Doyle Turner of Waubun was nominated by a petition circulated by members of Trinity Church – Episcopal and Presbyterian of Park Rapids. Petitioners actually drove the papers to the diocese offices in Minneapolis Aug. 14, the last day to submit petitions.

The petitioners solicited funds to help finance the drive. Typical of his unpresuming nature, Turner thanked parishioners for their support, but told them to keep their donations modest.

“The church needs a rural voice,” he said in accepting their support.

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On Friday, delegates juggled raw emotion, fatigue and opposing interpretations of Scripture.

Before the vote but sensing its outcome, the Rev. Timothy Housholder of Cottage Grove, Minn., introduced himself as a rostered pastor in the church, “at least for a few more hours,” implying that he would leave the denomination and eliciting a gasp from some audience members.

“Here I stand, broken and mournful, because of this assembly and her actions,” Mr. Housholder said.

The Rev. Mark Lepper of Belle Plaine, Minn., called for the inclusion of gay clergy members, saying, “Let’s stop leaving people behind and let’s be the family God is calling us to be.”

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It seems, to many, like the sensible thing to do: Move in with your boyfriend or girlfriend, spend more time together, save money by splitting the rent and see if you can share a bathroom every morning without wanting to kill each other.

But if you were Scott Stanley’s kid, he’d beg you not to do it.

Stanley, a University of Denver psychologist, has spent the past 15 years trying to figure out why premarital cohabitation is associated with lower levels of satisfaction in marriage and a greater potential for divorce.

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This is just wonderful.

“Lutheran CORE is continuing in the Christian faith as it has been passed down to us by generations of Christians. The ELCA is the one that has departed from the teaching of the Bible as understood by Christians for 2,000 years,” said the Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Pa., chair of Lutheran CORE. “I am saddened that a Lutheran Church that was founded on a firm commitment to the Bible has come to the
point that the ELCA would vote to reject the Bible’s teaching on marriage and homosexual behavior. It breaks my heart.”

“The assembly has voted to remove the ELCA from the universal Christian consensus on marriage and homosexual behavior. Lutheran CORE intends to remain faithful to the clear teaching of Scripture and the consistent teaching of the Christian Church worldwide and throughout time,” said Ryan Schwarz of Washington, D.C., a member of the Lutheran CORE Steering Committee, who was a finalist in Friday’s
election for ELCA Vice President.

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Theologians and church analysts said both votes could influence other Protestant denominations — including Presbyterians and United Methodists — that are struggling to reconcile conflicts over homosexuality and the Bible.

One scholar characterized the move by the two groups as a “watershed moment in American Christianity” that could further divide churches already laboring to stem the flight of traditionalists.

“Those who have been actively campaigning for a change of this sort in the other mainline denominations will see this as a sign that they should intensify their efforts,” Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, said in an e-mail. “For those of us who have opposed this on biblical grounds, it is bound to reinforce the sense that we are no longer welcome in the mainline.”

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But for some lifelong Episcopalians the national church is moving too far and too fast.

“It’s like a friend of mine said, before 2003, I was sitting on the front row, after 2003, I was sitting in the middle, and after this General Convention, I’m sitting on the back pew, with one eye on the door,” said David Keller, a member of Christ Church in Greenville.

Keller led the 1994 diocesan nominating committee in that selected Henderson as bishop of the Upper Diocese. But Keller said he has gradually retreated from administrative church responsibilities as the national and local church has struggled with the gay and lesbian issue. A loyal lay reader of the scriptures, he said he is taking a sabbatical from that Sunday routine as well.

“An awful lot of people that I know who are very upset about what is going on have already stopped going to church or just jumped ship,” said Keller, who as a delegate to the 2003 national convention voted against Robinson’s ordination.

He said he was in a “wait and see attitude” and was keenly interested in the theological counsel of South Carolina’s other Episcopal bishop, Mark Lawrence, who leads Lowcountry Episcopalians and considers himself an orthodox Episcopalian.

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Quoting the Bible and denomination founder Martin Luther, delegates sought to place the decision within their interpretation of their Lutheran faith.

“We live today with an understanding of homosexuality that did not exist in Jesus’ time and culture,” Tim Mumm, a lay delegate from Wisconsin and supporter of Lutherans Concerned, an gay-rights organization, said during the debate. “We are responding to something that the writers of Scripture could not have understood.”

But other said the recommendations weaken the Biblical standards of the church.

