Posted on 06/11/2005 5:37:53 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The question of how to treat gay and lesbian people seems about to start causing even more division between church people.
The Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will recommend to the Churchwide Assembly that the ELCA permit gays and lesbians in committed relationships to be ordained.
The General Synod of the United Church of Christ will debate competing resolutions at its national meeting in July. One would endorse the concept of same-sex marriage; the other would have the church affirm that marriage should be only between a man and a woman.
What these resolutions, plus similar efforts on both sides of the issue being debated by other denominations, will accomplish is hard to say.
But one example of hope comes from the Roman Catholic Church of all places. Not only that, but it comes from the man who is now the world's top Catholic doctrinal watchdog.
The Catholic position on gays and lesbians has been pretty much stereotyped as one of negativity.
Enter Archbishop William J. Levada, the man Pope Benedict XVI selected to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - the job the pope held under Pope John Paul II. When Levada was archbishop of San Francisco, he found a way between competing factions.
According to the National Catholic Reporter, Levada found himself in a conflicted situation in 1997, when San Francisco adopted a law requiring contractors receiving city funds to provide health benefits to gay, lesbian and unmarried partners of their employees.
Catholic charities in San Francisco at the time received $5.6 million in funds for programs helping the poor, homeless and sick. But Levada, as spokesman for his church, could hardly condone people living in "sin."
He might have stood on a soapbox and proclaimed morality topped making deals with Satan. He didn't.
What he did, the National Catholic Reporter said was to strike "a compromise that allowed employees to designate 'any legally domiciled member' of their household to receive 'spousal equivalent benefits,' whether the recipient was a mother, a brother or a gay partner."
Makes sense to me. The compromise took the Catholic charities off the hook. It took the city - which depends on those charities to offer care - off the hook. It not only provided benefits for gay partners, it also extended those benefits to others who provide care for loved ones.
I wish we could see more of this in the debate over gay and lesbian rights, same-sex marriage and social policy in general.
It's just a matter of thinking outside the box, if you will.
The proposal before the Lutherans is, basically, an extension of a long-standing Roman Catholic attitude toward gay priests. The church demands all its priests be celibate so it hasn't seen fit to bar gays from the ministry. What would be the point?
The Lutherans demand their pastors be in committed, monogamous relationships. Extending that definition to gays and lesbians doesn't seem radical.
Most UCC congregations already bless same-sex unions. I'm not sure why the church wants to get into the political battle about marriage. It might do better to hold up a standard of committed relationship that might serve as a template for all unmarried "couples."
Hmmmm. It appears to me that this author has claimed that the Catholic Church indulged in 'legalism' and rationalization that allowed them to ignore its own moral teachings in order to avoid losing government funds. The author is suggesting that other religions follow the same path so that 'we all just get along' and incidentally don't lose any money.
Isn't that the way of the Unitarian cult? It says at the base, any moral teaching is simply a small matter of interpretation and presentation. Isn't that what was at the root of the homosexual, lesbian and pedophilia problem in the Catholic Church?
This is one of the reasons I only stayed with the ELCA only a short time. Bunch of Liberals playing church.
It's just a matter of thinking outside the box...
Gay men and lesbian women certainly do something 'outside the box', but I don't believe it's called 'thinking'.
Ping and BUMP for later reading
Wasn't it on this forum that I read just yesterday that the actual number of people that are homosexual is under 2%. Talk about tyranny of the minority!
It is bad enough that it is front page on all our media, We can't allow this to errode our churches, too.
Unless you believe the Bible should have something to do with how Christians conduct themselves.
"What he did, the National Catholic Reporter said was to strike "a compromise that allowed employees to designate 'any legally domiciled member' of their household to receive 'spousal equivalent benefits,' whether the recipient was a mother, a brother or a gay partner." "
I've been saying this for years. At one time or another my adult children have lived with me. Usually with no health insurance. It made me nuts that unrelated sex partners could designate each other as beneficiaries and I couldn't designate my child.
This appointment mystifies me.
I've read Levada's resume and he seems a capable man. But coming from San Francicso, which is heavily populated by homosexuals, seems to be an odd place to pick someone to handle the Doctrine of the Faith.
Homosexuals are known to advance their agenda one compromise at a time. If Levada believes in the politics of compromise he's playing their game, and how much of the Catholic Faith is open to compromises?
Church Wades Deeper into Gay Politics
When you are up to your a** in alligators, you tend to forget your initial objective was to drain the swamp.
If you are against gay marriage, then don't marry a gay.
"If something like 'partner rights' goes through, the first thing i'm doing is i'm going to marry my mother so as to avoid inheritance tax."
OT, and I know you're just stating an example, but you don't have to go that far! I have joint accounts on everything with my Dad, as I'm his Executor and am the only relative that will be legally responsible for him as he ages (he's 68 now.) We own everything jointy, so there will be no inheritence taxes. I'm assuming based on your handle that we live in the same state?
(He and Grandpa had the same arrangement. No fuss, no muss, no State "hand in your pocket" when the inevitable time arrives.)
It's just a matter of compromising God's law.
bttt
Amen! I started seeing the "writing on the wall" in "The Lutheran". It is an ELCA publication where the homosexual agenda is preached. After growing up in the church I ex-communicated myself.
I like to believe that I followed God out of the ELCA.
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