I am a little swamped...

...so I am not posting as much as I would like. We are in the process of getting new floors and carpet, with all the "let's hurry up and paint this, and let's organize this" that goes along with it. Hopefully we will be done in the next couple of weeks.

The good news is that our roof is done. At least I won't be sneaking looks at the ceiling during every thunderstorm now!

---Katie

My mother always said...

...you'll go blind if you do that!

I'm sorry. This should not be funny, but it is in a very perverse sort of way. What is really bad is that when we heard the news today as we were driving to Raleigh, my husband and I both cracked up because that same old wives tale had come to mind simultaneously.

Viagra and Cialis are causing blindness in a small number of users.

Click the title!

---Katie
(I'm sorry. I have a sick sense of humor.)

Newsweek anti-American?

It looks like Newsweek has a pattern of trashing the US in its overseas editions. Joseph Farah in World Net Daily writes:

How can we conclude anything other than Newsweek is playing a shell game with readers – delivering the pap marketers think they want? Abroad, Americans are portrayed as losers and rubes. At home, those stories conveniently disappear, replaced by the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

In other words, Newsweek is dishing out anti-American propaganda abroad, while trying to capture audiences at home with glitz and glamour.

Click on the title for details.

I quit reading the three big news magazines a long time ago. Now I get most of my news from the internet and for a news magazine, I enjoy the number four mag, World Magazine. If you like getting a news magazine, I highly recommend it. It is written from a Christian worldview and has some excellent writers and analysis.

---Katie

Worldview is the basic issue.

This is an interesting article about the basic differences between liberals and conservatives in the church. The writer makes a very good point about why it is important for conservatives to really understand the liberal view of the church.

Hat tip to the shellfish blog (you really should visit there!)

Click on the title!

---Katie

Um, this isn't funny.

My roof isn't done yet.

Click on the title.

---Katie

I hate to even post this.

but this story would, of course, have to be about a Lutheran minister....

Chaplain Wants Christ out of Air Force Academy

Here’s a story that will throw you for a loop: a "chaplain" at the U.S. Air Force Academy is complaining that the school’s administration has a "systemic and pervasive" problem of promoting religious values with a Christian bent.

The chaplain, Capt. Melinda Morton, a "Lutheran minister," spoke out publicly on Tuesday as an Air Force task force arrived at the academy to investigate charges that officers and staff members pushed their religious beliefs on cadets.

When you have good news, you want to tell people about it, right? And Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, right? I guess if you don't think Jesus is the only way, and that God is going to save everybody no matter what in the end, then you don't need to "push your beliefs on other people." What is the point of being a Christian minister if you don't believe everyone needs Jesus? Is the ELCA just a philosophical society?

---Katie

Why glitter is not an injectable substance.

Click on the title for the weird story of the day.

---Katie

Have you heard about the Emergent Church movement?

Marla Swoffer has done some investigative journalism on the subject. It is the "next new thing" when it comes to doing church in our post-modern society. I have even heard it mentioned by my pastor during a church service. Marla suggests that we flee the EC based on who is supporting the movement. Read up on it and tell me what you think. I am still pondering it. I am convinced that we cannot continue to do church the same old way and reach out to GenXers and Millennials; but I am not sure Emergent Church is the way, either.

Click on the title.

---Katie

Can't get enough of the ELCA homosexuality issue?

Mosey on over to the Shellfish blog. They are even more obsessed than I am. (Click on the title!)

---Katie

I simply refuse to hold the doctrine that there is no access to God except through Jesus.

That is what you would have heard if you had attended the April 24 service at the National Cathedral in D.C.

To see the entire text of the message, click on the title.

This is an ECUSA church, by the way, you know, the one the ELCA is in full communion with. I guess that makes sense in a perverse sort of way.

---Katie

Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?

I just need to reflect on some of the happenings at the synod convention last weekend. I am greatly concerned for my church. I don't have a great love for the ELCA, as I don't see a denominational body as "the church," but it is part of the church and it is in deep distress.

We are of two minds in the ELCA, perhaps even more than that. There are those who still see the Bible as the word of God, unchanging and very clear in what it says, not only about our wonderful salvation through God's grace, but also about what is best for us in how we live our lives. Then there are those who see all of that up for grabs, it can mean whatever we want it to mean, up to and including full blown universalism. Then, I think, there is a third group, those who are happy in their churches, not much concerned with the details of doctrine, who would like to go to worship every week and not have to worry too much about the church changing all around them.

