No doubt you remember very well the two “Call to Faithfulness” conferences held at St. Olaf College in 1990 and 1992, the latter at which you spoke. Three Lutheran journals sponsored the conferences, Dialog, Lutheran Quarterly, and Lutheran Forum. Already alarms were going off that the ELCA was moving in the direction of liberal Protestantism on many fronts. One thousand people attended the first conference and eight hundred the second, so we were not alone in detecting early signs of trouble in the ELCA. Although the theologians addressing the two conferences held different views amongst themselves on ecclesiology and ecumenism, almost all agreed that the commitment of the ELCA to teach according to the Lutheran Confessions was becoming nominal at best. Even the name of the Holy Trinity was up for grabs in some circles.
During those two conferences I do not recall that one word was spoken about sexuality or homosexuality. The controversy over sexuality arose later. In the last ten years it has become the all-consuming issue in the ELCA, arising not from the people at the grassroots but driven by the leadership at many levels. It should be clear that the theologians who signed the CORE Letter (around 60 of them) hold the same views concerning the slide of the ELCA toward liberal Protestantism as those journal theologians who issued the “call to faithfulness” in 1990 and 1992.
That call went unheeded. It is clear that what ails the ELCA, in our view, is not all about sexuality. It is about the underlying pervasive theological condition that gave rise to the possibility that a Lutheran denomination could devote more than a decade’s worth of its time, money, and energy to an issue that has always been deemed beyond consideration by all orthodox (small “o”) churches from the first century until now. Only a few North American liberal Protestant denominations made the issue of sexuality their cause célèbre, starting approximately one generation ago. This is only further convincing evidence that the ELCA has bought into the kind of theological methodology (reasoning) that has always characterized liberal Protestantism. You make clear what that is. Of the four principles of a sound theological method””Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience””you assign to reason and experience the place of pre-eminence. Luther called “reason” the whore of Babylon. And in the name of “experience” every crime and heresy known to humankind have been committed. So we have to ask, “whose “reason” and whose “experience” should we trust? Not mine, all by myself. Not the “reason” and “experience” of late-North American Christians who have been marinated in the culture of what Pope John XXIII called a “culture of death and decadence.” The Germans have a word for the kind of ecclesial phenomenon that results from elevating “reason and experience” at the expense of “Scripture and Tradition”””“Kulturprotestantismus.”
One of our most lucid voices as we pass into the dark night of heterodoxy. He and Robert Jenson warned us early and often where our internal innovations were headed. And,of course, they are being proven correct.
Thanks for posting this for us ELCA Lutherans who lurk about on your blog. If the rest of you don’t know the above names, might be worth your time and effort to read their material. I believe you’ll find kindred spirits.
And yes, after all the warnings, there’s an excellent chance our denomination truly come off the rails before this month is out. Our national assembly is all set to approve local option gay ordinations and same-sex marriages.
[i]Turning left, theologically speaking, means to affirm the theology and methodology of liberal Protestantism; turning right means to reclaim the Great Tradition of historic Christianity prior to the Reformation, including the ancient Church Fathers and Medieval Doctors of the Church. I observed that many of my generation who came out of pietism veered toward liberal protestantism. What they held in common was a religious orientation defined by feelings and personal experiences. Subjectivity decides what is true. The ELCA Social Statement talks about the “bound conscience†as determinative on ethical questions—pure subjectivism. A few of my generation, some classmates, made the longer journey into a study of the ancient traditions which shaped the development of catholic orthodoxy, which I believe our Lutheran Confessors affirmed in a positive way. Pietist theologians were not much interested in the Church Fathers, or the Lutheran Confessions for that matter. They did have the Small Catechism, but that was about all.[/i]
A very helpful summary of the postwar American mainline Protestant trajectory, as exemplified by American Lutheranism, where the steady march to unify the various ethnic synods into one entity – the ELCA – coming up against the pressures of postmodernism. At least the Lutherans can’t say they don’t know what’s coming; their ecumenical partners have made it abundantly clear.
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com]Catholic and Reformed[/url]
[blockquote]And yes, after all the warnings, there’s an excellent chance our denomination truly come off the rails before this month is out. Our national assembly is all set to approve local option gay ordinations and same-sex marriages. [/blockquote]
Looks like even more competition for TGC to get that 2% of the population into the pews.
