RNC Accidentally Mocks Messianic Lutherans (Updated)

SPRINGFIELD, MO --  The RNC has modified a page from their "Barack Book" mock social networking site because the church they associated Obama with -- the Messiah Lutheran Church -- turned out to be a real denomination affiliated with the Missouri Synod.

The site, styled after Facebook, included a link to a real Facebook page, and next to an entry for "employer," someone sympathetic to McCain -wrote in "Messiah Lutheran Church."

No subtlety there.

But there really are Messianic Lutherans.  Most of them live in Missouri. The church has branches in California and Nebraska. (From Get Religion:

Being a member of a Missouri Synod Lutheran congregation, I was surprised to find out we were in fellowship with a group I'd never heard of -- Messianic Lutherans. So I went to that link that Ambinder provides for Messianic Lutherans and realized he'd done a Google link to congregations named Messiah Lutheran Church. One of my good friends is a pastor of a Messiah Lutheran Church <http://www.messiahkenosha.org/>  in Wisconsin. Naming your church Messiah Lutheran, or Immanuel Lutheran <http://www.immanuelalexandria.org/> , or St. John's Lutheran <http://www.stjohnsmg.org/> , or Martini Lutheran <http://martinilutheran.org/>  doesn't make you part of a denomination called Messianic Lutherans, Immanuelite Lutherans, Juanite Lutherans or Martini Lutherans! It just means you've named your congregation. All of these congregations are Missouri Synod Lutheran congregations. Just like every other Christian church in the world, they have their own name.  Oy vey! So just to recap, there is no "real denomination" of Messianic Lutherans associated with the Missouri Synod. It doesn't have branches in California and Nebraska. Most of them aren't in Missouri. And we tend to self-identify as confessional Lutherans rather than as evangelical Christians.)

Since disaffiliating from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, McCain  Obama has not formally affiliated with any other denomination.

This is a small point and a small mistake, but it's something that will make some McCain allies cringe.  Here in Missouri, the political climate is poor for Republicans and McCain can't afford to alienate any evangelical group. His campaign can't afford the perception that they use evangelicals to mock Obama.

Danny Daiz, an RNC spokesman, said neither he nor anyone at the RNC or the McCain campaign added the line about Obama's religion and he did not know why the page was taken down.