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Loading ...Conservative Lutherans organize after vote on gays
09.28.2009 12:00pm EDT
(Fishers, Ind.) Conservative members of the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination voted Saturday to spend the next 12 months deciding whether to split from the church after it liberalized its stance on gay clergy.
About 1,200 people meeting in suburban Indianapolis approved a constitution for the conservative umbrella group Lutheran CORE and a resolution directing its steering committee to report back in a year on whether to stay within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, form their own denomination or join another.Some members urged the assembly to more quickly sever ties with the 4.7-million member ELCA after the vote last month to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, dropping a requirement that gay clergy remain celibate.
“Some congregations already have voted to leave ELCA,” CORE’s chairman, the Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Pa., said at a news conference afterward. “Others have not voted or do not intend to leave ELCA.”
Spring and other CORE leaders said their decision a year from now could lead to a reconfiguration of Lutheranism in the United States and Canada.
CORE’s meeting this year drew much more interest than the one in 2008, when about 300 people attended. For this year’s meeting. CORE had to move to a Roman Catholic church that could hold about 1,000 people, and the group cut off registrations at 1,200.
Participants said they believe the ELCA has reinterpreted Scripture to portray homosexuality more favorably.
“It’s totally against what’s in the Bible,” said Jo Pruett, who said attendance at her ELCA congregation in Rockdale, Texas, has fallen off in recent years because of “waffling” by the denomination. “We’re interpreting the Bible to suit society today.”
The 71-year-old Spring, a pastor for 44 years, received a standing ovation Friday night when he said the ELCA “has fallen into heresy.” On Saturday, he said the ovation was bittersweet.
“That’s a very sad thing, to be a church that you belong to your entire life, that now really has fallen in heresy. This has been a great personal struggle,” Spring said.
Rob Myallis, 30, of Jonestown, Pa., who was ordained a year ago, said ELCA members must square a gospel of acceptance, giving a warm welcome to everyone no matter what their flaws, with a gospel of repentance, where believers confess their sins.
“God loves you enough to want you to change,” Myallis said. “Is our own personal experience more important than Scripture?”
ELCA representatives at the meeting said the charged rhetoric reflected deep pain in the denomination.
“We are in solidarity with everyone in that room on the central doctrines of the Christian church,” said Stephen Bouman, the ELCA’s director for outreach and mission. “We want to listen to them. We want to tend to their pain.”
ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson on Wednesday warned that withholding financial support to protest the gay clergy vote, as CORE leaders have called for, would be devastating to the church.
The loss of financial support weighed on the Rev. Teka Fogi, a native Ethiopian who leads Oromo Christian Fellowship in Kensington, Md. He fears a decrease in giving to ELCA will result in less support for African congregations such as his own. However, he said the denomination had rejected biblical authority when it came to homosexuality.
“The church has gone astray. We cannot condone this kind of apostasy,” Fogi said.
No surprise; congregations have moved between the various Lutheran governing bodies (ELCA, LCMS, WELS) before, like moths to a theologicaly-fueled flame. This realignment takes place at least every generation or so, and is almost always blamed on some perceived disagreement in interpretation of scripture. Biblical literalism is alive and well in the Lutheran church so this migration was inevitable. It will have no long-term consequences on the ELCA beyond the immediate hand-wringing and finger-pointing. This too shall pass.
Let the homophobes leave. They can join the “Mysery” Synod or form their own. In any case, from the perspective of world Lutheranism, they are a distinct minority. The national churches of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, etc. all reject the idea that homosexuals should be barred from the clergy.
I love all the fancy words. Most just mean, “They aren’t believing our story anymore, and they’re acting accordingly.”
So, God never said a word about the ills of homosexuality, your christian editors threw the first thousand years chose to add it. I must say, the Bible has a great history on slavery and womens rights, like none, if you have to change the Bible to suit your oppressive thoughts then bring back slavery and cancel all womens rights, even the right to vote so it will be in line with the teachings of Christ. Pagen Brit, another sect you Christians murdered on your way to power
Speaking as a Lutheran (LCMS), I object first of all to the use of the term “homophobe” and second of all to the comment, “this too shall pass.” Thirdly, it has been stated, correctly, that many Christians are hypocrites.
First of all, Christians have nothing against homosexuals. They do, however, have something against the sexual perversion known as homosexuality. Since humans live in a fallen world, every human struggles with sin. Anyone who says that unrepentant sinners are condemned to hell (1 Cor. 6:9-10) is correct. However, God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but rather everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Second of all, you state that this will “pass”. This is incorrect. God’s word will never pass away (Mark 13:31). Sins of all types have been around ever since the first Adam’s fall, and free salvation since the second Adam’s coming. This world will never know peace until Christ comes.
Sadly, many Christians choose to be friends of the world and lose their faith. Friendship with the world is enmity toward God (James 4:4). In addition, Satan constantly seeks to mislead people (1 Peter 5:8).
As long as the earth in its present form exists, we will have issues with sin, hypocrisy, and corruption. However, remember that even if you have committed the worst sins imaginable, God is ready to forgive you if you repent and turn to him (Acts 2:38). Remember that nobody is perfect (1 John 1:8). Know that sins are an abomination to God, but he died for each and every one of us.
Thank you for reading this, I hope that you have a good day.
asdfghk–oh, so you’re from that already-identified-as-homophobic Missouri Synod? Shouldn’t you be making lutefisk or something instead of trolling on a GAY website? Don’t start with the crap, the pseudo-deconstruction about the sin vs the sinner. It’s a waste of time beneath every regular poster on this site, and the only reason to continue with it is if you have some creativity in your closeted body that your religion hasn’t managed to either squelch or mangle into some perversion of the flesh. Not that I’m accusing you of pedophilia, I’m *just mentioning* that there are documented connections between religious organizations which preach homophobia, and their internal actions to protect those who prey on children. I’m sure you see the distinction between the sin and the sinner, yes?
asdfghjk – Does being a card carrying member of the Christian Taliban give you the feeling of being “saved?” My I recommend “The Evolution of God” by Robert Wright. If, after reading this book, you fail to throw that very poor example of mythology called the Bible into the trash bin, then there is no hope for you.