“As Luther taught us, Scripture does not have a wax nose,” said the Rev. Ryan Mills, a delegate representing Texas and Louisana. “It cannot be twisted into anything we want it to say. But that’s just what we’re doing with these following recommendations.”

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Pastor Richard Mahan of the ELCA West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod was among several speakers contending that the proposed changes are contrary to biblical teaching. “I cannot see how the church that I have known for 40 years can condone what God has condemned,” Mahan said, “Nowhere does it say in scripture that homosexuality and same sex marriage is acceptable of God.”

But others said a greater acceptance of people who are gay and lesbian in the church was consistent with the Bible. Bishop Gary Wollersheim of the ELCA Northern Illinois Synod said, “It’s a matter of justice, a matter of hospitality, it’s what Jesus would have us do.” Wollersheim said he had been strongly influenced by meetings with youth at youth leadership events in his synod, a regional unit of the ELCA.

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Churches, of course, reflect the diversity of the American people who make up their membership, so it is not surprising that tensions between conservatives and liberals in churches echo views expressed in so-called secular culture. However, an added ingredient helps fuel the intensity of disagreement in church settings. People in Christian churches of all stripes affirm the reality of a divinely revealed truth, namely that the essence of the sacred is love, which is the touchstone of all human interactions. This is no mere abstract doctrine. The way we treat other people ”” accepting them with dignity as equals and loving them as we love ourselves ”” is at the heart of what Christianity is all about.

This disarmingly simply message can be, as the Scriptures say, a “stumbling block” for many. It asserts that the dignity of individuals supersedes any institutional claim ”” even by the church ”” that would diminish this dignity in any way. Loving my neighbor takes precedent over loving my church and reducing individuals to stereotypes.

What the Episcopal Church has done, and has done boldly and decisively, is to make a choice, a gamble of faith, without being able to predict or control the ultimate impact on the institution. It is likely that those who supported the action are humbled by the immensity of the risk, encouraged by a memorable moment of collective courage and comforted that the choice they made is consistent with the deepest meanings of the Christian faith.

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I am less understanding. How and why are teachers allowed to bunk off at will? Why are so many of them so apathetic about doing what must be the most important job there is?

Neither Hannah nor Elliott knew, so the work experience crew set to and conducted an inquiry into the matter. In the last few weeks they’ve googled schools around the world and they’ve concluded, Mr Balls, that the English system is specially designed to demoralise teachers.

The first question they have is: why do we expect so little from teacher training applicants? The only academic credential you need to train to be a teacher is a C grade at GCSE in English and maths. Surely we want most of our little darlings to aim at least a bit higher than that? What’s the sense in requiring less of teachers than we do of pupils?

The second question is: why can’t a teacher be sacked? However badly a teacher does; however much attendance or enthusiasm plummets on his watch, unless he’s actually caught groping some Year 7 tot, it’s almost impossible to get rid of him.

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In a phone conversation before the afternoon session, during which delegates would decide the issue of ordination, [South Carolina Bishop Herman R.] Yoos said he voted in favor of recognizing same-sex unions but that he planned to vote against ordaining gays and lesbians in committed, publicly accountable relationships.

“My position is we need to live with same-sex unions blessed and recognized for a period of time to discern whether to take the next step or not.” Yoos said he is not necessarily opposed to the idea, but he is cautious about moving too fast. He called the new policy a profound and historical change but worried that two such changes in quick succession might be one too many.

Proponents of the new policy pledged to work with the church to achieve reconciliation.

“Today I am proud to be a Lutheran,” Emily Eastwood, executive director of Lutherans Concerned/North America, said in a statement. “The ELCA has always had gay ministers, now those and all ministers are free to claim who they are and to have the love and support of a life-long partner, regardless of orientation or gender identity, which is all we ever asked.”

The Rev. Steve Plonk, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Mount Pleasant, said the debate certainly has infiltrated his congregation, which includes some who want the church to lead on the issues of gay marriage and ordination, others who embrace a more orthodox view and insist the church shouldn’t even discuss the matter and still others who hope for careful, gradual progress.

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But in the past two months, Sanford has been out of state for 25 days, more than half of which was spent in Europe trying to reconcile with his wife and children.

That’s fine to those who view the time off as coming during the dog days of summer, a time Sanford could spend best as a father and a husband first.

For others, the time away while the state is suffering doesn’t sit well, especially as more than 11 percent of workers in South Carolina can’t find jobs.

