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To: lightman
The Rev. Peter Strommen, Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church, Prior Lake, Minn., and task force chair, called the dissenting statement "unfortunate and unnecessary ... It was unnecessary because their dissenting view is already included in the Report and Recommendations Appendix, which was distributed widely February 19.

I looked on the church's extensive web site dedicated to the issue: ELCA Proposed-Social-Statement and surprise! not a single link to a dissent by some members of the task force.

I thought surely the good Reverend Strommen wouldn't mislead us, so I searched through both the Report on Human Sexuality produced by the task force, and theReport and Recommendation on Ministry Policy, but, alas, not a single reference to dissenting opinions.

I'm sure somewhere there exists a document with some satement buried in an appendix that not all of the task force members agreed 100% with the recommendations, but for the Reverend Chairman Strommen to pretend that he intends for any dissenting view to be widely known or listened to is an outright lie. This is the way liberal committees work within churches, non-profits, and educational institutions: appoint a committee packed with people with the 'correct' viewpoint, work in secret to remove 'outside pressures' and 'obstacles to consensus', harangue and outvote the dissenting viewpoints into submission, then pressure the outvoted committee members to support the 'consensus' in order to preserve 'unity'.

The tactics of the Strommel and his dictatorial allies make me even madder than the outcome.

6 posted on 04/02/2009 1:26:51 PM PDT by CaptainMorgantown
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To: CaptainMorgantown

I downloaded the February 19 version of the Report and Recommendations which was embargoed and restricted to rostered leaders for 24 hours during the restricted period. That file had two dissenting positions at the very end. Position number one is the one authored by Bishop Hendrix et al. Position number two is an appeal for “full inclusion”—you can guess the rest.

If the dissents have been striken from the public documents then I can understand why the dissenters believed they had no other option but to go directly to the public.

Irrespective, I applaud them and pray that they, in the words of a Luther hymn, “keep...steadfast in Thy Word”.


7 posted on 04/02/2009 1:43:31 PM PDT by lightman (Adjutorium nostrum (+) in nomine Domini.)
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