{ ELCA } Churches feel fallout of Lutheran sexual orientation vote

The Daily Nonpareil (Council Bluffs, IA) ^ | 2/9/10

[SmithL]

Exodus Ping

[achilles2000]

Sodomites and their friends are just trying to steal assets...

[Pontiac]

He said the ELCA’s new position “ignores a clear reading of the scriptures, including God’s created order and design for human sexuality.”

“For our congregation, and for so many, we recognize we’re all sinners and that we are called to love all sinners — without blessing or endorsing sin.”

It is one thing to welcome the sinner in to your congregation it is another to be led by them.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Seriously, even with the most unrestricted and limber of mental acrobatics, using a trampoline of Moral Relativism, how can you read the Bible and see support for this anywhere?

If they want to participate in this sort of un-Biblical behavior, why do so under the banner of Christianity? Why not just set up a new New Age religion based on Human Secularism?

(I know that part of their goal is to destroy Christianity from within, so that is a rhetorical question.)

[driftdiver]

And they wonder why they continue to lose members.

[MsLady]

Left the Lutheran church years ago for a Pentecostal church.

[MsLady]

No kidding!!! They will continue to lose people if they keep this stuff up. They quit seeking God and only seek what feels good or they themselves perceive as good. God will protect His true church, which is not a building or a denomination, it’s His children.

[lightman]

Lutheran (EL C S*A) Ping!

* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.

[Nosterrex]

There is a paradox within Midwest ELCA congregations, they are theologically liberal but socially conservative. They have no problem supporting the ordination of women into the ministry and practicing unionism. The ELCA has altar and pulpit fellowship with the Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian USA, and Disciples of Christ. Because of their social conservatism, the older members have problems with practicing homosexuals. They just don't like having to deal with practicing gays. Now, the “conservative” members of the ELCA fall back on Scripture, but only when it is convenient to do so. Where was the outrage before?

[Catsrus]

The people supporting this stance, need to read Jesus’s rebukes of the 7 churches in Revelation. The Church of Philadelphia being the only church to not receive a rebuke.

Churches promoting gay and lesbian clergy are skating on thin ice.

[ThunderSleeps]

They are definitely losing people. At least one Church in our town has already announced it is leaving the ELCA. (one of if not the largest ELCA congregation here)

My own Church has quietly let it be known to its members that while the Synod may go that way, our Church will not be endorsing or promoting gay/lesbian behavior. They are welcome to worship, and hopefully see the error of their ways...but lead? No, they will not be held up as examples by our congregation. If, at some point in the future, the Synod pushes us on this, they'll probably loose another Church.

[handmade]

Saw an article in last night’s local paper, the Lutheran church is getting ready to vote to break away. I am in south central Nebraska. The Smithfield congregation mentioned in this post is a tiny town with a rural congregation- twenty miles down the road from me.

[lightman]

The ELCA has altar and pulpit fellowship with the Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian USA, and Disciples of Christ.

As Groucho would say, "close but no cigar.".

The "Full Comunion (altar and pulpit fellowship) Partners" are The Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, the Reformed Church in America, the Moravian Church, and The United Methodist Church.

Where was the outrage before?

In the hundreds who attended the many "Call to Faithfulness" conferences held at St. Olaf; in the hundreds who signed the "9.5 Theses"; and in the hundreds of clergy who have subscribed to the Rule of the Society of the Holy Trinity.

[MsLady]

I would think most churches would feel the way yours does. It’s truly a sad day when you see men pushing an agenda on the church that is not of God.

[rhema]

This is maybe just another statement to society that the church is judgmental,” he said. “We want to have the church seen with arms out, longing to care.”

ELCAspeak translation: "We do get an occasional pang about putting our denominational imprimatur on sin, but our worst nightmare is the secular world's labeling us 'judgmental'."

[RinaseaofDs]

That’s an interesting bit of observation. Thanks for it. Always valuable to get such perspectives in a society that oversimplifies.

All politics are local, as Tip O’Neill once famously said.

It is interesting to see the reactions in each area of the country to this decision.

[Nosterrex]

Thanks for the correction and information. I forgot the Reformed Church of America, but I was unaware of the Moravian Church, and the United Methodist. When were these last two included in the altar and pulpit fellowship? I don’t think that I have ever seen a Moravian church.

[circlecity]

"The people supporting this stance, need to read Jesus’s rebukes of the 7 churches in Revelation. The Church of Philadelphia being the only church to not receive a rebuke."

I don't believe the church of Smyrna was rebuked either. (Smyrna = "the persecuted church")

[11th Commandment]

Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ... splinter group... about 290 congregations...