Posted on 03/30/2009 11:33:59 AM PDT by lightman
Loath as I am to taking anything from the website of the homosexualist LCNA, they did manage to scoop the ELCA press office in crowing about this abysmal news.
What this means is that the official recommendation of the ELCA Church Council to the Churchwide Assembly that will meet August 17-23 in Minneapolis is to adopt the radical agenda set forth in the recommendations of the Task Force on Sexuality.
One of those recommendations is that supporters of the Sixth Commandment shut up and respect the "bound consciences" of those who have no regard for God's Word.
Keep a Good Lent!
Be sure also to read:
“Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust”: A Critique by Carl E. Braaten
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
Pastoral Guidance Concerning Same-Sex Unions
Statement by Three Dissenting Members of the ELCA Task Force on Human Sexuality
In plain English: develop a liturgical rite of "gay marriage" and a provision for recording such abominations on the parish register.
Ping.
Kyrie Eleison.
Christe Eleison.
Kyrie Elesion.
The mainline denominations have truly dropped their flashlight. The Gospel seems now to be held only by the small, non-denominational groups and some home churches. Looks like the winter is here or the end...
About a year ago, my dad (a retired ELCA pastor who joined a Missouri Synod church) told me that the ELCA task force on sexuality recommended that the ECLA never ordain gays and never perform same-sex weddings. Yesterday, the same committee made the opposite recommendation. This week, they choose to disobey the Bible.
There are layers and layers of reasoning behind all of God’s commandants. We see in this situation how much destruction can be wrought by a tiny tiny minority of people obsessed with sexual impurity. He isn’t trying to spoil our fun. He sees what happens to whole communities when we give ourselves to this kind of perversion.
Just as in all the mainline Protestant denominations, the ELCA abandoned the Scriptures long ago. These denominations are governed by cultural relativism. The liberal secular agenda is their bible. The very same arguments that the LCA and ELCA used to defend women in the Holy Ministry, their liberal leaders are using to promote homosexuality.
The resolution is a study in obfuscation. I can shorten it and make it more understandable to all.
WHEREAS: We wanna ...
THEREFORE: We’re gonna.
The elca passed over the event horizon on its way to oblivion many years ago. The most merciful course of action is to provide accelerant to speed it on its way.
The tragedy of it is that I now don't even like to visit my home church for any reason. I do because of other family members there and for special events but it bothers me greatly.
My very Godly grandparents helped build that church and now this. I am so glad they are gone and do not have to see this.
When I was a kid, I used to think of idolatry as bowing before a pagan statute or some other god made with wood or stone and therefore a very rare sin in the west. Of course idolatry is the most prevalent sin of all. Making gods of our own imagination to fit our decadent lifestyles.
Very interesting observation.
The ELCA seems bound and determined to commit suicide. Any changes won’t cause any splits or defections in our local ultraliberal area. However, in Red States and “mixed” states or regions like Pennsylvania and Ohio, it will be a different story.
This all means that it is high time for Lutherans to learn that the Orthodox Church is their original and true home. I for one am ready to welcome all who come, as inquirers or catechumens.
Prior to every Churchwide Assembly, the Church Council recommends to the assembly proposed Rules of Organization and Procedure that, in addition to Robert’s Rules of Order, govern the ways that the assembly conducts its legislative business. The Churchwide Assembly at its first plenary session votes on its own rules.
Bylaw 12.12.01. of the Constitution, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America specifies that a proposed social statement requires for adoption a two-thirds vote of those voting members present and voting at an assembly. At its November 2008 meeting, the Church Council did not recommend any rules that would affect the necessary margin of votes for other documents originating from a social statement task force.
In response to synodical resolutions, at its March 2009 meeting the Church Council considered whether to amend the rules that had been adopted previously. After extensive discussion, the Church Council voted against doing so. The vote was 10–21 with two abstentions, Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson and Secretary David D. Swartling.
Therefore, unless the Churchwide Assembly amends the proposed Rules of Organization and Procedure at its first plenary session, any implementing resolutions for the social statement or ministry policy actions will require a majority vote for passage, as specified in Robert’s Rules of Order.
50% plus one vote of an assembly made up of 2/3 laity is all that will be required to bring gay clergy to an ECLA congregation near you.
Not true my friend.
I'm not sure what the definition of "mainline" is any more. Traditionally named mainline denominations are shrinking by the extreme--at the same rate they adopt such extreme, unbiblical and ungodly provisions. (The Episcopal Church for example loses an estimated 1,000 members a week)
However, with the exception of the Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and most lately, Episcopalians (Anglicans) all have rival denominations which hold to biblical standards on sexuality--and, more foundationally, biblical authority in general.
Lutherans have the LCMS, Presbyterians have the PCA and the EPC (and several other smaller groups), and Episcopalians have the various "Anglican" named groups under the unbrella organization of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).
Magisterial Protestantism is growing--and not all disintegrating into disconnected so called (as all Christians have an interpretive grid) "non-denominational" groups and home groups.
Are these new rival denominations smaller and poorer than their apostate mainline elders? Yes--but hey, so were the 12 in AD 33.
Worldwide too, due to the efforts of missionaries for over 200 years now, the developing world magisterial Protestants are as orthodox as our great-grandparents...and are typically as horrified by such nonsense as what ELCA is into now, as any independent evangelical is in the USA.
Christians should do their best to be unified and accountable to our Lord through holy scripture, and not all shattered into the ultimate splinter-denomination--an independent "non-denominational" church or home group.
Several of the names mentioned still reject the well-established reformed positions that aided in the groundswell of escapees from Catholicism. And, a straightforward read of the Bible will support that “denominations” are really an invention of man. We were all called Christians, once. Who really needs appelations?
But, the heresy that Jesus’ urging to “love” means that we must embrace the sin of homosexuality, ecumenism (Islam is as truthful as the Gospel, etc.), and other such recent deviations of the big boxes leads me to conclude that the independant congregations will be the Church of the near future. No question they are at risk of making similar errors, but if the men are biblically based, they can teach the Gospel and error is not systemic from the get go.
And, I would add categorically...it is not the membership into a group, a denomination, a club, or a congregation that provides that unifying belonging you refer to. It has always been and always will be the binding of us together in the fellowship of the Spirit by the Spirit that makes us unified. Thus, you and I are brothers (if we are both believers, not by virtue of the names, addresses, cards, or whatever. We are unified by clinging to the same Lord. Then we have the obligation to teach the truth. You may correct me and I you.
There is something that has been bothering me. I researched all the demoninations that were a member of the National Council of Churches, and it seemed that many Orthodox churches are members of the NCC. Eastern Christians especially have suffered at the hands of the Islamists and communists, so I find it puzzling that Orthodox church organizations belong to the pro-Islamist, pro-communist NCC.
This is, as you said, an abomination, and they want to force it on people. I suppose next they will start worshipping the golden calf and demand everyone do the same.
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