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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America occasionally puts its money where its mouth is, particularly when it comes to investing dollars in its deviltry and the values that are important to it. One example is the little-known fact that the denomination funds abortion services for its clergy through its health benefit plan. Portico Benefit Services is a ministry of the ELCA that provides “comprehensive benefits to the rostered ministers and lay employees of the ELCA’s congregations, synods, and churchwide organization” to “help leaders strengthen their financial, emotional, and physical well-being.” Completely self-funded by tithes and offerings, without the aid or...

Beaming Books is a branch of 1517 Media, the publishing house of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Beaming publishes “high-quality children’s books that help kids thrive in every part of who they are–emotionally, socially, and spiritually.” Other imprints include Augsburg Fortress and Fortress Press. In 2020 it published the book “Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens, which has an introduction by former CCM artist Jennifer Knapp and is edited by Leigh Finke, a transgendered, trans activist who recently helped pass legislation making Minnesota a “safe state” for sex change operations on children. Finke’s book tells...

An old Lutheran church, that has mass in German once a month, is being destroyed by fire right now a few blocks from Harvard Square. A sixth alarm has sounded, streets are closed, and some homes may be evacuated. Given that it is Easter Sunday, I can't help but speculate about anti-Christian terrorism. My mother's whole family and half of my Dad's were descended from German Lutheran immigrants. I know all about Massachusetts, and Cambridge, but this was an active and faithful congregation, please pray for them.

Drawing on 50 years of national and international dialogue, Lutherans and Catholics together have issued the "Declaration on the Way: Church, Ministry and Eucharist," a unique ecumenical document that marks a pathway toward greater visible unity between Catholics and Lutherans. The October 30 release of the document comes on the eve of the anniversary of Martin Luther's posting the 95 Theses, which sparked the Protestant Reformation. "Pope Francis in his recent visit to the United States emphasized again and again the need for and importance of dialogue. This Declaration on the Way represents in concrete form an opportunity for Lutherans...

Leaders of the nation's biggest Lutheran denomination voted Friday to allow gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy in the church -- making it one of the largest Christian denominations in the country to significantly open the pulpit to gays. Previously, only celibate gays were permitted to serve as clergy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a denomination of 4.8 million members. But delegates to a church assembly voted 559-451 to allow gays in "life-long, monogamous" relationships to serve as clergy and professional lay leaders in the church. The vote is the culmination of a years-long process in...

One of the Evangelical Lutheran Church's regional synods voted on Saturday to uphold the denomination's policy banning non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy. The South Dakota Synod voted 362-233 during its annual assembly against changing the ELCA's current ordination policy and social statements on sexuality. The vote is a recommendation to the denomination's highest governing body which will consider proposals on homosexuality at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in August. Earlier this year, the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality released a long-awaited report acknowledging that there is neither a consensus nor an emerging one in the denomination on homosexuality while...

The head of what used to be the main voice of ecumenical Christianity in America has made Fox News the target of his latest jeremiad. Bob Edgar, former Democratic congressman and former seminary president is now an ordained Methodist minister and general secretary of the National Council of Churches (NCC) -- but his religion is often politics by another means. Edgar warned a gathering of "moderate" Baptists last month against the challenges of "fear, fundamentalism, and Fox News." instead urging his faithful to "walk in the footsteps of Jesus." Edgar cited the supposed threat posed by Fox News while speaking...

On the plane back from a recent conference in Israel, Presbyterian Pastor Will McGarvey met members of another Christian tour group. They had visited many Christian holy sites on their tour, but they did not travel to Bethlehem or to any Palestinian cities in the West Bank. "Some folks go over and see the holy sites and don't ever talk to a Palestinian," said McGarvey, sitting amid stacks of papers and books in his office at the Community Presbyterian Church in Pittsburg. "The Christian community in the United States is very divided when it comes to questions of Israel and...

As Presbyterians across America gear up for their biennial assembly next month, the legacy of the last such meeting is still roiling the Jewish community and the church’s own members. Two years ago, the Presbyterian Church USA passed a resolution calling for “phased, selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel.” Those who long have followed Jewish-Protestant relations weren’t surprised. “It was the culmination of decades - not years, but decades - of hostility toward Israel and Zionism, not by the rank-and-file members of these churches, but by some of the leadership,” said Rabbi A. James Rudin, senior interreligious adviser...

A buffet of new, animated cartoons have one thing in common – a Christmas without Jesus, Mary or Joseph, notes Mark I. Pinsky. ------------------------------------------------------ THIS CHRISTMAS brings the customary buffet of animated holiday releases to screens large and small. Polar Express has drawn children and parents to US multiplexes for weeks, earning more than $50 million at the box office. Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas, produced by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will air on cable television systems and local stations. And from Disney, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas DVD is destined for hundreds of thousands of stockings. Although...

MINNEAPOLIS -- Jay Wiesner has become the Twin Cities' third openly gay pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, defying a denominational policy that is under review.