LutheranCORE - Theological Implications of the 2009 ELCA Decisions

The LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) has consistently expressed its understanding that same-gender sexual activity is contrary to the Scriptures. It has also joined together with the other 33 members of the International Lutheran Council in unanimously affirming that:

[T]he lifelong committed union of one man and one woman is the place the Lord intends for human sexuality to be lived out. Biblical passages which address the practice of homosexuality do so in terms of disapproval. Rooted in the Bible‘s witness and in keeping with Christian teaching through 2000 years, we continue to believe that the practice of homosexuality—in any and all situations—violates the will of the Creator God and must be recognized as sin.

While the current discord in Lutheranism and other Christian traditions regarding these questions is distressing in many ways, we believe this is also a time of opportunity. Many are asking not only what various churches teach and practice, but are also wondering about the theological implications of these beliefs and practices. In debates about homosexual issues, churches have an opportunity to testify to even more foundational truths and convictions, such as different understandings of biblical authority and also a different understanding of marriage. This is revelatory of something more than matters of sexuality and sexual behavior.

Full document LutheranCORE - Theological Implications of the 2009 ELCA Decisions

Get out now--nothing is going to change

I grew up in the Church of the Brethren, as did my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents (in 1888 there were several splits, but you get the idea). The church dates its beginning to 1708 when a group decided after much prayer and Bible study that they needed to re-baptize themselves--thus Anabaptist. It is one of the historic peace churches with strong ties to the Mennonites (and a lot of intermarriage). Each year it has an Annual Conference to discuss the business of being a church--a very tiny church, I might add. I attended one in 1949 with my grandparents in Ocean Grove, and one in Dayton in 1974. Some people go every year to see old friends. I think there are about 50,000 members--so it's not hard to run into someone you know. At the Newsletter of the Brethren Rival Fellowship (now 50 years old) a group that has attempted to return the group to its Biblical Anabaptist Pietist roots, I noticed this report on the 2009 Annual Conference.

1. The 223rd recorded Annual Conference was held in San Diego, California, on June 26-30, 2009, with attendance at an unusual low of just slightly under 2,100 in attendance.

2. The theme was, “The Old Has Gone, The New Has Come, All This Is From God.” It was based on 2 Corinthians 5, on becoming new creatures in Christ.

3. While the theme emphasized the new things in Christ, the Conference spent most of its time dealing with what is becoming an increasingly old issue at Annual Conference–namely homosexuality.

4. Last year’s Standing Committee had formed a statement of Confession and Commitment in response to the repeated requests that came to the Program and Arrangements Committee from BMC (Brethren Mennonite Council­a pro gay organization) to have a display area among the exhibits. This request has consistently been denied.

5. The Standing Committee Statement essentially affirmed the 1983 decision on human sexuality and acknowledged the tension that exists in the denomination over this issue. The statement cautioned against the meanness that has been expressed at some levels and said this kind of activity must stop.

6. This year a new item of business was received from the Northern Indiana District that raised the question, “Whether it is the will of the church that this language on same-sex covenantal relationships [in the 1983 Annual Conference decision] will continue to guide our journey together?” . . .

I think we know what the result of this struggle with the advocates from the LGBT group will be. I’m not sure why every denomination tries to reinvent the wheel on this. A tiny percentage of the group advocates for acceptence of their unbiblical life style; a larger group doesn't want to be mean or judgemental (because that would be unbiblical) and supports them; the majority waffle and wait (which is also unbiblical since there is an outline on how to handle this) and finally leave a weakened, gutted denomination. The solution might be to get out now so you can move ahead with the Lord’s work. Their sexuality statement goes back to 1983, and when I went back and looked at some of the archives, even 26 years ago teen-agers at the youth conferences were being told same sex attraction was OK and they should be working for “justice” for the gay community.

The ELCA task force statement to recognize and bless homosexual unions goes back to 1989, but only because ELCA was birthed in 1988 through a merger of two of the largest synods, the Lutheran Church in America, and the American Lutheran Church. The individual statements on sexuality from those groups probably predate 1989.

Lutherans baffled by God's plans for sex?

I've read through the press release of the Task Force and am clueless. But if this is any evidence, it's time for all believing Lutheran churches to leave ELCA when approving gay sex becomes a matter of loving and respecting your neighbor as God commands. We don't get to vote on the sanctity, purpose or mission of marriage--that was settled a few thousands years ago.

