ELCA leaders: No need for division

(In August the churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted proposals to make it possible for Lutherans in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.)

In the wake of the ELCA assembly vote to allow gay and lesbian people to serve in the clergy or other leadership positions, the denomination's Presiding Bishop, the Rev. Mark Hanson, has told his bishops and laity to expect some congregations to leave.

Whether ELCA congregations will defect in large numbers to more conservative Lutheran denominations remains to be seen.

However, national and local ELCA leaders say that this decision does not have to divide the church and are working hard to clarify its exact provisions to their congregations.

ELCA leaders emphasize that this churchwide assembly's decision in Minneapolis also states that no congregation will be compelled to be served by a gay or lesbian pastor if they don't wish to be.

The Rev. Steve Schou, pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Dickinson, said the churchwide decision was a grassroots movement that included families of gay and lesbian children within the church, not a "top-down" decision by national church leaders.

Lutheran tradition strongly emphasizes "the individual conscience of the believer," Schou said. "We are defined by the death and resurrection of Jesus, not our stand on social issues."

The ELCA is very "congregational," meaning that individual parishes maintain a good portion of authority within themselves, said the Rev. Paul Schauer, pastor at Sunne Lutheran Church in rural Wilton.

This month, Western North Dakota ELCA pastors met with Bishop Mark Narum, who leads the 192 congregations that make up the Western North Dakota ELCA Synod, and discussed how to talk about this with their parishes.

Narum characterized the meeting as "a wonderful open conversation" among pastors who ran the spectrum from concerned to celebratory.

"But there is a whole group in the middle of the church wrestling over, what does it mean to be faithful?" he said.

"An important piece of ... this change in policy allows any congregation to say, we disagree," Narum said. "Congregations may make statements of declaration as opposed."

Oak Valley Lutheran in Velva voted by a margin of 70 percent to stay within the ELCA; some other congregations are now in the process of discernment - "so we'll see," he said.

Fargo's largest congregation in the ELCA has suspended its funding to the denomination because of the decisions regarding homosexuality, according to the Fargo Forum.

A letter on the Hope Lutheran Church Web site says "leadership has suspended all financial support to the ELCA and will develop a process to define who our mission partners will be." The letter is signed "Hope Lutheran's Church Council and Pastors."

"My promise has been to talk honestly and openly about what I see in these documents. You can be opposed and yet faithfully be part of the church. We can continue to be in ministry together," Narum said.

"If a congregation wants to leave, we will work in a respectful and healthy way, provide good information about other denominations.

"Until they leave, I have a responsibility to their welfare and their safety. That's a priority."

Presiding Bishop Hanson spoke via phone from Geneva, where he was meeting last week with leaders of the Lutheran World Federation, a group he also heads. Hanson said Narum is doing a wonderful job in his synod, listening to congregations' concerns.

Hanson also met disagreement with the decision from other Lutheran bodies in places from Madagascar to Tanzania, but they're not threatening to walk away, Hanson said.

"People of faith can give a strong witness in a polarized world, when we don't walk away from people with whom we have strong differences. All the way through scripture, who is welcomed (into the church) and on what terms, is a core source of conflict," he said. "If you think this is the first time, read the Book of Acts."

When it comes to scripture, there is no such thing as a pure biblical literalist, Schauer said, noting that people who condemn homosexuality on the basis of several Bible texts don't forego the other proscribed behaviors there - they get divorced, live together before marriage, eat pork, don't advocate stoning adulterers and don't require women to live in isolation during menstruation, for example, he said.

"Why is this the issue that upsets people most?" Schauer asks. "Where is the outrage over poverty, which Jesus speaks of so many times in the New Testament? There is not near the same energy" over that kind of issue that Jesus did speak about over and over, he said. No passages quote Jesus ever speaking about homosexuality, he says.

In a wider context, Schauer said, "What gives us the right to limit the power of the Holy Spirit? God uses whoever God chooses."

Schou wrote an article that appeared in the October 2009 newsletter of the Western Edge Parish.

He writes, in part: "Those who mock the ELCA for making this decision say it marks the end of the ELCA. Are the mockers right?

"If we think of the Church as an institution where it's imperative that all members must agree on the Church's social statements on such things as sexuality, then, yes, this may be the end of many congregations. But if we understand the Church as founded upon the death and resurrection of Christ for all sinners, then our disagreement need not divide us.

Hanson told his Conference of Bishops recently that it is a "rocky time" in the ELCA because of this decision and because of more widespread economic stresses.

It's a difficult time to be thinking about disapproving congregations withholding money, which means a loss of support for missions such as feeding people, supporting missionaries in the field and new congregation starts, Narum said.

But it's good to ask questions, such as, "How do we interpret scripture as Lutherans?" and "How do we deal with an ever-changing society?"

"I'm very proud of the church, that it is willing to wrestle with these (things) and not just be silent in the face of society. Silence is not an option."

A church that holds to the authority of scripture is now a deep conversation about how we interpret it for our life, Hanson said.

And almost everyone does interpret scripture, he said. For example, very few Lutherans are pacifists - most embrace the principle of the "just war," they fight in military service, despite the Bible saying very clearly "do not kill," Hanson said.

And churches are increasingly becoming defined by where they stand on sexuality and homosexuality.

"The question (with which) I began the (August) assembly was, 'What story shall we tell?' Another denomination polarized and divided over sexuality? Or shall we be a church that recognizes the continuum of deeply-held conviction but remains together in mission beyond ourselves?

"We're an aging church, (taking) huge losses in population. I understand that in that context, (this decision can) feel like another huge loss, feel (as if) the Bible has been taken away or redefined."

But, Hanson said, "within a half an hour of the vote, I had pages of tweets and Facebook comments from young adults, column after column, (saying) I think I'm going to come back, this is a church I think I can be part of.

"Though I don't want to say it's (just) a generational argument, there is a generational character to this," Hanson said.

"On college campuses, I'm not experiencing the deep differences in other parts of the church."

This is nothing but religious babble. He fails to address the real issue, namely, gospel reductionism. As long as you believe in something similar to Jesus and kind of believe in some sort of resurrection, nothing else matters. You can ignore anything that sounds like law. All those verses that condemn homosexuality can be ignored. The entire Scripture for the ELCA can be placed on a half sheet of paper.

And homosexuality is only one part of the ELCA’s false teaching. There seem to be a substantial number of ELCA pastors who are teaching that it was necessary for Christ to die for our salvation. However, it is not necessary for anyone to believe it in order to be saved.

I honestly do not understand what the ELCA is teaching. I have run into ELCA pastors that deny the existence of hell and angels. I have known ELCA pastors that deny the physical resurrection of Jesus, they refer to themselves as the “bones” party, i.e. you could find the bones of Jesus. Last month I ran into a “conservative” ELCA pastor that held to the belief that Jesus emptied himself of all his divine attributes and he was the Son of God by identity (in name only), but he had no divine powers or attributes. This is the old kenotic heresy. As I said, I have no idea what ELCA pastors believe.

ELCA leaders emphasize that this churchwide assembly's decision in Minneapolis also states that no congregation will be compelled to be served by a gay or lesbian pastor if they don't wish to be.

Apparently God's will is now defined by a majoirty vote, for so-called "ELCA Leaders".

In other words - damn the faithful for noticing we redefined the Bible!!! There is no "mission beyond ourselves" that doesn't include God's explicit judgment in this matter, and pretending that the Bible is silent is a sin of commission, and as a so-called leader, Hanson will be held to account for every single soul he deceives.

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