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.”
Well, apparently the ELCA Lutherans are just as ignorant of Scripture as us Episcopalians.
At least the ones who go to national assemblies are pretty ignorant. Not so sure about the average member who, when polled in the “study process,” consistently, by large majorities (first one was in the 70% range when combining the “stop this process now” with the “we believe in traditional marriage and family” groups) said they did not want this change. But the taskforce consistently ignored that input and kept pushing change onto the national church council anyway and they pushed it onto the national assembly where …
The backlash from this should be huge.
It should be an interesting Sunday Dr. Luther. Perhaps it’s time for another reformation?
Intercessor
It’s fun to pray in the ELCA.
Slip-sliding away! Down the tube with the UCC and ECUSA/TEC/GCC.
‘Course, they’re “in communion” with the ECUDA/TEC/GCC/EO-PAC, aren’t they?
This is truly sad. Right after General Convention 2000 (which narrowly averted the decision made at GC 2003), an ELCA friend of mine castigated me because I continued to remain in a church he considered to be moving toward apostasy, and encouraged me to join the ELCA, which, he assured me, would never make (then) ECUSA’s mistake, because of their allegiance to Luther’s sola scriptura. I countered that the ELCA was only five years behind TEC.
I was wrong. It took the ELCA six years, not five (2003-2009).
Boy, they really don’t want to know what [url=http://apprising.org/2009/07/john-t-pless-martin-luthers-rejection-of-homosexuality/]Martin Luther[/url] had to say on the subject.
Then there is the whole transgender scene. But that topic is prohibited here, so I guess it does not exist.
Watching the old mainline denominations follow this course is sort of like watching a group of whales beach themselves. They’ll be surrounded by many people trying to turn them back out to sea, but in the end they will expire on the sand, doomed to suffocation by their own weight.
#8..
The topic of transgender is censored?
Not that I have anything to add to its discussion…
One might view the total collapse of protestantism in an interesting light! Finally the need for a magesterium is being made clear.
Has the reformation run its course? With Rome now offering Mass in the vernacular, rid of its corruption and led so ably by Pope Benedict- one wonders what we protest about. It would seem that God is closing the book on the breakaway ‘we can decide’ offshoots and calling his fold home to mother church.
…as an Anglo-Catholic I am beginning to wonder?
After dealing with a couple of situations in my youth I had decided that, when it came to Lutherans, it was more important to be Lutheran than it was to be christian. I always hoped that I was wrong in that youthful observation. It appears that I was not wrong.
How I wish that I were wrong.
Don
Intercessor (#3),
Needless to say, as NRA, I think we indeed need a New Reformation, and are in the early stages of it. Nor will it be just for Anglicans and Lutherans. I think we’re going to see a massive realignment taking place within oldline (former “mainline”) Protestantism, although it’s apt to be a prolonged, messy process, spread out over many years. And I for one think that such a drastic Reformation is a very good thing, no matter how divisive it proves to be.
As Jaroslav Pelikan famously described the first Reformation as [i]”a tragic necessity,”[/i] so I argue that this New Reformation is even more clearly justified. Yes, the breakup of the oldline groups is tragic all right, but it’s also fully necessary.
David Handy+
Dr. Witt (#6),
Hmmm, since your prediction proved so remarkably accurate about how long it would take the ELCA to follow the disastrous course of TEC, would you care to venture a guess as to how long it will take the other oldline denominations? Just curious.
I’m afraid the handwriting is already on the wall for the PCUSA, which I expect to be the next to fall.
David Handy+
Don Gander (#10) wrote above (in part):
“After dealing with a couple of situations in my youth I had decided that, when it came to Lutherans, it was more important to be Lutheran than it was to be christian.”
Sadly, I think that this as at least as true of many Episcopalians. I claim no virtue in this regard whatsoever, as I think I have been as guilty as any. It was easy to love the rythms of the BCP, the mix of traditional hymns, the beautiful buildings, the culture of restraint and dignity in personal interactions. I loved the ECUSA as an expression of Christianity in the context of Anglo-American culture (which is my culture). The question I never faced squarely was: Was I really a Christian, or just play-acting because I loved the culture so much? Was I confusing “the beauty of holiness,” with an (incorrect) assumption of the holiness of beauty?
Two things have forced me to think long and hard (and I’m still thinking). First, the theological incoherence of the re-appraising movement, and their agressive posture towards re-asserters have forced even me (a fairly theologically obtuse individual) to ponder what is going on. As many others have pointed out in this forum (far more adeptly than I), the “three legged stool,” of Scripture, Tradition and Reason, has been trumped, and emotion and “experience” seem to rule. It doesn’t seem much of a way to do theology, and (as others have observed) I can’t help thinking that, if I believed as they do, I would probably become a Unitarian.
Second, it appears to me that ECUSA is even losing its Anglo American cultural identity. Every “creative liturgy,” every dippy hymn from the 1970’s, made an Episcopal parish less, well, Episcopal, and more like bad post Vatican II RC liturgy. (In fact, at my most recent parish, the (admittedly bad) current hymnal was supplemented with the RC “Gather” hymnal (which, amazingly enough, is even worse).
So. The theology is out of whack. The elements which (rightly or wrongly) attracted me there are diminishing. There just isn’t a lot left.
Reverend Franz:
You say, “Sadly, I think that this as at least as true of many Episcopalians.”
I thought of that as I wrote but decided to leave such up to the Holy Spirit. What joy to see Him work! After reading yor frank and repentant paragraphs, I am compelled also to relate something additional to you. By the imposition of God, Himself, I am currently a member of a very conservative Lutheran Church. I can not here explain the background of my situation except to repeat that it was, without doubt in my mind, an act of God. I relate this to you because I wonder why God does some things and I usually don’t have answers. His wisdom demands obedience even if I do not understand. Like Mary the mother of Christ, I am left in my ignorance to either obey or reject. Our duty is to say, “Thy will be done.”
But I am also forced to recognise that I am uniquely suited to assist in the management of the congregation to which I am currently attached. I could have never created such a situation myself. It appears to me that you are in a like situation. I suggest to you to make the revelations of God a part of your eternal character, do your duty, and thank God saying, “Thy will be done.”
Don
Thank you for your kind comments, Don. However, I cannot claim the title, “reverend.” I am (and have always been) a layperson. I fear I may have misled you with the phrase, “My most recent parish . . ” I have been a layreader, and an avid choir member. I have organized adult CE classes, and, for a short time, led a youth group (not my calling in life). My wife and daughters are active in (yet another) ECUSA parish, but I just couldn’t do it any more.
I might have felt inclined to seek ordination, but I always thought that clergy ought to be really committed to the faith. (How old fashioned of me).