In its August 2009 Churchwide Assembly, the Evangelical Lutheran Church decided formally to leave the Great Tradition of orthodox Christianity for a declining and desiccated liberal Protestantism. The decisions it made””accepting a weak and confused social statement on sexuality, allowing blessings of gay unions, ordaining gays and lesbians in partnered relationships, and requiring Lutherans to respect each other’s “bound conscience” on these issues””crossed the “line in the sand” that separates revisionist Christians from orthodox.
That result was a foregone conclusion for critical observers who had been watching the ELCA carefully since its inception in the late eighties. (Among them, of course, was Richard John Neuhaus, who saw clearly the trajectory yet to unfold.) What had been the promise of a renewed and robust Lutheranism in the merger of the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America was aborted before its birth, in 1988….
In the absence of a genuine confessional teaching authority, the ELCA has followed liberal Protestantism in adopting a working theology sharply different from its classical confessions. It has substituted the “Gospel of inclusion” for the classic “Gospel of redemption” that emphasizes repentance, forgiveness, and amendment of life. The former diminishes the importance of the Law as the source of both repentance and guidance for Christians. The god of self-esteem promises everyone acceptance just the way they are.
But the ELCA is far more interested in pressing forward the liberationist themes issuing from feminism, multiculturalism, anti-imperialism, and environmentalism. These themes constitute the non-negotiables in ELCA church life. The ELCA bishops recently participated in a workshop that featured a presentation titled “Power, Privilege, and Difference.” Being therefore educated about their propensities to be oppressive, the worthy bishops resolved to have “observers” at all their meetings to monitor for “PP&D” thinking. One might note that they employed no monitors for confessional theology, perhaps because there was nothing of significance to monitor.
Bob Benne is a solid supporter of Lutheran CORE, and his witness on the floor of the ELCA churchwide assembly last summer was tremendous. But his article makes a few errors in fact. For one, Lutheran CORE is not representing only the “high church,” evangelical catholic wing of the ELCA. It is a coalition that from its inception has covered the whole waterfront of confessional Lutheran resistence to what is happening in the ELCA (and which is happening across Christianity in North America). Word Alone Network was a founding member of Lutheran CORE, and without Word Alone I doubt Lutheran CORE could have made it off the ground, much less have lasted for five years and counting. Lutheran CORE has perplexed many in the ELCA with its working model of cooperation in essentials among those who have been bitterly at odds with each other over previous political battles in that denomination, the most famous being the fight over ratification of Call to Common Mission with TEC.
Secondly, many in Lutheran CORE (including some of its EC members, some of whom are members of the non-CORE pan-Lutheran ministerium the Society of the Holy Trinity) would disagree that if Lutheran CORE and the proposed North American Lutheran Church fail, then the last chance for Lutheranism has sunk. To mention the obvious, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is a large, confessional, Bible-rooted and very Lutheran denomination. The LC-MS has its own issues and problems, to be sure; but they should never be discounted. At the very least, they have been in existence for over 150 years, which in American terms is an eternity! (They could teach the ELCA somethings about surviving bitter and rancorous church battles; if, that is, the ELCA leadership was willing to learn anything at all from anyone at all, much less Missouri.)
Finally, Lutheran CORE is going forward and will continue to support those resisting the votes of last August and the revisionist theological agenda among some in the ELCA, both inside the ELCA and outside of it. Lutheran CORE’s main reason for existence is not to set up yet another Lutheran denomination, though it has taken up that work through August in response to the demand of many laypeople that life in the ELCA was no longer possible for them. Rather, it’s raison d’etre remains what it has always been: to be a confessing movement within the Lutheran portion of the Church catholic, uniting those attempting (or needing) to “stay differently” in the ELCA with those in other Lutheran bodies also witnessing for the faith that has been handed down to us, what has always been believed by the Church everywhere, in every age.
Absolutely amazing. From the article :
“The ELCA bishops recently participated in a workshop that featured
a presentation titled “Power, Privilege, and Difference.†Being therefore
educated about their propensities to be oppressive, the worthy bishops
resolved to have “observers†at all their meetings to monitor for “PP&D†thinking.”
1. George Orwell would have loved it – the use of “observers” to
ferret out thoughtcrime.
2. It is reminiscent of the Soviet practice of placing political
commissars alongside commanding officers in the Soviet
Army to “monitor” for any hint of any anti-Bolshevist
thinking.
Charles Porterfield Krauth in his book “The Conservative Reformation and It’s Theology” said that error creeps into the Church in three stages. The first one for the ELCA was women ordination, homosexual ordination was bound to follow.