I have heard (remember I qualified this statement) that a local, very large ELCA church, a few years back, made a provision, that should ELCA basically go the way of TEC (of course TEC wasn’t mentioned I “heard”) they, as a church, will withdraw. There are those in ELCA who have prepared for the worse……Brian in Maryland – is it possible to just withdraw a church from ELCA?
Dee,
Perhaps you’re thinking of Community Church of Joy in Arizona. They left a couple of months ago. IMHO, it’s instructive one of our prevailing congregations didn’t even wait for the Assembly. Leaders lead. And so they left. They ended up in LCMC, a 501.3c that was designed to give congregations a place to go while things “shake out” in the ELCA.
It’s my understanding approx 50 of our largest congregations have already put our PB on notice that, should the ELCA change their/our policy on ordination or marriage, they will walk too. There’s a meeting scheduled in September pending the outcome of the Assembly.
It’s realtively easy for an ELCA congregation to exit. Problem is, where shall we go? We’re not nearly as well organized internationally as is the AC. My concern, as is for many, is that we won’t schism so much as shatter into a myriad of micro-synods.
Many of us in the LCMS are praying for those in the ELCA still striving to be true to the Lutheran Confessions. We are sad to see the ELCA go down the same path as TEC and hope that they are able to turn away. Maybe God will intervene in a miraculous way during their churchwide assembly next week. But even if He does not, I hope and pray that the confessional Lutherans in the ECLA will continue to be faithful to the Scriptures.
Brian in Maryland – no, this church is in my local.
Brian (#1, 5),
I have long been an admirer of Jenson and especially Braaten. I have had great respect for the whole “Evangelical Catholic” movement in Lutheranism, as exemplifed by the outstanding theological journal [b]Pro Ecclesia[/b]. But naturally, I’ve watched with growing concern as the movement has failed to stop the drift of the ELCA into just one more variety of Liberal Protestantism. To me, the most interesting and significant thing is how many of Lutheranism’s best and brightest theologians and pastoral leaders have chosen to convert to Roman Catholicism in the last two decades. Somehow, it seems more remarkable and surprising for good Lutherans to swim the Tiber than for Anglo-Catholics to do so.
One of my fond hopes and dreams is that the New Reformation that’s just beginning in North America will be able to work across denominational lines, with orthodox Anglicans, Lutherans, and yes, even Presbyterians and Methodists, learning from each other and encouraging each other in the fight for the soul of our respective traditions, and the battle for the Church as a whole, and for the health of the wider American culture.
The ELCA national convention next week will be a fateful one. I hope that the Lutherans avoid falling into the same terrible pit that TEC has, but I’m not optimistic. Although for the ELCA to meet in Minneapolis is natural enough, it can’t help but remind any Episcopalian (or former one) of the disastrous Gen Con of TEC that took place there in 2003.
I’ll be praying for the assembly, which I understand is August 17th-23rd. Anyway, I’m glad when orthodox Lutherans visit Anglican sites like this one. Please keep posting here.
David Handy+
Thanks also for this posting, ….this is coming from an ELCIC (the much smaller Canadian sister of the ELCA)”lurker”. (I was raised in the ACoC, then married a Lutheran.) Our national convention was held in Vancouver at the end of June.. quite a low-key event as we mark time waiting for this coming ELCA one. Be assured of my continued prayers for the Diocese of SC, the ELCA convention, and all of you here and at Stand Firm. For me you have been for over a year now, my encouragement and place of information..Thank-you!
David,
Thanks for the encouragement. I only know you through this media. Might interesting to connect on the phone sometimes.
I know of a very tentative (musing suggestion?) conversation concerning whether or not there could be a Lutheran mission within the nascent ACNA movement/province. I think that would flow along your line of reasoning.
For what it’s worth, my first serious mentor was the retired General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. Through him I was exposed to a global sense of the church. Alas, the Lutheran expression of the Body is all but dead in Western Europe and is headed in that direction here. Now, in the Global South it’s another story.
We have much in common, but what we don’t have in common is a sense of “communion” internationally. No question in my mind our generation is witnessing a shift in the moral and spiritual leadership of the church that will make our own 15th century reformation pale in comparison. IMHO we Lutherans are not ecclesiastically prepared for this new reality.
Brian
StJohnMD.org
Brian,
Yes, talking by phone might uncover more ways that we share a lot in common. Since this thread is getting pretty old, I’ll risk posting my phone number here. Feel free to call me, if you wish. My cell is (804) 304-1481.
David Handy+