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The ELCA and Abortion
Catholic Stand ^ | 1/21/15 | JoAnna Wahlund

Posted on 01/23/2015 10:13:29 AM PST by rhema

A while ago, I read a blog post over at First Things that was a blast from my past. The author, a Lutheran pastor, recently left the ELCA to become a member of the newly-formed North American Lutheran Church (NALC). He said, “My real disaffection with the ELCA didn’t start with sex. It began in earnest over the ELCA abortion statement and the subsequent decision by the national council to treat elective abortion for pastors and dependents as a reimbursable medical expense under the church health plan.”

It was this exact issue that was my first step on the path toward the Catholic Church. Until I had learned of that same decision, I had assumed that the Lutheran Church was opposed to abortion; after all, how could anyone who claimed to follow Jesus Christ support the killing of unborn children? Wasn’t “Thou shall not kill” a pretty essential element of Christianity? In my 22 years as a faithful, churchgoing member of the ELCA, I could not remember hearing a Lutheran pastor preach a sermon on abortion. It was not an issue discussed in any of the three ELCA churches I’d attended up to that point in my life. Shortly thereafter I accessed online the ELCA’s Social Statement on Abortion (SSOA), and as I read it my faith in the ELCA was shaken to the core.

The first statement that bowled me over was, “A developing life in the womb does not have an absolute right to be born…”

(Excerpt) Read more at catholicstand.com ...


TOPICS: Apologetics; Mainline Protestant; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: abortion; elca; lcms; lutheran; prolife; religiousleft
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To: redgolum

The offense wasn’t in offering a Christian prayer in the presence of non-Christians, but in participating in a non-Christian religious ceremony after announcing himself as a member of the LCMS clergy.


21 posted on 01/23/2015 5:26:59 PM PST by Mr. Lucky
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To: lightman

it is called syncretism and is unbiblical.


22 posted on 01/23/2015 5:41:25 PM PST by scbison
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To: rhema

Oh, oh. The Catholics are giving payback to the Lutes!


23 posted on 01/23/2015 5:57:34 PM PST by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
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To: Guenevere

And, the LCMS speaks out about it.


24 posted on 01/23/2015 5:59:08 PM PST by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
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To: Mr. Lucky; redgolum

My wife, Nicole, used to attend an ELCA seminary, Lutheran School of Theology Chicago, and she heard some professors say that the devil doesn’t exist. She gladly transferred from LSTC and graduated from a non-Lutheran seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, which is in Bannockburn, IL., and, in Dec., she was ordained by the Lutheran Evangelical Protestant Church (LEPC).


25 posted on 01/23/2015 6:03:09 PM PST by PhilCollins
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To: redgolum

LCMS is liberal!? Where did you derive this?


26 posted on 01/23/2015 6:03:37 PM PST by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
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To: SgtHooper

The Catholic church is more liberal than the LCMS. That is why the friends and family who left the ELCA felt they had to either go Catholic, or stop going.


27 posted on 01/23/2015 6:18:33 PM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: scbison
it is called syncretism and is unbiblical.

The witness of the Apostle Paul on Mars hill says otherwise.

28 posted on 01/23/2015 6:44:14 PM PST by lightman (O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, giving to Thy Church vict'ry o'er Her enemies.)
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To: brooklyn dave

The author was not a pastor, she read about a pastor that left the ELCA for NALC and it reminded her about her journey. Or perhaps I missed your point.... lol


29 posted on 01/23/2015 6:45:22 PM PST by aberaussie
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To: PhilCollins

The many ELCA spinoffs are simply turning back the clock about 20 years. They will be in the exact same spot in a decade or so and try to figure out why.


30 posted on 01/23/2015 11:13:09 PM PST by Archie Bunker on steroids
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To: lightman

What keeps the LC-MS, WELS, LCMC, and NALC from becoming one?


31 posted on 01/23/2015 11:24:15 PM PST by kalee
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To: lightman

Many are called few are chosen :)


32 posted on 01/24/2015 8:19:02 AM PST by RnMomof7 (Ga 4:16)
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To: lightman
The witness of the Apostle Paul on Mars hill says otherwise.

Paul didn't present the Greeks views of 'God' as valid. He preached Christ and a message of repentance. No comparison to the event in question.

33 posted on 01/24/2015 9:33:07 AM PST by xone
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To: xone

bishop Benke did not validate any of the other faiths represented at Yankee stadium by offering an overtly Christian prayer....the only “validation” comes from ascribing far to much to “ministry of presence”.


34 posted on 01/24/2015 10:23:33 AM PST by lightman (O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, giving to Thy Church vict'ry o'er Her enemies.)
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To: lightman

Not by offering the prayer. He remained for the non-Christian prayers. Further, He isn’t a bishop. His activity did violate synodical teaching. He was saved by a liberal.


35 posted on 01/24/2015 10:46:54 AM PST by xone
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To: xone
Further, He isn’t a bishop

For some reason that is what those in the Atlantic Disrict all their DP.

36 posted on 01/24/2015 4:49:43 PM PST by lightman (O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, giving to Thy Church vict'ry o'er Her enemies.)
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To: lightman

Raises a question regarding the Atlantic District.


37 posted on 01/24/2015 7:28:03 PM PST by xone
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To: xone

Atlantic and Eastern are anomalous in several ways.


38 posted on 01/24/2015 7:48:16 PM PST by lightman (O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, giving to Thy Church vict'ry o'er Her enemies.)
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To: fatboy; rhema

Here is a page from Wahlund’s blog telling more about her conversion:

http://a-star-of-hope.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-conversion-story.html


39 posted on 02/21/2015 11:23:32 AM PST by Jacob Kell (The last good thing that the UN did was Korea.)
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