Defiant Lutheran congregations appoint active gay pastors

Duluth News Tribune ^ | Apr. 15, 2004

[Between the Lines]

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - In defiance of Lutheran doctrine, active homosexuals have been appointed pastors at three congregations, including one in Minneapolis.

The Rev. Jennifer Mason, 41, will be installed Sunday at Central City Lutheran Mission in San Bernardino, followed on May 2 with Hollywood Lutheran Church's installation of the Rev. Daniel M. Hooper, 56, and ceremonies July 25 for the Rev. Jay Wiesner, 30, at Bethany Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.

The move defies the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's rule against active homosexuals in ordained ministry.

As the nation's fifth-largest Protestant denomination, with 10,700 churches and five million members, the Evangelical Lutheran Church ordains gays but requires them to be celibate.

The Hollywood and San Bernardino churches would be Southern California's first Evangelical Lutheran bodies to call an openly gay man or lesbian as a pastor.

Bishop Murray D. Finck of the Lutheran Church's Pacific Synod, which includes San Bernardino, said he was surprised by Central City Lutheran's decision to call Mason as associate pastor. He urged the church to reconsider.

Hooper and Mason were duly ordained as ministers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. But they were later removed from the official church clergy roster when the church was informed they were in committed same-sex relationships.

"There are two different kinds of religion under the same denominational banners," the Rev. Christopher Hershman, president of Allentown, Pa.-based Evangelical Lutheran Confessing Fellowship said Wednesday.

"One says what the churches taught for the last 2,000 years. The other approach says the Bible was a witness at its time, and people have moved beyond that to a higher sense of enlightenment," Hershman said.

The Rev. Steven Benson, pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, said emotions are running high about the situation.

"The possibilities of deep division, and perhaps even schism, are there," he said.

A decade ago, the denomination expelled two churches in San Francisco for appointing clergy who were living in same-sex relationships. Since then, more than a dozen other churches in the denomination have appointed non-celibate gay men and lesbians as pastors, but the denomination has not tried to expel any additional churches.

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

The ELCA is going downhill fast. My parents' pastor encouraged members not to see "The Passion of the Christ" because he claimed it was antisemitic. Just another reason I'm headed for the LCMS.

[onedoug]

Hollywood Lutheran provided some good growing examples for our daughter who'd often go for Sundays with her grandmother. I can still hear the ever optimistic Navy vet, Pastor Durkee and his trademark, "Blessings On You!"

Oh, but we're told, "The Bible was a witness at its time, and people have moved beyond that to a higher sense of enlightenment."

I don't believe it.

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

Are you serious??? That is truly stunning. My pastors have each incuded at least one plug for the Passion every Sunday since it opened.

Sadly, I am serious. The pastor even joined with local pastors from liberal denominations to put an ad in the paper saying this publicly. My parents and their church friends, who all saw the movie, were dumbfounded. Apparently the pastor did see the film and was not at all moved (direct quote from him!). That's just the tip of the iceberg with this pastor, unfortunately.

It is a bit difficult to make the ELCA/LCMS switch, since my fiance is quite unchurched (but wants to convert) - I truly hope that an LCMS congregation around here will be accepting of him.

[redgolum]

Best of luck to you sir! I have a good friend in an ELCA sem right now. He is in a battle for his faith every day. He won't become LCMS because he would be kicked out of his family, but he doesn't like the way things are headed.

For instance, there is a plan to change ALL gender references in the Bible to non gender ones. Some profs say Jesus's death was not for a sacrificial atonement but to show "solidarity", and who knows what else.

I pray for him often.

[sojourner]

All I can say is, this same kind of stuff, including a recent local discussion of the ELCA's proposed efforts to bless same-sex unions and ordain people involved in same, is driving me toward Catholicism. I can't quite stomach LCMS -- a bit too extremist for me.

[sojourner]

I'm just sad for the folks whose families have been part of this denomination for years/decades/generations. That's gotta be a difficult thing to countenance.

I agree. This stuff has got to be a lot harder for lifelong Lutherans.

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

Thank you for the prayers. I'm more concerned about how he'll be treated than anything dealing with me making the switch.

My mother was actually raised WELS and married a then-Baptist (my dad). They always attended LCMS churches (I was actually baptized LCMS) and it was not an issue until we moved to the east coast. The Missouri Synod church here was unpleasant enough that it drove us to the ELCA right as it was being formed from all the mergers in the mid-80s.

You're very fortunate to be in a "good" ELCA congregation. Many congregations and pastors today could barely be considered Christian, much less Lutheran.

[Honorary Serb]

As if I didn't already know before, Time sucks.

RIGHT! Not only does Time suck, but its parent corporation, AOL Time-Warner sucks big-time. That especially goes for their subsidiary CNN which has lied and continues to lie against our Serbian Christian brothers and sisters. One of their "stars", Christiane Amanpour, practiced "advocacy journalism" in Bosnia, with no regard for the truth. A lot of what ordinary Americans believe about what went on their is really her lies!!! And her lies had consequences, with people killed and lives ruined.

If you want to see why I am called "Honorary Serb", please look at some of the Balkan threads on FR. It is very enlightening, especially for Lutheran Christians.

Back to the subject of this thread---when I saw the headline "defiiant Lutheran congregation", I though that it would refer to a congregation that would DEFY the revisionist drift of the ELCA!!!! Sadly, I was mistaken. The gays and revisionists want to peck us to death, one peck at a time, with incidents such as this one. Then, they hope, we willl give up, and give in to their demands, across the ELCA.

As an Evangelical Orthodox Lutheran in a very liberal synod, I will have few if any Lutheran alternatives if the ELCA "goes gay". I will probably become a capital-O Orthodox in that case.

[NeoCaveman]

I smell an atheist troll!!!

Who is spamming religion threads.

[hellinahandcart]

Doin' good there, Tony.

ahadams2 has been a real rock for the Episcopalians on FR, glad to see someone is doing the same for Lutherans. I'm only sorry it's necessary.

But this sort of thing really HELPS during a crisis, trust me.