization that steals from the rest of America. That's a lot of damage to our Lutheran service organizations and even Lutheran churches (and schools) here in Jacksonville, whether it's LCMS, ELCA, or even WELS.
I also have to wonder if Michael Flynn wrote similar posts about Catholic Charities or if he's just a Catholic targeting Lutherans instead of Catholic Charities. Either way, he's not really the kind of person I trust, unless I was working for a foreign government in need of political influence. But I'm not. I'm a Lutheran who wants fellow Lutherans and Christians to know that targeting one of the service organizations tied to the church (and operating legally) will have lasting negative impacts on service organizations and the Lutheran Church in all its forms. Plus, it's clear DOGE and MAGA don't even understand the funding they are criticizing. I welcome DOGE to look at how the money is spent, but to simply accuse Lutherans of being dishonest money launderers without even looking at what grants or federal programs are involved in the disbursement is an attack on Lutherans throughout America. Honestly, Lutherans (and Catholics) should be acutely aware of what happens when a minority group is scapegoated in a country while the majority stands back and feels relief it wasn't them being targeted.