ELCA NEWS SERVICE, March 20, 2009

Lutheran Theologians Respond to ELCA Task Force Documents 09-069-MRC

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Three theologians of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) responded unfavorably to content in two documents released by the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality.

The task force released Feb. 19 a proposed social statement on human sexuality and a report recommending a process to consider changes to ministry policies that could make it possible for Lutherans in committed same-gender relationships to serve as
ELCA associates in ministry, deaconesses, diaconal ministers and ordained ministers. Recommendations for both documents will be considered at the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the church's chief legislative body, Aug. 17-23 in Minneapolis.

According to the Rev. Carl E. Braaten, the ELCA is at a crossroads. Braaten, Sun City West, Ariz., is co-founder and director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology. He's also professor emeritus of systematic theology, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, one of eight ELCA seminaries.

The social statement "professes not to know the difference between right and wrong on crucial matters of human sexuality," he said. The task force has made "a proposal to the church that takes one side of a controversial issue on which it does not expect that a consensus will emerge soon or ever."

If the ELCA assembly is to adopt the social statement and approve the task force's recommendation, Braaten said, "That would constitute a radical departure from the overwhelming consensus that has prevailed in historic Christianity through 20 centuries." He said many pastors and congregations will choose not to leave the ELCA but "remain and protest as a confessing movement."

According to Dr. Robert D. Benne, the social statement avoids making "normative judgments about homosexual conduct by neglecting the testimony of the Bible and the Christian moral tradition on that issue." Benne is professor emeritus and director of the Center for Religion and Society, Roanoke College, Salem, Va. Roanoke is one of 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA.

"I believe it is incontestable that the Scriptures and the moral teaching of the Christian church throughout the ages -- and presently that of the ecumenical church -- proscribe homosexual relations of any sort," Benne said.

"I am not satisfied with appeals to sincerity and tolerance, especially since I think Christian teaching is clear. And I am certainly not satisfied with those appeals when the recommendations of the task force lead to no teachings at all on the subject, but yet lead to sharp changes in practice," he said.

"There definitely is a sense in which we can live with our differences when it comes to public policy," Benne said. "But the sexuality issues under discussion have to do with the teaching and practice of the church. They strike much closer to the core of Christian life and teaching -- what does it mean to love the neighbor in sexual matters?"

The Rev. Paul R. Hinlicky, Roanoke's Tice Professor in Lutheran Studies, said he's contemplating a "divorce." "Not from my wife of 35 years, but from my denomination." He wrote for The Lutheran Forum that the ELCA "has come up with a different plan for a new future," putting "our covenant itself to a vote in
August."

"The historic Christian tradition and the Lutheran Confessions have recognized marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman," said Hinlicky. But they appear in the proposed social statement "as memories of the way we used to be." He noted that some in the larger Christian community conclude that marriage is "also the appropriate term to use in describing similar benefits, protection, and support same-gender couples entering into lifelong monogamous relationships."

"The real voice of the people of God across the world and through the ages seems to matter not at all," said Hinlicky, "any more than Holy Scripture as parsed by the Lutheran Confessions. Surely, this church's congregations, if given an honest and secret ballot would overwhelmingly reject the manipulation of language and meaning involved in calling marriage anything other than that relation in Scripture and Confession."
- - -

The task force's report and recommendation on ministry policies and social statement are available at http://www.ELCA.org/faithfuljourney on the ELCA Web site.

Robert Benne's comments are available at
http://tinyurl.com/cjtxwu

Carl Braaten's comments are at
http://tinyurl.com/d22hg8

My criticisms included the following assertions:
1) it confused law and gospel;
2) it reversed the order of creation and redemption;
3) it wrongly represented Lutheran ethics of sex as deriving from Christology and the doctrine of justification;
4) it was antinomian;
5) it did not deal with the Law of God and the Ten Commandments;
6) it did not exegete the biblical passages that deal with sexuality, and in particular homosexuality;
7) it avoided the use of the proper name of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;
8) it drew only upon Lutheran sources, displaying a sectarian attitude that ignores the teachings of the Great Tradition;
9) it disregarded the Lutheran view of homosexual acts as sinful.
10) I ended my critique by saying that the social statement of the Task Force is “not only deeply flawed from a Lutheran theological perspective, it is also so poorly written that I believe there is very little in it to salvage.”

Paul Hinlicky's comments are at
http://tinyurl.com/cz4jar
on the Internet.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog

Where is Martin Luther when you need him?

