Is It OK to be Gay in the ELCA?

Actually, the real question is "Is it ok to be unrepentantly gay in the ELCA if you are a pastor or rostered lay person?" Pastor Paul McCain has an interesting analysis of the ELCA Sexuality Task Force's report and recommendations. He says:

What is happening is clear. ELCA leadership is, for the most part, in favor of embracing homosexuality as an appropriate lifestyle choice for Christians, as well as for its rostered pastors and other church workers. Throughout ELCA seminaries there is a very strong and active pro-homosexual agenda at work. However ELCA leadership recognizes that they can not push this agenda on the ELCA at this point in time without wholescale rebellion from many corners. So, what has happened is that they have stepped back just a bit from a highly aggresive effort and instead now are settling back into a slow campaign of incrementalism. We saw this a few months ago with the ELCA Council changed the rules on how matters of this importance are to be voted on at the General Assembly this summer. Rather than letting them be decided by majority vote, they have changed the rules to require a 2/3 majority.

My sources indicate that there is no question that top leadership of the ELCA wants very much to follow the example of the Episcopalian Church USA and tolerate. condone and actively encourage actively homosexual clergy in its ranks. At ELCA headquarters in Chicago there was, last time I checked, a female pastor and another rostered ELCA woman church worker in a lesbian relationship, very openly known, to the point that the "couple" sent out announcements in the building regarding "their" child's baptism, etc. When ELCA leadership was pressed to explain how this is so, in direct violation of "formal policy," the response was that this is a matter for the local ELCA Synod bishop to deal with, not the national leadership, and then nothing happened. The person who raised the concern was rebuked for being unloving and legalistic when he challenged the situation.

To read the entire article, click on the title above.

Do people really think that as we relax our standards and "compassionately" allow non-celibate homosexuals to be ordained, people who support traditional morality will be afforded the same respect and standing within the church hierarchy as those who are more "progressive?" How do we coexist with such different views of what the Bible says? Would it not be better for those who are in the minority and are dissatisfied with standards as they are to form their own denomination?

---Katie