Gay man crosses church's barriers; Installation risks Lutheran censure

KEY WEST -- On a breezy Sunday afternoon last week, 150 people of various denominations took inspiration from a Bible verse uttered centuries before by another religious renegade.

``If God be for us, who can be against us?'' asked Martin Luther. That resolve was reproduced on the cover of a nine-page program commemorating the installation of Arlo David Peterson as pastor of Key West's Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

With those words, Holy Trinity's parishioners made history -- defying church hierarchy to become the first Lutheran congregation in Florida to install a noncelibate, gay pastor.

That action has placed Holy Trinity at the forefront of a national battle across the Protestant spectrum over policies restricting the ordination of sexually active gay men and lesbians as pastors or ministers.

A number of U.S. mainline Protestant denominations, including Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians, have been debating the role of gay men and lesbians in the church. Can they be ordained? Should same-sex couples be joined in ``commitment ceremonies''? Is homosexuality compatible with church teachings?

In August, Lutheran leaders ordered a study on these topics to be completed by 2005.

``I would say it's definitely an issue,'' said John Brooks, spokesman for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which counts 5.1 million members in the United States and Bahamas. ``But while we have a mandate to study the issue of homosexuality, it is not the sole focus of the church.''

Heterosexuals are allowed to be married and serve as pastors, while unmarried people -- including gay men and lesbians -- are permitted to be pastors in the Lutheran church only if they vow to be celibate.

For about a dozen years, Peterson has been in a committed relationship with a man whom he now lives with, but they aren't allowed under church rules to be married.

Even before his Key West installation on Nov. 11, news of the impending ceremony provoked a sharp rebuke from the Tampa-based Florida-Bahamas Synod, the regional governing body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The warning: Peterson's installation was not ``sanctioned, supported, or condoned'' and disciplinary action would likely follow.

His installation is expected to result in a public censure by the synod, and penalties could range from a reprimand to Holy Trinity's removal from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Though they have broken with church rules, parishioners say their action flowed from a desire to choose the best person for the job.

``We didn't do it out of defiance; we just picked the person we thought was right for our congregation,'' said Carol Snider, president of the 40-member congregation. ``I think they (the church hierarchy) are going to have to lighten up and get out of the Dark Ages, and accept what the real world is about.''

In Monroe County, which the 2000 U.S. Census found had the highest percentage of households in Florida headed by unmarried partners -- many of them gay or lesbian -- that means sexual orientation is rarely a sticking point.

``I've lived in the closet most of my life, but I came to Key West for the sake of my relationship,'' says Peterson, 54. ``Being gay is not an issue here.''

Peterson arrived in the Keys in 1994, after serving more than two decades as a Lutheran pastor in New York state. Recently divorced, he worked for an AIDS organization before Holy Trinity's congregation tapped him as an adjunct pastor in August 1999. The church did not object.

At the time, Peterson was ``on leave from call,'' meaning he was not serving as a pastor but was still certified through a New York regional synod. Peterson said he asked the New York synod to transfer him to Florida, but never received a response.

Nearly two years later, in April, Holy Trinity's congregation voted to appoint Peterson as full-time pastor in a November ceremony. At about the same time, the Florida-Bahamas Synod notified the congregation that Peterson wasn't eligible to be a pastor.

Peterson, according to a letter from the Florida synod, had been plucked from the active clergy ``roster'' back in October 1999 and would need to be reinstated.

What church representatives didn't say: An openly gay man in a relationship can't be reinstated.

While they are still trying to sort out how Peterson's roster status changed, regional church administrators maintain that his removal from the active roster is nonetheless the primary reason he's not an official pastor.

``My decision has to be made first and foremost on the constitution of our church, which requires any congregation to call a properly rostered member of the ELCA, and that is not the case in this situation,'' Edward R. Benoway, who is scheduled to be installed today in Orlando as the new Bishop of the Florida-Bahamas Synod said.

``They claim the church is open to gays and lesbians -- unless they are clergy,'' Peterson says. ``Oh yes, gays and lesbians are welcome; we just won't allow one of `your kind' to become pastor. They won't use the word gay; they will say it's because I'm not rostered.''

As Benoway prepares for his own installation ceremony, he's fielding questions about Peterson.

``As far as our ministry is concerned, at this point and time, you must be celibate if you are going to be an ordained minister'' and are not married, Benoway said. ``A single pastor cannot have an affair, either. Our church is in conversation about this whole issue, but we haven't arrived there. Until we do, if we do, we have to abide by our present policies, constitution and guidelines for ministry.''

The new bishop's opinion on the policy prohibition? ``Presently, it would be difficult for me to state my position. I am trying to be open-minded about where our church is today, where our society is today, where the scriptures would lead us,'' he said. ``There is a lot of tension there.''

Last week, Peterson joined more than a dozen gay or lesbian Lutheran pastors nationwide who are serving in defiance of church rules, said Greg Egertson, a board member of the Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministry, a national group that helps recruit, place and independently certify gay and lesbian pastors.

``We are pushing them by finding congregations willing to disobey, and every time we do that, we are chipping away,'' Egertson said.

Lutheran churches in California, Kansas City, Iowa and Minnesota have installed sexually active gay pastors in recent years despite ELCA warnings.

Paul A. Kruger, a married former pastor at Holy Trinity, believes excluding gay pastors flies in the face of the church's mission.

``If people had walked in my shoes, they would have a whole different outlook,'' Kruger said. ``There's no way to describe the feeling of standing over a hospital bed or a bed at home with a gay man dying of AIDS with his partner there and the three of us holding hands and praying. All of a sudden, people's sexual orientation is not important. This is about human beings and human life.''

broke away declaring Vatican II to be too

They committed schism after Vatican I, over infallibility. Since then they have turned into a bunch of lunatics, espousing every fashionable liturgical or theological innovation.

