MINNEAPOLIS - The nation's largest Lutheran denomination took openly gay clergy more fully into its fold Friday, as leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gays and lesbians from serving as ministers.
The change passed with the support of 68 percent of about 1,000 delegates at the ELCA's national assembly. It makes the group, with about 4.7 million members in the U.S., one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance.
"I have seen these same-gender relationships function in the same way as heterosexual relationships [huh?!] — bringing joy and blessings as well as trials and hardships," the Rev. Leslie Williamson, associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, Ill., said during the hours of debate. "The same-gender couples I know live in love and faithfulness and are called to proclaim the word of God as are all of us." [How could they "proclaim the word of God" when they are in a relationship that the Bible condemns? Read Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27]
Conservative congregations will not be forced to hire gay clergy. [Well, that's good.] Nevertheless, opponents of the shift decried what they saw as straying from clear Scriptural direction, [Obviously. Well you are Lutheran. Your founder strayed from Scriptural direction. Why be surprised at all that this is happening?]and warned it could lead some congregations and individual churchgoers to split off from the ELCA. [Want a church that does not stray from Scriptural direction? Try the OHCAC or the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church aka Roman Catholic Church.]
"This will cause an ever greater loss in members and finances. I can't believe the church I loved and served for 40 years can condone what God condemns," said the Rev. Richard Mahan, pastor at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Charleston, W.Va. "Nowhere in Scripture does it say homosexuality and same-sex marriage is acceptable to God. Instead, it says it is immoral and perverted." [Just as I commented above.]
David Keck, a delegate from the Southern Ohio Synod, said he feared that by embracing partnered gays as clergy that the ELCA was heading down a road that would ultimately lead to "the blessing of same-sex unions as the policy of this church," he said. [Trying the Vicki Gene Robinson policy, eh?]
Mahan said he believed a majority of his congregation would want to now break off from the ELCA. [The Catholic Church is calling you back home, brothers and sisters.]
Other leaders indicated they might leave as well, but ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson said after the vote he was committed to keeping opponents of the new policy within the ELCA fold.
"I'm pleading with people to stay in there with us in this conversation," Hanson said. [Just like what Obama says regarding opposition to legalized abortion. "Searching for Common Ground"]
In September, Lutheran CORE — the group that led the fight against the changes — is holding a convention in Indianapolis to discuss the next steps. It also encouraged ELCA members and congregations to direct finances away from ELCA churchwide organizations and toward "faithful ministries within and outside of the ELCA."
Other Christian denominations in the United States have struggled to remain united in the face of such debates. In 2003, the 2 million-member Episcopal Church of the United States consecrated its first openly gay bishop, a move that alienated American Episcopalians from its worldwide parent church, the Anglican Communion. The divide has led to the formation of the more conservative Anglican Church in North America, which claims 100,000 members.
But ELCA supporters of its change said failure to ratify it ran just as great a risk of alienating large portions of the membership, particularly those from younger generations. [Oh really?]
The Rev. Katrina Foster, pastor at Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Bronx, said Lutherans heard similar warnings about flouting Scripture when they made past changes that are now seen as successful — chiefly, the ordination of women. [See that? Creating a precedent. Then why change what Scripture has taught?]
"We can learn not to define ourselves by negation," said Foster, who is a lesbian. "By not only saying what we are against, which always seems to be the same — against gay people. We should be against poverty. I wish we were as zealous about that." [Good grief! Helloooo! What's the topic here? Is it changing what Scripture preaches? Then why talk about poverty? Are you joining Ms. America?]
Tim Mumm, a gay man and an assembly delegate from Whitewater, Wis., said the Scripture that guides opponents of the more liberal policy was written by mortals, at a much earlier time, and doesn't reflect what many Christians now believe. [So the lessons that Scripture preaches is time related? So killing was condemned by the Bible in the Ten Commandments. Tomorrow, I get out of my house, kill someone and when I get arrested I tell the police officer, "Hey, the laws against murder was written by mortals at a much earlier time and it does not reflect what many now believe!" Does that follow? Even if society allows murder, like abortion, it is still condemned by Sacred Scripture. Unless he does not believe in Scripture as Sacred as Mr. Mumm sees it to be.]
"I believe for me to marry a woman would be wrong — even sinful," Mumm said. [Duh! of course you hate marrying a woman!]
Some ELCA congregations had already been flouting the ban on noncelibate gay priests by hiring pastors in gay relationships. Some synods looked the other way, while others removed such priests from their rosters.
It was such divisions and inconsistencies in enforcement that an ELCA task force aimed to finesse when it began several years ago to draw up the ministry recommendations and a broader social statement on human sexuality, which passed earlier this week.
Under the new policy, heterosexual clergy and professional lay workers will still have to abstain from sex outside marriage. The proposed change would cover those in "lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships." [Do you need policies to be written? It's in Sacred Scripture! Oh yes, I forgot. Your Lutheran. Your founder changed Scripture!]
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This kind of trouble happens in a church governed by a voting collegial body. No wonder the Church is in stable ground. Founded by the "stone rejected by the builders"... Founded upon Peter...Led, by the Successor of the Rock in the Name of the Founder...
Imagine if the Catholic Church is governed in the same way as the Anglicans, Episcopalians and Lutherans do? And the Liberals want it this way... As Hans Kung, champion of collegiality, the collegiality that these "churches" practice.
By the way...the convention was hit by a tornado. A warning from the Almighty yet they did not heed it? Obviously they do not even listen to reason anymore, why would they listen to God?
My advice? Heed St. Paul's warning...
I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by (the) grace (of Christ) for a different gospel (not that there is another). But there are some who are disturbing you and wish to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach (to you) a gospel other than the one that we preached to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, and now I say again, if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one that you received, let that one be accursed! Am I now currying favor with human beings or God? Or am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ. Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Gal. 1:6-11
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