(Check out their website and see what they have planned for the ELCA assembly in August.)
---Katie
Open Letter to ELCA, January 14, 2005
We share the anger and the grief they must feel today with the release of the ELCA Task Force for Studies on Sexuality.
We too had hoped that their denomination with its historic roots in justice and truth would finally end the policies that discriminate against the ordination and marriage of lesbian and gay people.
Instead, for the sake of “unity” they kept in place the policies that demean our relationships and deny our call to Christian ministry.
Whether the bishops enforce this terrible decision or not, the Task Force Report has tragic consequences in the lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Lutherans their families and friends.
The Task Force seems to hope that if the ELCA ignores injustice it will go away. In fact, justice cannot be done until the policies are revoked and the Church repents and reforms.
Unfortunately, this decision to discriminate is no surprise. The ELCA is now firmly aligned with the Roman Catholic Church and every Protestant denomination (except the United Church of Christ) in their determination to make outcasts of God’s Gay children.
Worse, these same religious leaders have now gained enough political and legal clout to superimpose their anti-homosexual views on the entire nation.
However, we will not despair. Even on this day when the Task Force deals death to our hopes and dreams for the ELCA, LGBT Lutherans and their allies (who have been made outcast by their denomination) are hard at work creating new life, new hopes, and new dreams.
We salute the Extraordinary Candidacy Program (ECP) for providing a roster of qualified Lesbian and Gay candidates for ELCA ministry.
We salute the Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries (LLGM) for founding and supporting this option for LGBT people of faith who feel God’s call to ministry and refuse to remain closeted in order to heed that call.
We salute the local ELCA congregations who are hiring Lesbian and Gay people who are called by God to minister even if that same congregation is persecuted and even rejected by their denomination for their courageous stand.
We salute the Lutheran Alliance for Full Participation, GLBT Lutherans and their allies who refuse to leave the Church and insist on bearing witness to truth in spite of the policies that discriminate against them.
There is bad news today. But there will be good news tomorrow, because there are courageous and committed Lutherans who are standing for truth and justice whatever the cost. May we all learn from their example.
Mel White, Executive Director, Soulforce, Inc.
www.soulforce.org
Soulforce is a national interfaith organization committed to ending spiritual violence perpetuated by religious policies and teachings against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Soulforce teaches and employs the nonviolent principles of Gandhi and King to the liberation of sexual and gender minorities. www.soulforce.org
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