The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is preparing for a big vote this week on whether to allow openly gay clergy. Oh, get it over with already.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, one of the largest Christian denominations in the country, will decide this week whether to allow gay people in relationships to serve as clergy.
Currently, sexually active gay people are not permitted to serve in the clergy, but celibate gay people are. By Friday, church delegates meeting in Minneapolis are expected to vote on a proposal that would permit congregations to let gay men and lesbians in committed, monogamous relationships serve as clergy.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church is the latest major denomination to wrestle with the question of gay clergy. The issue has divided the Episcopal Church, which last month voted to make gay people eligible for any ordained ministry, further threatening to split the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which it is a branch. And earlier this year, the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted against accepting openly gay pastors, although the margin narrowed compared with a 2001 vote.
Ordinarily I would rail against such a thing, but frankly I am tired. Let’s face it, these mainline protestant churches will all do it eventually, so let’s get it over with. There is nothing to stop the roll down the hill that started centuries ago, it is only now more apparent that we are closer to the bottom. So fine. Permit it all, you know you want to. Spend your inheritance. Get it out of your system and when you finally hit bottom and are eating and sleeping with the pigs, remember that you can always come home to papa.
August 18, 2009 at 6:25 am
they don't just want to see the spoons after all…
August 18, 2009 at 9:26 am
Meanwhile, the Obama administration's Justice Department said, "The United States does not believe that DOMA is rationally related to any legitimate government interests in procreation and child-rearing and is therefore not relying upon any such interests to defend DOMA's constitutionality."
So the government has no legitimate interest in marriage as it relates to procreation and child-rearing (i.e., how civilization perpetuates itself), but it *does* have an interest in making sure that people's romantic interests are honored?
August 18, 2009 at 2:08 pm
J. Christian: Do you have a source for that quote? I would like to have it.
August 18, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Just a lame Yahoo/AP story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090817/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_gay_marriage
(Love the headline on that, btw: "Obama disses marriage law…")
August 18, 2009 at 4:59 pm
This is just a no-brainer. Now, when the Lutherans discuss whether their ministers can be part-time Satanists, I think they'll take a good 2 hours to approve that one.
August 18, 2009 at 9:44 pm
hah! I hope your being facetious Anonymous… really…
I just hope that the Missouri Synod doesn't go this way too. I know many a good solidly Christian Lutheran who wouldn't put up with this b.s. Turns my stomach and makes me feel for my Lutheran friends.
Sadly the whole situation doesn't surprise me with the way the Anglicans are going. Kind of reminds you why Jesus left Peter with the keys and only the Apostles (under Peter) the authority to "open and shut" or "bind and loose." Without that kind of clear, God-given authority any religous gathering can quickly become unholy. Not that us Catholics have been perfect over the years, but at least we've got good clear leadership in such rocky times. God's Providence is good- just look at the past Popes we've had over the last century or so!
August 18, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Hello,
I am one of the "pigs," in a same-sex monogamous relationship, and for once I agree with you…let's get it over with and vote yes.
August 19, 2009 at 1:55 am
Not that I agree with it, but if they vote for this, it might be just another push in bringing almost-Catholics home to Rome. I think there are more than a few people out there who won't stand for something like this. Maybe it takes something as tragic as this to help the larger Ecumenical movement see the preservation of the Truth in the Church
August 19, 2009 at 3:40 am
Anonymous @ 8:55, I see your point. But I as a Catholic would rather NOT have people in my church who do not believe in transubstantiation, papal infallibility, the Immaculate Conception, the 7 sacraments or communion of saints, but whose singular point of convergence is the agreement that gay clergy shouldn't shack up with anyone.
If they cannot accept Catholic dogma in its entirety, let them be anathemae (or Baptists…pretty much the same thing anyway).
August 19, 2009 at 8:47 pm
The odd/clueless/hypocritical/repugnant/laughible thing about the Lutherans is that they follow the teachings of a man who was so vehemently and rabidly anti-Jewish that he would make Hitler, Goebels and Himmler proud. Anyone can do the slightest websearch to confirm this, so the information is definitely out there. How they could twist their own logic and reality to justify belonging to their sect founded by a hatemonger is simply ridiculous.
At least the Anglicans were just following the orders of their king…
August 19, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Anonymous 6:58: I believe the reference to sleeping with the pigs was to the prodigal son, who was reduced to desiring the food of pigs before he returned home. I don't believe it was meant to call anyone a pig.
August 20, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Leave it to a commitee, a corporate board, a delegation or a congress to consistantly come up with bad ideas and vote them in. But when you have a single man that the buck stops at who knows he will someday have to answer to God you seem to get much better results. I have seen this in business often, the founder of a company, the lone entrepenur always does better than the board that takes over for him. We all see it every day with the federal govt. and we have been seeing it with church boards and synods, be it a large mainline denomination or a single evangelical congregation. Eventually it goes off the rails.
Thank God we have a Pope.
August 20, 2009 at 8:51 pm
This debate is one of the things that sparked my interest in converting from the ELCA to Catholicism. It was going on nearly 4 years ago too.