To be sure, Sanford is in lame-duck territory, no different than any term-limited politician at the end of his tenure. Sanford, a Republican, has a little more than 16 months remaining in office, and his recent troubles only make it harder for him to make the policy and taxation changes he seeks.

But Rep. Todd Rutherford, a Columbia Democrat who has called for Sanford to resign, said for the governor to prove that he should remain in office is “looking rather daunting.”

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Pastors in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America can bless same-sex unions after a vote Friday by delegates at the Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis.

“I’ve been a life-long member at Redeemer Lutheran Church [in Atlanta], and I was never comfortable asking my church to bless my relationship,” said Bob Gibeling, who is at the assembly.

“This offers great hope to me that when I find a future life-long partner, my own beloved congregation will want to bless that union.”

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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s 11th Churchwide Assembly continued debating human sexuality on Friday morning, and approved allowing congregations to bless same-sex couples by a vote of 771-230.

After a long week of hearings and debates, some voting members of the ELCA assembly cried as they spoke, or choked back tears. Even a resolution that called on ELCA members to “bear one another’s burdens, love the neighbor, and respect the bound consciences of all” became a point of contention.

Pastor Steven Frock of the Western Iowa Synod cited Jesus’ warning that those who cause little ones to sin face a sharp judgment in eternity.

“Are you willing, and can you so casually, place your mortal souls at risk?” he asked. “If you have any doubts at all, I ask you not to step off this precipice.”

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What ruins the piece for me is that Newsweek has not corrected errors first pointed out by fellow Godbeat scribe Frank Lockwood. It openly corrected one error: The claim that President Reagan ever identified himself as an Episcopalian. It quietly corrected two other problems: Referring to the church’s General Convention as an annual rather than a triennial meeting, and referring to President Ford as if he were still alive. (Under a sacramental reading of Hebrews 12:1, one could make the case for referring to President Ford’s faith in the present tense.)

But Newsweek has let stand some howlers involving membership statistics. As one of many journalists cursed with innumeracy, I sympathize with Miller on these mistakes. I once wildly overstated the membership of the Episcopal Diocese of Springfield, but as soon as I realized my error I alerted my editor to it, and he corrected it.

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This is not the first time these questions have been raised. Pocket books called Stalags circulated widely in Israel during the Eichmann trial in the 1960s. They depicted American or British pilots being abused by sadistic Nazi female officers, and then taking revenge by raping and/or killing their torturers. Deemed pornographic by Israeli courts, these books were banned.

There is a not uncommon belief that the Torah sanctions revenge. But the precept of “an eye for an eye” is usually cited incorrectly, according to Rabbi Joel Roth, a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. It is actually meant to refer to monetary compensation rather than bloodletting. And Leviticus 19:18 says, “Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people.”

Rabbi Roth notes that Jews are prohibited from taking “the law into your own hands as a matter of legal punishment.” The scaffolding of legality””a fair trial and conviction””is paramount under Jewish law. Eichmann was the one person to ever receive a death sentence in an Israeli court, and not without much hand-wringing from Jews world-wide.

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…a discussion about the prospect of rationing in a public health system is not only permissible but unavoidable. Every nation that has promised comprehensive, low-cost health coverage for all citizens has faced a similar dilemma. Eventually it is not enough to increase public spending or to reduce waste. More direct forms of cost control become an overwhelming priority. And because health expenditures are weighted toward the end of life, the rationing of health care often concerns older people most directly.

Keith Hennessey, former director of the National Economic Council, puts the dilemma simply: “Resources are constrained, and so someone has to make the cost-benefit decision, either by creating a rule or making decisions on a case-by-case basis. Many of those decisions are now made by insurers and employers. The House and Senate bills would move some of those decisions into the government. Changing the locus of the decision does not relax the resource constraint. It just changes who has power and control.”

Because no one likes to ration directly, nations such as Britain and Germany employ “comparative effectiveness research” to lend an air of science to the process of cost constraint. Are “quality-adjusted life years” worth the public expense of a new drug or technology?

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Bennett Hill, a retired teacher, long-time parishioner, and historian of the parish has summed up Good Shepherd in three phrases. First is “orthodoxy,” which is to say faithful adherence to the Christian faith, little different from that of Roman Catholics or the Eastern Orthodox, found in the Bible, and the ancient creeds and traditions of the Church. Second is “the beauty of holiness,” which is to say to make worship as beautiful as can be made: Good Shepherd uses vestments, candles and incense in its liturgies and has fine music (though no professional choir). Finally, Mr. Hill lists “undying commitment to mission work;” Good Shepherd supports missionaries overseas, but the church also participates in soup kitchens and similar work in Philadelphia. In the 19th century, the church started a hospital, The Home and Hospital of the Good Shepherd, the first on the Main Line, which existed for 50 years. Good Shepherd is the “Mother Church” of three parishes it founded: Good Samaritan (Paoli), St. Martin’s (Radnor) and Christ Church (Villanova).