Odd, I thought the "old-catholics" tended to be the ones who broke away declaring Vatican II to be too liberal. I can only assume they failed to copyright the term and now anyone can use it.

Ohhhh, I think I see what you were referring too, I didn’t notice that you’d said V2 instead of V1. The old catholics reacted to V1 and infallibility. More recently we have the various schismatic Traditionalists who considered V2 to be too liberal. There isn’t a common name for them, you have groups like the SSPX who still claim to be in the Church (despite the excommunications) and groups like the SSPV who claim there is no Pope (sedevacantists) and thus the entire Church structure as we know it is one large imposter. I think these are the folks you are thinking of. The superficial resemblances are rather striking, they too reacted to the development of doctrine at an ecumenical council, split, and yet claim to be the real traditional Catholics, greatly confusing many people, etc.

By the way, I think the Catholics and Orthodox have now officially hijacked this thread. Its the first Protestant oriented thread I've been on where this has happened.

patent +AMDG

The old catholics reacted to V1 and infallibility. More recently we have the various schismatic Traditionalists who considered V2 to be too liberal. There isn’t a common name for them, you have groups like the SSPX...

Obviously, I've gotten the two groups mixed up, probably to their mutual chagrin! Thanks for the info.

Like Abraham Lincoln during the civil war, I am less concerned with God being on my side and more concerned with me being on his side.

That means more to me everytime I hear it. I'm so grateful God has given us the Bible so we can help determine whether we're on God's side or not.

to their mutual chagrin

Quite. I can't imagine the SSP(V|X) crowd having anything to do with the "Old Catholics" or their brethren in schism the "Liberal Catholics" (yet another ~100yo schismatic group).

Make no mistake. God has always abhored sin. When man first sinned in the garden, God had to remove himself from them. A holy God cannot live with sinner men. Jesus came in the flesh, so that he could dwell with us, and no sin will enter into heaven. So we might as well get ready here, and God does love all, and he is not willing that any perish, but they must come to repentance.

``If God be for us, who can be against us?'' asked Martin Luther. That resolve was reproduced on the cover of a nine-page program commemorating the installation of Arlo David Peterson as pastor of Key West's Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

Sounds as if they're taking Sola Scriptura to its natural conclusions. Bet they can quote a ton of Scripture, stripped of all traditional meaning and intent, to support their position (no pun intended).

Actually, this does not sound like Sola Scriptura at all, but just about every single other church which does not hold to a Reformed doctrine.

Disgusting!

So we might as well get ready here, and God does love all, and he is not willing that any perish, but they must come to repentance.

God does not love all, and you are also taking 1 of 2 verses and running away with it. Unless this is love:

Forty years long was I disgusted with this generation, and said `It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.' Unto them I swore in My wrath, that they should not enter into My rest."
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD! ... The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so that a man shall say, "Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily He is a God that judgeth on the earth."
Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." Why art thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat? "I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the people there was none with Me. For I will tread them in Mine anger and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment.

Just a sample of verses past and future!

Is homosexuality compatible with church teachings?

Shouldn't the question be, "Is homosexual activity compatible with GOD'S LAW"? I'm not surprised this happened in Key West. We were there last January, and you could hardly find any business NOT flying the 'Rainbow Flag'. It really ticked me off that now they've not only hijacked a perfectly good word "gay", but they've also taken the lovely rainbow and are using it for their PR purposes!

Actually, this does not sound like Sola Scriptura at all...

It certainly does to me! It is only among those who reject Tradition that you'll find such things occuring!

...but just about every single other church which does not hold to a Reformed doctrine.

You'll never find this happening in a Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Oriental Orthodox Church, all of which reject the man-made traditions of the Reformed doctrine.

You WILL find this at Presbyterian Churches, Methodist Churches, Episcopalian Churches, Lutheran Churches and a host of others from the Protestant wellspring.

The Florida-Bahama Synod is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Like many of the "mainstream" Protestant denominations, it is under constant attack by homosexual activists trying to get them to change their policies. I think it is interesting that this hits the media the day after our new bishop was installed.

You'll never find this happening in a Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Oriental Orthodox Church, all of which reject the man-made traditions of the Reformed doctrine.

Seems like the RC has a problem with their priests and boys. I cannot comment about the Orthodox Church.

You WILL find this at Presbyterian Churches, Methodist Churches, Episcopalian Churches, Lutheran Churches and a host of others from the Protestant wellspring.

None of which are Reformed Churches!

You'll never find this happening in a Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Oriental Orthodox Church, all of which reject the man-made traditions of the Reformed doctrine. You WILL find this at Presbyterian Churches, Methodist Churches, Episcopalian Churches, Lutheran Churches. . . .

You will not find this at a Lutheran church. The ELCA is not a Lutheran church. And even the "Extremely Liberal," "Ex-Lutheran" ELCA--as is the point of this story--has officially said "no" to this. See the title, "Installation risks Lutheran censure." Of course, "risking" it and "suffering" it are two different things. We'll see if any meaningful censure actually takes place. I'm not holding my breath.

This lazy, ignorant reporterette sure didn't bother to inform her readers that there are three major synods practicing Lutheranism in this country. One is liberal, one is more liberal and the one I belong to, the Missouri Synod, is conservative. It's one of the last bastions of Protestant conservative religion left in the nation. It's under attack also, but so far, and for the most part, the clergy and congregations have held fast against the constant onslaught.

Leni

Seems like the RC has a problem with their priests and boys.

Yes, sometimes homosexual do infiltrate the ranks of the Roman Catholic clergy. That's hardly the same thing as celebrating the ordination of an openly homosexual clergy, wouldn't you agree?

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