Posted on 08/09/2005 6:58:13 PM PDT by lightman
Looking at the wire story about the hearing on sexuality [at the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America taking place this week in Orlando] at the Boston Globe website, I took note of the revisionist script from several quoted. The key mood word to describe those that hold to 2,000 years of Christian teaching on sexuality is "fear." I have also noted the use of the family systems' buzz word "anxiety."
This borders on dark humor but for the tragic seriousness with which revisionists offer their "cry of the heart." After all, it is a cry to "love me as I am".
I think a better mood word for traditionalists is "angry" or just plain "sad." Traditionalists are angry that the revisionist agenda has gotten this far and sad that the ELCA is advancing towards disintegration.
All of this revisionist activity, dressed up in God talk and liturgical drama, reminds me of years of watching addicts and their enablers in action. That's a hard word but an apt description of those that insist that they are right and Scripture is wrong, apparently roughly 1/3 of voting members and apparently (if published reports are accurate) the majority of registered visitors.
Enabling is nothing less than accepting and making excuses for addictive behavior (which includes those that would find middle ground on the issue of sexuality). There is no middle ground.
It is not that traditionalists don't have friends and family that are gay. It is not that traditionalists are uncomfortable with their own sexuality (the usual ad hominem ploy to silence opponents). It is not that traditionalists are in bondage to an oppressive worldview. Traditionalists simply remember what the clearest reading of Scripture has to say about human sexuality -- both Law and Gospel.
On Friday morning it will finally be apparent that there are two irreconcilable versions of the Gospel in the ELCA, tacit evidence that the unity described in Augsburg Confession (Augustana) 7 no longer exists in the ELCA.
The revisionist (liberation theology) version rails against legalism while positing that Justice (a function of the Law) is the Gospel.
The traditional version of the Gospel says the God forgives sin for Jesus' sake and gives the power for the amendment of sinful lives (which is a Word for both gay activists, their enabling parents and friends, and traditionalists, too).
Lutheran ping, please.
It's always disheartening to see churches built on solid creedal foundations succumb to modernism/liberalism at the hands of the experientialist majority who just want institutional peace no matter what the cost. They always end up siding with power religion against the true bearers of the Scriptural standard. Such was it with the Presbyterian Church about a hundred years ago.
Welcome to FR. It's so painful to watch this wreck happening. ELCA 'leadership' (like ECUSA's) is so arrogant in their departure from The Word, it scares me. My family took Paul's word to flee from such false teaching, and I'm so glad now that I can't say "that's my denomination". The apathetic blindness of the great majority of congregants is amazing, also.
Amen, Brother...Amen!
As history has shown, it's always tough to know when to abandon a church and when to fight for it. Luther himself faced this. But He will always preserve a remnant!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.