Free Republic

ELCA Bishops be warned. If you seek to remove pastors who disagree with the direction of the denomination, you will lose. That is what happened in Greenfield, Indiana, recently. It all began with St. James Lutheran Church’s pastor, Larry Gember. The spiritual leader of the congregation, recommended that they vote to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. (The St. James Church Council also recommend that they leave.) Pastor Gember outlined his thoughts in a letter to the congregation a few weeks before the church’s scheduled November 21, 2010, vote. In the letter, Pastor Gember outlined troubling issues he saw...

In a season that lots of Americans associate with "God and country," the head of the Church Council of Greater Seattle recently marked Independence Day by insisting that symbols of the two remain separate -- for the good of both. "After all these years of secrecy, I'm now ready to make a confession: I am a serial flag remover," the Rev. Sandy Brown,executive director, wrote in July's edition of The Source, the council's newspaper. "I've removed the American flag not just from one church I served as pastor, but from all three," wrote Brown. Such a confession is risky in...