The ELCA has been practicing invidious sex discrimination, picking and choosing denominational favorites in its “how can we get the world to like us better” repudiation of Bible injunctions like those in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, . . . nor adulterers, . . . nor homosexuals, . . . will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Since extending its post-August 2009 welcome to Pastors Bjorn and Cindi, who solemnly attest they are in ELCA-approved “publicly accountable, life-long, monogamous” same-sex relationships with their respective partners, how can the ELCA deny the same effusive approval to, say, Youth Pastor Joey, who vows that his fornication with live-in girlfriend Tammy will be life-long and monogamous? Marriage is so yesterday, say these thoroughly modern sophisticates and their circle of friends.
Similarly, how can the ELCA turn a cold denominational shoulder to, say, Pastor Ted if he swears that his adulterous relationship with church organist Marjorie will be life-long and monogamous? After all, it’s not Ted’s and Marjorie’s fault that their balky spouses have refused to grant them a no-financial-strings-attached divorce, and those donations and membership numbers at Ted’s church *have* declined rather precipitously since the August 2009 ELCA convention.
(For that matter, how can the ELCA subjectively exclude from its pastoral ranks the unrepentant idolators, thieves, revilers, drunkards, and swindlers also named in 1 Corinthians 6?)
If the ELCA really wants the world’s unstinting approval it’s been earnestly seeking for decades, it needs to wholly expunge 1 Corinthians 6 from its Bibles and pledge total fealty to the world’s “there’s no sin in any kind of consensual sex” creed. It’s clearly time for another sin-whitewashing, Bible-bowdlerizing, let’s-be-even-more-inclusive ELCA convention vote.