Posted on 09/08/2007 10:18:04 AM PDT by SmithL
Vicki Curtis has been a member of St. Benjamin's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Westminster since 1981, but when her denomination appeared to be softening its stance on homosexuality, she didn't hesitate to act.
She left her church.
Now she's doing what she calls "search the church Sundays" by visiting congregations with convictions closer to her own."The Bible says in Leviticus 18:22 that homosexuality is a sin and its penalty is death. My faith is built on what the Bible teaches, and I will not go where it isn't being followed," she wrote in an e-mail.
She was responding to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's adoption of a resolution at its 10th Biennial Churchwide Assembly in Chicago on Aug. 11 recommending that bishops and synods not discipline clergy or lay professionals in committed same-sex relationships.
This decision left the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, a conservative Lutheran denomination of 2.6 million members, equally perplexed about the actions of its larger relative, according to its president, Gerald Kieschnick.
"News of this action troubles me greatly," he wrote in a statement last month. "We are deeply disappointed that the ELCA, by its decision, has failed to act in keeping with the historic and universal understanding of the Christian church regarding what the Holy Scripture teaches about homosexual behavior as contrary to God's will and about the biblical qualifications for holding the pastoral office."
In passing this resolution, ELCA seems to be following a path already forged by The Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ, both of which affirm openly homosexual clergy.
But people are overreacting, said ELCA spokesman John Brooks.
"We haven't changed any policy," he said.
Brooks stressed that the resolution only recommended leniency and that bishops who felt moved to do so are not prohibited from disciplining gay clergy.
Brooks characterized the resolution as a cease-fire, a way of maintaining peace between factions who either support full acceptance of gay clergy now and those who oppose acceptance.
The denomination will further consider the subject in 2009.
At that time, a task force working on a social statement on human sexuality will present what it has prepared at the next church-wide assembly in Minneapolis.
The task force has been specifically charged with addressing current denomination policy that precludes lesbians or gays from working in clerical or professional lay positions in the church.
The recommendation is a way to keep people in same-sex relationships in the church, Brooks said.
He said the denomination is trying hard to stay together despite differences.
"Every 20 minutes during the discussion, all the voting members stopped, held hands and prayed together," he said.
The assembly passed the resolution by a vote of 538-431.
As for people like Curtis who are leaving the church, Brooks said he is not surprised but he also noted that most people thus far are staying with the denomination. Curtis, however, questioned how a few hundred people could make such a decision for a church with 4.8 million members.
"Nobody sent me a ballot and said, 'What do you think?'" she said. "I don't need a sexuality statement. I read the Bible."
She's usually the first.
Hey, I resemble that remark...
That is (gutless) pastor-speak for "Pleeeaaase don't make waves."
I have learned in the past several years that there are shepherds who eat mutton.
There's a TV special coming up titled "Jewish, Christianity, Islam.....One God".
The propaganda and moral relativity never stops, does it?.
I'm happy and blessed to be a baptized, confirmed, life-long Lutheran member of the Missouri Synod.
Leni
Your haste to scoff at Salvation's comment shows that you know it.
lol
That’s going to leave a mark.
**My faith is built on what the Bible teaches, and I will not go where it isn’t being followed,” she wrote in an e-mail.**
You know as well as I do that the Catholic Church follows the Bible and what it teaches.
Now you know the Catholic don’t believe in the bible and we worship Mary and the Pope is the antichrist? Right. Same crap all the time. But hey the Mormons have been taking some serious heat.
If I believed that, I'd be a Catholic myself
Just remember, you're always welcome home to a Protestant, Bible Believing church...
There is such a thing? What about:
I meant to ping you to #36, also.
I don't think one would find too many LCMS members affirming my bolded portion of this quotation.
God only sees those who are in obedience to Him, and those who are not. None of our churches is perfect, but it is the duty of every follower of Christ to maintain unity and love within the body, and to correct and rebuke our brethren when we stray from sound teaching.
As to the issue of gay ordination, I think people often confuse loving people, with telling them that what they do is ‘ok’.
A person who is a practicing homosexual is living in direct opposition to the Word of the bible. Absolutely, we should love and welcome homosexuals into our churches, but this does not mean we change what God teaches us to suit the itching ears and fashions of the world.
People would not allow an alchoholic to head AA. Similarly, a church should not be lead by an unrepentant person.
Oh... as an aside, I can recommend the Church of the Lutheran Brethren as a synod with sound biblical teaching.
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