To this could be added a certain lack of interest in the social dimensions once so important in church going. Good Shepherd never charged pew rent. Today, the congregation is a real slice of America in its diversity. Parish life is a whirl of activity, from worship to coffee hours to a Mardi Gras party, but all somehow adult. The congregation is there for only one reason: because they consider the church to be the real thing””straight, no chaser.

Churches like Good Shepherd, however, have been attacked in recent years owing to immense changes in the doctrines and practices of the hierarchy of the Episcopal Church. Orthodoxy is questioned or even scorned: (now disgraced) former Bishop Charles Bennison of Philadelphia dismissed Scripture with the words, “we wrote the Bible, we can re-write it.” Morality now includes sexual activity outside of marriage even among priests and bishops. (Bishop Bennison was removed when it transpired that he had been aware that his brother, also a priest, was sexually abusing a minor, but had done nothing.)

The attempt to impose such changes has been resisted globally, with the result that the Anglican Communion today is split in many directions….

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With the local hierarchy arrayed on the altar, New Orleans’ unusual status in the American church was on display. It is the only city with four archbishops: Aymond, Hughes, Hannan and retired Archbishop Francis Schulte, now 82.

Though both frail, Hannan and Schulte, the latter moving slowly with a cane, processed out the church at the end of the ceremony, enjoying applause directed at them. Schulte now splits time between New Orleans and his native Philadelphia, reportedly having transferred his medical care there after the chaos in New Orleans after Katrina.

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Sexuality may not be the gospel, but it is a big deal””and we ignore that at our peril. Sexuality is bound up with the question of the human future””the begetting and the rearing of the next generation. Sexuality furnishes the most pungent similes and metaphors in Scripture for describing the intimate, self-giving love of God for the human family. Relationships grounded in human sexuality””husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons””are woven throughout the biblical story. How our church, how any church, treats marriage and family life will either enhance or detract from our service in God’s mission in the world. Make no mistake: sex is a big deal!

So, I ask, how have we in the ELCA done in formulating a social statement on human sexuality? Has our great church produced a great document that does justice to the gravity and grace of human sexuality? Have we in the ELCA addressed as powerfully and as richly as possible the real social issues that arise from our life as sexually-differentiated human beings? Are we now poised to be a church that has something powerful to say to our society in the early 21st century about the wonder of human sexuality and the tremendous possibilities of well-ordered sexual lives, for the sake of our human future? Are we ready to speak confidently, compellingly to our society as a church that still believes that “the Lord God in his goodness created us male and female, and by the gift of marriage founded human community in a joy that begins now and is brought to perfection in the life to come?”[2]

Alas, as I read Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, I cannot honestly say that we have done our best to plumb the heights and depths of human sexuality so as to say something meaningful and compelling to the society in which we live. As a colleague in ministry put it, only we Lutherans could take something as exciting as sex and write about it in such a pedestrian way.

Let me name three deep concerns that I have about Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust.

1. Framing the Issue. Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, although proposed to us as a theological teaching document consistently fails to exhibit a deep engagement with and thoughtful appropriation of the Lutheran theological treasury. The rich law-gospel dialectic for which Lutherans are known is not the “operating system” in this teaching document. The document sets aside””in a footnote, no less![3]””our time-honored understanding of “orders of creation” as deep, dynamic, caring structures that God has built into the Creation to bring forth and sustain human life in all its multi-form abundance. In the place of such profound theological and ethical categories, Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust sees everything sexual through the sociological lens of “trust in relationships” or “social trust.” (The word “trust” shows up nearly two hundred times in the document!) Now, to be sure, social trust is a very good thing! Even thoughtful pagans will agree to that. But “social trust” is scarcely a suitable “lens” for a distinctively Christian or churchly word about human sexuality.

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The Scottish Government’s decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, on compassionate grounds has been hailed as “a brave political choice” by the Most Rev. David Chillingworth, primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Megrahi, 57, who has terminal prostate cancer, returned to Libya August 20 to live out his final days.