Pastor Eric Waters mentioned Thursday night that it was 491 years since Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door (October 31, 1517). No modern Christian has the clarity and common sense of Martin Luther--there doesn't seem to be anyone close in the ELCA. I've been reading through the Sept. 30 Council Minutes of our church and see that IF the ELCA decides to ordain gay and lesbian pastors and bless unions of gay and lesbian couples when it meets August 2009, our pastor will lead us away from the ELCA. That sounds pretty vague, especially since everyone knows if it isn't August 2009 it will be 2010 or 2012, but they aren't going to quit, give up or go away. I analyzed the last document at this blog and the language was just bizarre. Imagine writing about biblical sexuality and never mentioning "husband and wife" or "mother and father" with only one reference to a married man and woman. Where in the world do they find writers like that? Obfuscation. Reinvention. Goobledegook. Nonsense.

There are enough of these movements in Christendom among the Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, etc., that they could all pull out of their respective denominations and form their own church based on their sexual orientation first, their own concept of family second, and the word of God a distant third. Why, they could form a denomination of at least several thousand and leave the other millions of Christians to obey God! Why are we even messing around with this? If they aren't going to leave the Christian church, then we should leave them. I think UALC has been fiddling with this issue at least eight years. Come on guys, LEAD US OUT!

Word Alone Newsletter

A Lakeside friend noticed my "Digging for the pony. . ." blog essay on the ELCA sexuality statement in the printed Word Alone Newsletter. Look through the archives--it's an interesting publication even if you aren't a Lutheran. All mainline protestants are going through the same battles.

My final paragraph where I urge UALC to leave ELCA was deleted from the reprint.

I don't know what our congregation (UALC) is waiting for--it took this sexuality task force seven years to write a mish-mash and hodge podge and submit it to the people of God as a serious work. Every paragraph looks like the sentences were drawn from a hat of former reports and pasted to a page. It is an insult to our common sense and a travesty of our faith. It's time to go. It really is. These people will not back down; they'll just wear us out.

The Big Me

Tonight we're having a congregational meeting with our senior Pastor to discuss (and pray about) the latest, ongoing and interminable draft of the ELCA Social Statement on Human Sexuality from the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality. Can you believe it takes 64 pages when God made it pretty clear in just a few scattered verses and chapters beginning with Genesis in the OT and pronouncing in the book of Hebrews in the NT that only the marriage bed is undefiled? No matter what denomination you belong to, you're going through the same thing--Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, even some denominations considered more evangelical than those called mainline protestants. The liberals have been tinkering, very patiently for 30-40 years--longer in some churches than others--and homosexuality isn't the only issue. Gosh, no.

I remember back in the 1970s when I worked in the Agriculture Library leafing through a book of the budget of the World Council of Churches. They were funding Communist guerrillas in the Philippines! God only knows what terrorist groups under the name of "expanding the boundaries" and "inclusiveness" it's funding today. Your apostasy radar ought to go off if you ever hear your church or denomination is going to attack the "root causes" of something be it poverty, hunger, bad housing, obesity, drug use, or poor schools because they sure aren't talking about sin!

Progressive Christians aren't progressing--they are marching backwards lock step to the Garden of Eden for a do-over, and declaring they are in charge and know better than God how to run the world. Mainline denominations, ELCA included, are losing members. Liberals offer "Christ" as a philosophical construct, a flabby, limp role model for social and political action. They left that moldy old Jesus in the tomb years ago along with the atonement, because aren't we all born good with just a need to clean up a bit in order to flourish? It's not sin, you know, it's poverty and oppression that are the problem.

And Evangelicals with their seeker friendly, mega-churches are close behind. Yes, they are still drawing crowds, which the liberals are not, but when you become a me-centered, come to Jesus, social service agency, you won't be able to keep your people just because you offer an altar call and loud music. If you offer people a Jesus-free, agenda driven, one-more-project church, eventually they'll leave you for a real Christian church or just go golfing or fishing on Sunday morning.

UALC is a congregation that is faithful to the risen Lord Jesus Christ, and it's certainly not the only Lutheran church within ELCA that is faithful and concerned. Some congregations have already left and formed other associations. But I fear for the synod to which we are linked. That appears to be the only solution when the liberals have taken over your seminaries, colleges, publishing company and church offices.

Update: It was a good meeting. I love it when the pastor plays the piano and sings with us. He provided background on the 20 year history of this and said he was actually encouraged with this document because it seemed to recognize the conservative view point which other drafts haven't. He encouraged us to write to the Task Force and make our points without being cranky and argumentative. Like in the style of Paul or Luther, perhaps?