I can attest to the fact that John Brooks is an honest man and what he said is the truth. There was no change in policy. I also know that Brooks does not do “spin” he simply reports what happens without editorializing and is one of the few journalists I know who does.
In response to another post I read here, according to a news release written by John Brooks there was a 56,000 decrease in ELCA membership reported in the 2006 congregational report, that is a far cry from a “slow trickle.”
Here is the REAL TRUTH, from a Lutheran CORE (orthodox ELCA reform) leader in a liberal synod, where the CHANGE IN POLICY is very real!!!! (I am also in an ultra-liberal, feminazi, “gay”, and heretic-ridden synod.)
This is from someone who kept telling me that “we have to stay in the ELCA”. But after the last disastrous CWA, even he is changing his tune, talking about “the new denomination”. (Of course, as you can see from my post that you cited, I am NOT talking about forming a new denomination. And I believe that the “ELW” is reason enough to leave the ELCA, whatever happens on the “gay” issue.)
The URL for this is:
http://www.commonconfession.blogspot.com/
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So What Are You Doing with the Rest of Your Life?
by Pastor Eric Swensson
LC3 Steering Committee
More and more, issues are argued from liberal and conservative positions. Lutheran ethicist Robert Benne wrote about this brilliantly in an essay, “Replacing the Center with the Periphery.” Benne’s statement that the ELCA, like the other liberal protestant denominations is more interested in social justice than the salvation of souls is borne out in the summaries of what was accomplished at the August, 2007 biennial Chicago Assembly. One journalist’s summary said, “The more than 1,000 people in Chicago voiced strong enthusiasm for the work of the ELCA, re-elected Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson by a large majority, approved a sweeping statement on the church’s role in education, endorsed a new initiative for Bible study and opposed expansion of the war in Iraq. We want to increase our program combating world hunger from $20 million annually to $25 million each year.” Since when did telling Congress how to prosecute a war become the church’s business? Sure we should be interested in health, education and welfare, but since the government can not preach the gospel, aren’t our priorities out of line?
It’s all symptomatic of our increasing transformation from a Confessional church to another liberal protestant denomination. In the opinion of this writer and many others, the ELCA was a premature merger of three denominations in the mid 1980’s. There were many laudable reasons motivating it, however one motivation was the desire to help out 200 congregations who departed from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod over the use of the historical-critical method of interpreting Scripture. The last is a ventured guess to be sure, but there would seem to be little doubt that the ELCA is the only “liberal” Lutheran denomination in the USA and that the liberals have been in charge since its inception.
The Lutheran Coalition for Reform (CORE) has called a meeting to debrief the Chicago Assembly and to plan a strategy for the one in 2009. I expect it will be attended by leaders who are concerned that their denomination is close to entering a crisis. They need to realize that for congregations on both Coasts, the synods that have “Metro” in their name and the New England Synod as well, Confessionalists are already in a pickle. In some ways the vote to “show restraint” could not have been worse. The acceptance of “partnered” homosexual pastors and performing the ceremony of a “same sex union” is now entrenched and there will be no going back. Let that be absolutely, definitively clear there can be no going back. Can you imagine any Assembly voting for anything that could be interpreted as being unkind? That fact alone guarantees that the ELCA task force on sexuality will at least feel the pressure to say that sexuality is “adiaphora.”
On top of all this, it is noteworthy that the activists have abandoned trying to make a case from Scripture. So what is behind the five year strategy “Lutherans Read the Bible”? All along we’ve said the issue is not homosexuality but the authority of Scripture. Now that sexuality is nearly a foregone conclusion, the next thing to do is to normalize the “contextual theology” hermeneutic exemplified by Craig Nessan were each generation must decide what the Bible says. Who’s going to fight that out in five years after the conservatives leave?
Some feel called to that. Many don’t, including myself. There are plenty of people who will never make the move to the new denomination and they give that witness. I do not feel called to give a witness to the ELCA forever. That is not the way I want to spend the rest of my life, and I do not look at it as a cross that I have to carry forever. We have some choice as to where we give witness, don’t we?
This is just an analogy, but I did a research paper four years ago on “What Happened to the Lutheran Charismatic Movement?” I interviewed the half dozen main leaders from the beginning of the movement. I decided to interview a fellow who was younger than the others and was the only one who left the Lutheran church. He said that the movement had such great leaders that if they had decided to form a denomination after they had been rejected they would have easily been able to form a denomination of a similar size (ALC, LCA and LC-MS had about 3,000,000 members at the time). He said, “But all the leaders said no—they loved their church too much to step out”. From my research I would guess that there were a million people involved in the Lutheran Charismatic Movement. Where are they now? Scattered to the four winds of American denominations. Some are in Vineyard churches, some in Assemblies, and a few are part of ARC, but many are losing clear Lutheran identity and are even split on when children should be baptized.
I hope it is clear that I am not saying we need to become Pentecostal. I also want to be careful not to give the impression that there is a need to form a new denomination right now. What we should be saying to others in the ELCA is “Are you concerned? We are too. Infact we decided to do something Nov 2005.” We formed these two groups, one for political reform, one as a network for Evangelical Lutheran congregations who are going to remain Confessional and take clear stands.
I’ve been part of this since 2005 with an understanding from the beginning that what was in the back of our minds was what Dr. Benne said, ‘So that we have a place to go if things go bad.’ I have tried to say here clearly that we have to approach this situation with real humility and so we do not know how things are going to go, but we would be fools to not be getting ready for a split.
To me it’s pretty simple. As CORE leadership is saying, we need to organize the solid people in the ELCA, reach them, get them go to their synod assemblies and send solid people to the 2009 assembly. However, we need to see this as a process in which what well may be more important than getting candidates elected. The process is the key. What we may well be doing is calling together the future denomination. We need to be prayerful, therefore we need to be humble, and in all humility we cannot say what is going to happen to the ELCA. Only God knows that. However, what we must also see ourselves as is stewards, and what kind of stewardship would it be to put all our work into reforming a denomination that clearly does not want to be reformed along our model? The ELCA is a denomination that wants to conform, not reform.
It may well be that we know when the time to leave because we are told to do just that. Therefore we do the reform work as part of a two prong strategy. The second part is to try and gather enough congregations that the future of a new Evangelical Lutheran Church which will fall in the middle between the ELCA and the LC-MS. In actuality it is where the laity of both denominations is. And I don’t think I need to convince others to join me in this as much as convince you that this is already happening.
Is it necessary? I think so. Is it inevitable? I think so. Will it take the rest of our lives? I think so, but what else do you have to do with yours? As Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”
Eric Swensson
New Rochelle, NY
LC3 Steering Committee