Posted on 02/27/2009 10:26:04 AM PST by lightman
IMPLEMENTING RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE MINISTRY OF ROSTERED INDULGENCES SALESPERSONS
“Indulgences must be preached with caution...” Martin Luther, 95 Theses, No. 41
WHEREAS, guided by the Holy Spirit, this church raises up, calls, supports, and maintains rosters of ordained ministers, associates in ministry, deaconesses, and diaconal ministers for public ministry in service of the mission of Christ and seeks faithful to discern in each situation what will best serve that mission; and
WHEREAS,some members, congregations, candidacy committees, and synods of the ELCA have discerned gifts and skills for rostered ministry in some people who are or contemplate preaching the pains of purgatory and the treasury of merits and have indicated their conviction that rostering and calling such people would serve the ministry of this church, and
WHEREAS, the Church of Christ sometimes has been surprised by actions of the Spirit,as is reported in the book of Acts when the inclusion of Gentiles was affirmed; and
WHEREAS, public accountability of rostered leaders of the ELCA is essential to nurturing the trust that is necessary for effective ministry, therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the ELCA commits itself to ways to allow congregations and synods that choose to do so to recognize, support, and hold publicly accountable sale of indulgences.
RESOLVED, that the ELCA commits itself to finding a was for people who support the publicly accountable, lifelong sale of indulgences to serve as rostered leaders of this church.
RESOLVED, that in the implementation of these resolutions, the ELCA commit itself to bear one another’s burdens, love the neighbor, and respect the bound consciences of all.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wittenberg, 1517.
Keep a Good Lent!
Be sure also to read:
When There Are No Biblical or Theological Grounds to Change, Don’t
WordAlone Network responds to ELCA human sexuality proposals
Lutheran CORE leaders urge rejection of ELCA task force recommendations
So I’m not the only one who thinks the ELCA is peddling indulgences.
(Hint: Indulgences aren't a permit to commit sin. What Tetzel did was wrong. What the ELCA is doing is far, far worse.)
Indulgence has more than one definition.
2: the act of indulging : the state of being indulgent
Pastor Jenkins is attempting show, through humor, the extremes which could be taken with the moral relativism being proposed through the recommendations of the Sexuality Task Force. Many phrases of his “resolution” are verbatim lifts from the Task Force recommendations.
Teachings on indulgences, Purgatory, the treasury of the saints, etc, have been foundational to Lutheranism since its inception.
The “resolution” is an attempt to convey that, if one formerly proscribed teaching/behavior must now be tolerated if not outright accepted, then could not other formerly proscribed teachings and behaviors follow?
In other words, the toleration of sodomy won't lead to the toleration of simoniacal abuses preached in a doctrinally muddled fashion. It will lead to things so evil and so wretched that they will make the selling of indulgences look like heavenly sweetness and light.
THey must have snakes. Otherwise we will not take them seriesly.
Snakes is us. Mormons is the devil.
Over and out.
[What Every Catholic Needs to Know about] Gaining Indulgences [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
"The remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins forgiven as far as their guilt is concerned, which the follower of Christ with the proper dispositions and under certain determined conditions acquires through the intervention of the Church, which, as minister of the redemption, authoritatively dispenses and applies the treasury of the satisfaction won by Christ and the saints" (Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution on Indulgences).
As originally understood, an indulgence was a mitigation of the severe canonical penances imposed on the faithful for grave sins. The term "indulgence" remained, however, even after these extreme penalties were discontinued. Yet until the Second Vatican Council, the norm for determining the effectiveness of an indulgenced practice was its relationship to the ancient canonical penances, as seen in the numbers, so many years or so many days, attached to every official listing of partial indulgences.
All this changed by Pope Paul VI. From now on the measure of how efficacious an indulgenced work is depends on two things: The supernatural charity with which the indulgenced task is done, and the perfection of the task itself.
Another innovation is that partial and plenary indulgences can always be applied to the dead by way of suffrage, asking God to remit their sufferings if they are still in purgatory.
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