Megrahi was jailed in January 2001 for 27 years when a bomb he had planted exploded aboard Pan American Flight 103 over the southern Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988. The terrorist attack killed 270 people, including 180 Americans.

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Second, Mr MacAskill needlessly scored a nationalist point in his condemnation of the United Kingdom Government. The families of the American victims believed they had an assurance that al-Megrahi would serve his time in Scotland but the Government in London said that no such undertaking was given and there was, accordingly, no legal inihibition to al-Megrahi being considered as a candidate for the PTA struck between Britain and Libya. Given that Mr MacAskill went on to reject the request of the Libyan Government under the PTA, this was a rather gratuitious political shot, which will be met with incomprehension by the American families to whom his decision will cause genuine pain.

Because finally, all of this is, to a grieving family, a technicality. To those who lost family members 20 years ago, this is binary: al-Megrahi is either in jail or not. With him released to go to Tripoli, Mr MacAskill effectively defended his ground. All prisoners are, as he said, indeed eligible to be considered for compassionate release. But not all prisoners are thereby entitled to have that request granted and al-Megrahi’s crime is such that he ought to have served out the full term of his life in prison. There is some nobility in Mr MacAskill’s sentiment that “our beliefs dictate that justice be served, but mercy be shown”. The Scottish Justice Minister’s account of the argument from compassion was eloquent but, on this occasion, misplaced.

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Meeting this week in Minneapolis for its biennial convention, the nation’s seventh-largest denomination is considering a policy that would allow its 10,000 congregations to hire as pastor any properly ordained person “in a lifelong, committed, monogamous, same-gender relationship.”

The 4.8 million-member denomination already permits gay clergy but requires they remain celibate.

Earlier this year, the Presbyterian Church USA voted narrowly to continue its ban on openly gay clergy, as did the United Methodist Church last year.

Last month, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA formally expanded its ordination policy to permit lesbian and gay bishops. The denomination has been ordaining homosexual priests and deacons since the 1990s.

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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, one of the largest Christian denominations in the country, will decide this week whether to allow gay people in relationships to serve as clergy.

Currently, sexually active gay people are not permitted to serve in the clergy, but celibate gay people are. By Friday, church delegates meeting in Minneapolis are expected to vote on a proposal that would permit congregations to let gay men and lesbians in committed, monogamous relationships serve as clergy.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church is the latest major denomination to wrestle with the question of gay clergy. The issue has divided the Episcopal Church, which last month voted to make gay people eligible for any ordained ministry, further threatening to split the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which it is a branch. And earlier this year, the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted against accepting openly gay pastors, although the margin narrowed compared with a 2001 vote.

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The denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is considering lifting a ban on noncelibate gay and lesbian pastors, permitting the ordination of people in committed same-sex relationships.

At issue is how the Bible should inform policy, how the denomination can best serve its mission, and how a vote to ordain gay men and lesbians would affect the church’s relationships with the broader Christian community. Fears of a schism have been fueled by recent turmoil in the Episcopal Church, which voted in July to permit the ordination of openly gay bishops. The issue has cost the Episcopal Church about 100,000 members, who have left to join a new, more conservative entity called the Anglican Church in North America.

Although an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America task force proposed a “structured flexibility” clause that ultimately would leave gay ordination up to each congregation, a sense of division looms. Some delegates here are cloaked in shawls distributed by a Lutheran organization endorsing gay ordination, while others are wearing buttons from an opposing Lutheran organization.

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A high-priced college may not be worth the price of admission.

As the economy forces more students out of the classroom and graduates into under- or unemployment, a college enrollment bubble may be starting to deflate.

The recession, combined with rising college costs, has accelerated a college affordability crunch that is exacerbated by shrinking family incomes, diminished home equity and reduced household wealth.

As many as one-third of all private colleges surveyed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities said they expected enrollment to drop in the next academic year.

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A variation on the company doctor is emerging at big companies across the country, where businesses are sponsoring on-site medical centers to provide employees with free or low-cost healthcare.

In Oxnard, Calif., for instance, a large berry grower that employees scores of migrant and other workers adopted the approach at the start of the year.

Reiter Affiliated Companies canceled its more expensive health insurance to set up its own clinics. The move is a new twist on healthcare delivery that companies hope will save on costs and increase productivity.

“My personal belief is a happy employee is a healthy employee,” said Reiter’s Kryz Novotnaj, the man responsible for implementing and managing the clinics. He expects to see less stress, more productivity and better morale among employees.

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