Not to be out-done in the race to irrelevance by rejecting all christian truth, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in “faithful committed same-gender relationships.”
The ELCA, which has 4.8 million members, had previously allowed gays to serve as pastors so long as they abstained from sexual relations.
ELCA spokesperson F. Nidiot said “We were concerned that other protestant bodies had rejected more fundamental Christian truth than we had, so we are playing catch-up here.”
“The gospel of inclusion has won and we’re going to keep winning.” Asked whether the gospel of inclusion was actually Jesus’ gospel, Nidiot said “Who?”
The ECLA has formed a committee specifically to insure that is not caught behind the eight ball in the future. “We have formed quick reaction task force that will monitor all other mainline protestant denominations. If we think that any other denomination is likely to legitimize or sanction anything that was previously thought to be sinful, we will insure that we sanction it first. Doing away with the concept of sin is a slow process, but the ECLA is committed to be in the vanguard in this crusade.”
August 12, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I am continually amazed by the willingness of otherwise faithful Christians to cast judgement and make wild accusations (ex. “Jesus who?”) against brothers and sisters who just happen to have seen things differently. Then again, the Jerusalem leaders gave Peter hell because he said he had seen the Holy Spirit show up in the home of a Gentile named Cornelius…and even dared to baptize the guy. Christians, I guess, have always had to work at keeping their heresy meter under control. Given what I’ve read at your blog, I think you’d be an interesting conversation partner. But given this post I wonder if that would even be possible. If you’re interested, I’m blogging at http://reclaimingthefword.com. The f word = faith.
August 12, 2007 at 7:43 pm
I am also continually amazed by the willingness of liberals to jettison any teaching of the Christian faith which conflicts with the faddish preferences of the secular world. But I suppose it is no surprise that Protestants do this. Having cast aside the concept of Tradition, they have little reason to respect the views of those who preceded us in the faith, even those whose views are incorporated in Scripture itself.
There are worldly consequences to this kind of worldliness, including massive loss of membership. It appears that the ELCA is competing with its partner-church, TEC, to see which can empty its pews the fastest.
August 12, 2007 at 7:47 pm
What amazes me are conservatives spouting off about “biblical values” when the Bible itself hardly says anything about homosexuality, and Jesus himself said not one thing.
August 12, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Ah, yes, since “the Bible itself hardly says anything about homosexuality, and Jesus himself said not one thing,” the gay lifestyle must be OK with God. A similar talking point is employed in defense of abortion (which gets even less biblical attention). And since the unanimous teaching of the Church dating to the 1st century matters not a bit, why not sprinkle holy water on anything we have an itch to do?
Except that tradition really does matter to these guys . . . if it can somehow be reconstructed to resemble an op-ed in the NYTimes. Recall all the attention given to John Boswell’s very questionable argument that the medieval Catholic Church blessed gay unions? And what about the silly notion that David and Jonathan were homosexual lovers?
Bottom line: Give your blessing to my sinful behavior, and I’ll call you a true Christian. Call it by its right name, and I’ll denounce you as an intolerant bigot.
August 12, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Pretty cheeky for a Catholic to be giving morality lessons to anybody else.
August 13, 2007 at 1:59 am
John Petty,
That last comment smacked of sectarian bitterness and ought to be retracted or deleted. I hesitate to call anyone an anti-Catholic bigot, but “if it quacks like a duck, and it walks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck”….
Are all Catholics immoral or amoral becase of the actions of a few. Please. Next you will be making snide remarks about “covetuous Jews” along the lines of “pretty cheeky for a covetuous Jew to be giving lectures on charity to anyone else”…
Ah anti-Catholicism, the last socially-fashionable prejudice (although the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Mein Kampf are coming back into fashion in the Middle East, too)… but I digress.
Nobody was giving anybody a “morality lesson”.
The point is that Catholics are not sola scriptura Christians. We accept the authority of Sacred Tradition, and the teaching office of the Magesterium of the Church. Both of which have consistently said that homosexual sexual activity is sinful. They have said this for 2000 + years. The Orthodox Jewish faith teaches much the same thing.
Now, the problem is that when you reject Tradition and the Magesterium, everyone becomes their own little Pope, and gets to read whatever they like into the Bible.
Such Christians should remember the words of 2 Peter 3:16 “… the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.” . Tradition and the Magisterium are the truest guides to Biblical understanding.