Ministry News
The Same-Sex Domino Effect
- Details
- Tuesday, 25 August 2009 11:43
The waters continue to stir from last Friday's Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) decision that allows sexually active gays and lesbians "in committed relationships" to serve as clergy. Despite several emotional pleas for the ELCA to refrain from giving in to the rising liberal tide that has swept other denominations, 68 percent of the Lutheran leaders voting last week struck down a policy that permitted gay and lesbian clergy on the condition that they remain celibate.
Though the vote of approval was expected, along with other decisions regarding gays and lesbians made last week that pave the way for a denominational split, still it marks an ongoing shift in many mainline denominations that continues to result in further fracturing.
"I think we're coming up on an epic reorganization of religion in the United States," said Harvard Divinity School professor Mark Jordan. "What we're going to see going forward is more and smaller churches, loosely organized and federated around a progressive pole or a conservative pole."
Indeed, many ELCA churches have already made clear their plans to leave the nation's largest denomination and join other smaller Lutheran networks. Those include the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), whose president quickly clarified how the ELCA's stance on same-sex marriage directly opposed many other Lutheran groups' foundational beliefs.
"It's unfortunate that many headlines have referred to the recent decisions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as something 'Lutherans' have decided," WELS President Mark Schroeder said. "We are saddened that a group with the name Lutheran would take another decisive step away from the clear teaching of the Bible, which was the foundation of the Lutheran Reformation."
Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, went a step further in criticizing the ELCA's decision. "How sad that the ELCA no longer affirms the timeless Christian understanding of marriage. Instead it is touting secular psychobabble about 'fulfilling' and 'nurturing' relationships. How will the church's young people interpret this tacit approval of at least some nonmarital sex? In embracing moral relativism, the ELCA assembly has disregarded the Bible, the views of its own members, and the pleas of Lutherans in Africa and Asia. It has left the mainstream of U.S. and global Christianity, instead following other shrinking denominations like the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ towards internal division, accelerating membership loss and cultural irrelevance.”
Several critics also noted the unique circumstances of last week, when a tornado ripped through the area surrounding the Minneapolis Convention Center where the ELCA leaders met. According to several sources, while ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson read Psalm 121 to the national assembly, the storm knocked off the cross from the steeple of Central Lutheran Church, located just across the street from the convention center.
The Washington Times reported that after the storm, the author of the ELCA's statement on sexuality said, " We trust the weather is not a commentary on our work."
Esteemed local pastor John Piper, who leads Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, also made news by publicly calling the tornado a "gentle but firm" warning for both the ELCA and other groups taking the same stance, adding that they must turn from "the approval of sin." [AP, 8/23/09; washingtontimes.com, 8/24/09; Catholic News Agency, 8/21/09]
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Comments
I am glad that you commented and ended your post the way that you did. . .
I believe that being condemning and being condoning are always going to be the issue. The word of GOD speaks against all sin. Many homosexuals and lesbians, who are bashing the church, don't want to be told that they are sinners. Sexual sin is still sin, and JESUS dealt with it by saying go and sin no more.
No one wants to be reminded of their sin, regardless of what it is. Unfortunately, homosexuals want to sin, live in sin, and have society accept, endorse, and even change laws because they want accomadations in their sin. A line has to be drawn somewhere.
Society is sin-sick. We all need the love, the saving, healing, delivering and cleansing power of JESUS.
If we spent a fraction of the time reaching out and listening to gays rather than condemning and trying to trump them in the political arena perhaps they wouldn’t fear and hate Christians.
On the other hand, when it comes to overseeing the House of God (the Church) the leaders should be without sin and repentant before God; confessing their sins regularly and asking for deliverance. If an individual is a practicing homosexual they should not be in leadership any more than a drunk or adulterer should be. We may be born with a predisposition toward a particular sin but that does not legitimatize it, no matter what that particular issue is.
It is so sad for such a thing to happen though we must also remember that these are the signs of the end of time.
The devil has thrown down and is out to get as many as possible we can never say we dont know what to do because the bible is right there in all languages directing us on what to do in all circumstances.It all depends on each individual and their relationship with God.
NEVER!NEVER! FOLLOW ANYONE CONVICTIONS HAVE YOUR OWN CONVICTIONS ESP WHEN IT COMES TO FOLLOWING GOD .
I am praying for the Lutheran Church leadership, as well as the committed souls that are a part.
The tragic issue is that leadership is choosing compromising the word of truth and embracing the lies taught in many circles. JESUS, in some modernistic teaching, never dealt directly with the issue of homosexuality. He did not have too. While the society of that day had many flaws, they were keepers of the law; sodomites were stoned; PERIOD!
The truth, GOD dealt with homosexuality. HE called it an abomination. Because the issue was on "front street" in Pauls ministry, he reiterated what GOD had already said.
For the leadership of the Lutheran and Episocopal Churches to embrace what GOD condemns is a true testament of their slow death. Many love the traditions of these "main-line" denominations. While it is painful to see their demise, it is encoraging to see CHRIST call together HIS Body and HIS Bride.
Chuck Johnson
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