Posted on 06/03/2004 1:41:13 AM PDT by MegaSilver
“GAY MARRIAGE” may be on the political back burner for the moment, as Karl Rove is busy crafting phrases that will appease Christian-conservative Bush backers this fall while appealing to homosexual swing-voters with promises of “civil unions” (a.k.a. legalized “gay marriage”). In the Evangelical Lutheran Church of American (ELCA), however, the pot is fixing to boil.
The ELCA was founded in 1986 as a result of a merger of several formerly ethnic Lutheran synods in the United States as well as a splinter group that left the conservative Lutheran Church Missouri Synod after an attempt to turn the LCMS liberal failed. From the beginning, the ELCA has been distinguished by a professed loyalty to Scripture and the Lutheran confessions that can be set aside freely whenever the need arises. Sadly, this reality is not apparent to some lifelong ELCA members whose country churches maintain the historic liturgy and have not had occasion to call a priestess to lead the flock. It must have come as a great shock to these faithful, then, when the wicked little booklet (with happy trees in a misty woodland on the cover) Journey Together Faithfully: The Church and Homosexuality arrived. This handy brainwashing tool is to be used by committees in ELCA churches across America, to help seminary-trained pastors lead little old ladies and young parents to discover just what the Bible says about homosexuality and the Church’s role in blessing “gay marriages.” After each church finishes the “journey,” everyone’s thoughts and feelings are to be gathered together and sent to headquarters, forming “recommendations for the church to consider in 2005,” after which a “social statement” will be drafted by 2007.
Despite all of the ELCA’s appeals for meaningful dialogue, it appears that the deck has been stacked against those who would oppose church-sanctioned sodomy—both the blessing of “gay marriage” and the ordination of pastors and bishops who are “homosexual persons who give expression to sexual intimacy only in a relationship that is mutual [sic], chaste [sic] and faithful . . . ” Wait a minute! one of the faithful writes (on the “Frequently Asked Questions” page on elca.org), “Hasn’t the outcome of this study already been decided?” Take heart, ye who adhere to the Unaltered Augsburg Confession: “There are no foregone conclusions. All involved in the conduct of our studies on sexuality are committed to an open and fair process in which all views will be heard and respected.”
There are, however, several “foregone conclusions” at work here. First, the ELCA already officially “welcome[s] gay and lesbian people to participate fully in the life of its congregations”—that means active sodomites, not repentant men and women who have renounced their unnatural behavior. This attitude has created a homosexual subculture within the ELCA which has, in turn, lobbied for a definitive decision on homosexual “marriage” and clergy. Still, despite the recent spate of court decisions and lawless civil ceremonies affirming “gay marriage,” it is difficult to imagine that this issue would have come to the fore so quickly in the ELCA were it not for the elevation of V. Eugene Robinson to the status of bishop in the Episcopal Church, U.S.A. That Bishop Robinson abandoned his wife and children (dubbed “adultery” in days of yore) to pursue a “mutual, chaste, and faithful” relationship with another man—who, in a Queer Eye for the Queer Guy moment, handed V. Eugene his mitre at the height of his elevation ceremony—is well known. That his status affects the ministerium of the ELCA may not be so obvious.
In an effort to unite the “Body of Christ,” the ELCA entered into an agreement with the Episcopal Church, U.S.A., in 2001 called A Call to Common Mission, which establishes full communion between the two bodies. In addition, CCM provided for the mutual recognition of clergy—which involved some doctrinal jiggering on the Lutheran side, as the role of bishops and “historic succession” had been understood differently by Lutherans in the past. Practically speaking, this means that the ELCA must recognize an adulterous sodomite as a legitimate bishop and that any ELCA church could call him to preside over the Sacrament of the Altar. Furthermore, according to CCM, “The churches will over time come to share in the ministry of bishops in an evangelical, historic succession.”
Not to worry, dear parishioner: If you read the accompanying supplement to the Journey (Background Study on Biblical Texts), you will see that all of those nasty Scriptures that seem to condemn homosexuality, when held in the light of recent scholarship, actually condemn “inhospitability” (Sodom and Gomorrah), that which is “against current custom” (St. Paul’s reference to “that which is unnatural” in Romans 1), or just plain don’t apply to our times, since we’re not under the law—we’re under grace!
