Yeah, Harry (#1). Not only are there no real attempts to justify this innovation biblically (apart from a very general, vague appeal to the inclusion of the Gentiles in Acts as a supposed precedent), there’s also no real attempt to show how the “gay is OK” idea can be supported from the Lutheran confessions or tradition. Instead, the implicit assumption is that the legitimacy of the liberal drive to normalize homosexual behavior is simply self-evident; it’s just axiomatic.
It’s like we (conservatives and “progressives”) live on different planets in terms of moral philosophy. And that’s precisely the problem, because we do.
Aren’t you glad you’re in the LCMS, Harry, and not the ELCA?
David –
You bet I am. We have our own internal problems in the LCMS, but they pale into insignificance compared to this.
Have you ever read the CTCR (LCMS) report on Human Sexuality that was produced in 1981? It is like night and day reading the ELCA report and comparing it to the CTCR report.
No, I must admit I haven’t read it. But I’m sure you’re righly proud of how different it is.
I can say, however, that my superviser in my doctoral program was a former LCMS scholar, Jack Dean Kingsbury, who migrated to the ELCA because of the fight over inerrancy back in the late 1970s. I admire him in many ways, for he’s an outstanding NT scholar who retains an evangelical passion for the Gospel and reverence for the Word of God, and a keen ability to discern the difference between Law and Gospel (naturally!), along with a certain Lutheran (Paul-like) feistiness that I find winsome.
Not to mention the fact that, like anyone who reads the Greek NT regularly, I’m constantly referring to the classic Greek lexicon of Walter Baur, that was translated from German into English by two great LCMS scholars (Arndt and Gingrich), and then revised by ex-LCMS scholar Frederick Danker. It’s one of the many gifts of the LCMS to the rest of the Body of Christ (along with the marvelous Concordia Sunday School materlials, Arch booklets, etc.).
Perhaps I should add the my Doktor Fater, Jack Dean Kingsbury, is deeply distressed by how the ELCA has been morphing into just one more liberal Protestant denomination. He strongly opposes the “gay is OK” delusion. I suspect, though he hasn’t told me so, that he now feels more alienated from what the ELCA has become, than he ever was from the LCMS in which he was raised.
Having read the Recommendation, it is clear that TEC, having taken and eaten of the apple, has offered it to ELCA, who is about to eat of it also. But in eating of this apple, the eyes of neither are opened, but made blind to their true nakedness and rebellion against their Lord. We never learn. Kyrie elesion!
No Scripture references, not very Lutheran at all. And that is because they cannot possibly justify this by the Scriptures.
Yeah, Harry (#1). Not only are there no real attempts to justify this innovation biblically (apart from a very general, vague appeal to the inclusion of the Gentiles in Acts as a supposed precedent), there’s also no real attempt to show how the “gay is OK” idea can be supported from the Lutheran confessions or tradition. Instead, the implicit assumption is that the legitimacy of the liberal drive to normalize homosexual behavior is simply self-evident; it’s just axiomatic.
It’s like we (conservatives and “progressives”) live on different planets in terms of moral philosophy. And that’s precisely the problem, because we do.
Aren’t you glad you’re in the LCMS, Harry, and not the ELCA?
David Handy+
David –
You bet I am. We have our own internal problems in the LCMS, but they pale into insignificance compared to this.
Have you ever read the CTCR (LCMS) report on Human Sexuality that was produced in 1981? It is like night and day reading the ELCA report and comparing it to the CTCR report.
Harry (#3),
No, I must admit I haven’t read it. But I’m sure you’re righly proud of how different it is.
I can say, however, that my superviser in my doctoral program was a former LCMS scholar, Jack Dean Kingsbury, who migrated to the ELCA because of the fight over inerrancy back in the late 1970s. I admire him in many ways, for he’s an outstanding NT scholar who retains an evangelical passion for the Gospel and reverence for the Word of God, and a keen ability to discern the difference between Law and Gospel (naturally!), along with a certain Lutheran (Paul-like) feistiness that I find winsome.
Not to mention the fact that, like anyone who reads the Greek NT regularly, I’m constantly referring to the classic Greek lexicon of Walter Baur, that was translated from German into English by two great LCMS scholars (Arndt and Gingrich), and then revised by ex-LCMS scholar Frederick Danker. It’s one of the many gifts of the LCMS to the rest of the Body of Christ (along with the marvelous Concordia Sunday School materlials, Arch booklets, etc.).
David Handy+
P.S. Addendum to my #4.
Perhaps I should add the my Doktor Fater, Jack Dean Kingsbury, is deeply distressed by how the ELCA has been morphing into just one more liberal Protestant denomination. He strongly opposes the “gay is OK” delusion. I suspect, though he hasn’t told me so, that he now feels more alienated from what the ELCA has become, than he ever was from the LCMS in which he was raised.
David Handy+
Having read the Recommendation, it is clear that TEC, having taken and eaten of the apple, has offered it to ELCA, who is about to eat of it also. But in eating of this apple, the eyes of neither are opened, but made blind to their true nakedness and rebellion against their Lord. We never learn. Kyrie elesion!