Such exegetical chicanery may cause a mass exodus of pastors and laity from the ELCA to the Missouri Synod and to other conservative Protestant denominations in the course of the next three years. Those bodies should be cautioned, however: Many of those within the ELCA who are raising protests about their church’s attitude toward homosexuality carry with them the hermeneutical seeds that grew into the current thorn bush. The acceptance of “gay marriage” did not happen overnight: The rejection of natural law began with the ELCA’s embracing of contraception, female “clergy,” abortion, and homosexuality as an “orientation.” And the ELCA’s rejection of the clear teaching of Scripture began when the ethnic bodies that it comprises accepted historical-critical methods of exegesis in the mid-20th century.
As for those faithful who are contemplating leaving Sodom for the plain of Mamre, there is but one admonition: Remember Lot’s wife.
Send out the Lutheran Ping Tony.
With the ELCA heading for a train wreck with the homo marriage thing, I doubt that the denomination will last to long.
The scary thing is the LCMS convention this year is going to be interesting also. There is a group of people who want to divide the church of the Yankee stadium issue, and some who will not rest until that happens. It should be a long summer.
The Praying before other Gods thing, right? Which is worse for a LCMS pastor, pray with a Catholic Bishop, a Episcopal Priest, a Southern Baptist Minister, a Jewish Rabbi or a Iman/Mullah? Or, are they all the same?
I guess I'm one of those "radical Uber conservatives" who would get on your nerves, then, Red. :-) 'Cause I'm very much opposed to what David Benke and Jerry Kieschnick have done in regard to the "A Prayer for America" service at Yankee Stadium. In fact, I have documented all the facts and analyzed and written extensively about it:
Yankee Stadium Prayer Service: An Analysis
IMO, it is they--Benke and Kieschnick and the JesusFirst and DayStar groups--who have exacerbated the division in our synod, by their departure from our historic position on unionism and syncretism.
Let me put it point blank. The ELCA ok's this travesty I will be out of it like shot from a gun. Missiour Synod here I come.
Good.
OTOH, if they're acting like this, why wait to bail out? Aren't they already in the toilet if they even have to THINK about this?
The church I go to is pretty conservative anf my family has been members for 3 generations. I personally hope they go as a church Missiour Synod.
Hey, it took a two-year study by the Missouri folks in the mid-fifties before they finally came to the conclusion that it was Okay to pray with other non-Missouri Lutherans as long as a disclaimer was attached that such folks were not in pulpit & altar fellowship w/other such Lutherans.
Charles, I'd like your opinion on that.
Well, let's see. Offering plate $ goes toward health insurance premiums for ELCA churchworkers which includes aborting the next generation (churchworkers' offspring), but you're not "out of it like shot from a gun."
The ELCA has in many ways promoted homosexuality but you're not "out of it like shot from a gun."
| What We Can Do To Help Defeat the "Gay" Agenda |
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| Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Version 1.1) |
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| Myth and Reality about Homosexuality--Sexual Orientation Section, Guide to Family Issues" |
Homosexual Agenda Ping - Coming to A Church Near You!
Well, the radical "gay" activists' plan to infiltrate churches (and synagogues) and change them into bath houses is working like magic!
I certainly hope the conservative (aka as "sane") Lutherans either leave en masse or take back the reins from the homosexuals and their handmaidens.
Let me know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.
Maybe you can help me: Why do want to know? Is it because you think that women should be pastors? Or is it because you want help in articulating the biblical case that there should not be women pastors?
Also, the burden of proof is not on those who believe that women should not be pastors. Rather, the burden of proof (onus probationis) is on those who favor woman pastors, since that is the innovation in the church after thousands of years otherwise (going back even to the Old Testament church). It is always the innovators who have to make their case.
Nonetheless, I can give you a few biblical reasons just briefly. Jesus appointed only male apostles, no women, even though there were women who had followed his ministry and witnessed his resurrection. Likewise, Christ's apostles Paul and Peter both explicitly state--in several passages--that it is not given to women to teach or have authority over men. And in the list of qualifications for a pastor, Paul talks about a pastor being "the husband of one wife," presuming there that the pastor will be a male.
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