The people who voted Friday to recommend maintaining Visions and Expectations are mostly from the first group and perhaps some of the third. The group wanting to "create space" for the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians, a group that was almost as large as the group that "won" would be made up of the second and some from the third groups. This does not bode well for the future.

Our Bible study leader announced that she was guilty of the heresy of universalism. People applauded. This is not good.

After the vote on Friday, our very delightful Assembly chaplain, The Rev. Dr. George Cruz, was obviously in great distress. It was apparent that he could not believe such an intolerant and unaccepting vote was passed. He seemed to equate upholding Biblical standards regarding sexuality as being unwelcoming. "God accepts everyone. God loves everyone. God is unchangeable only in his changeability!" I agree about God's love and acceptance of everyone, but he does not declare everyone fit to be a leader! And where in the Bible do we find that gobbledygook about God being unchangeable only in his changeablitity? That is almost silly!

At one point during the debate, a young delegate, she could not have been more than twenty years old, came to the microphone to speak in support of "creating space." She had always been taught, she said, that the Bible was a living document, that God's law changes as the times change. The groans in the room were quite audible. Where do kids get this stuff? Who is teaching this garbage to our young people?

While I am happy about the results of the vote and I even now have some hope for August, I have less hope for the future of the ELCA. If the kind of stuff that we were fed is typical fare coming from our leadership, then this church body is not going to last, at least not as an orthodox Christian body. Perhaps the name needs to be changed to the Evangelical Universalist Lutheran Church in America to reflect what we really teach and believe.

---Katie

Comments from Solid Rock Lutheran

I am trying to get caught up on some interesting articles I have not added to the blog....


Solid Rock News 4-15-2005

Unlimited Exceptions and Double Standards: A Response to the recent ELCA Church Council Action

If any one would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me. Mark 8:34

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. Galatians 2:19-20

On April 11, 2005 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Church Council approved a resolution to forward to the Churchwide Assembly, which meets in Orlando, FL in August. The Council voted 32-2 to forward to the Churchwide Assembly a resolution that allows for exceptional ordinations of homosexuals in “…committed, same-sex relationships…” The process by which exceptions would be made is when a congregation wishes to call a homosexual who is in a life-long, committed, faithful, same-sex relationship and the bishop approves. The bishop would then ask the approval of the synod council. Upon the synod council’s approval the bishop would next ask the Conference of Bishops for final approval. The candidate would then be ordained.

The Church Council has, by virtue of this action, redefined Christian identity, rejected traditional marriage, created a double standard, and provided for unlimited exceptions across the ELCA. It has proven that it is out of touch with the Church.

Unlimited Exceptions

The proposal provides for an unlimited number of exceptions across the ELCA and changes the current policies significantly. Should the ELCA Churchwide Assembly adopt this proposal every synod across the Church would be authorized to ordain practicing homosexuals who are in life-long, committed, faithful, same-sex relationships. This is not “local option” as some have called it, but a pan-ELCA policy change. There is nothing in the proposal about a trial period or ordination to place. Each pastor ordained in this manner would be placed on the same clergy roster as any other and would have the same opportunity for mobility from Church to Church and from synod to synod as any other.

In order for this proposal to go forward a significant policy change in the By-Laws of the ELCA, Vision and Expectations, and Definitions and Guidelines would have to be made. (Those documents outline proper conduct for those on the clergy roster). All the lines dealing with homosexual behavior would have to be removed.

A Double Standard

A double standard is created in this proposal. If homosexuals in “committed relationships” are allowed to be candidates for the ordained ministry, what of those heterosexuals in common law relationships who also wish to be ordained? Are they to be given the same considerations as their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters? But there is no mention of any reciprocity for heterosexuals in this proposal. There was no discussion of this at the Church Council meeting. There is no mention in the proposal of altering those sections in Vision and Expectations (V&E) and Definitions and Guidelines (D&G) that insist on the sanctity of marriage and living a chaste life. It would seem that heterosexuals are to be held to a different standard from homosexuals since the guidelines for heterosexuals remain in place.

Rejection of Marriage

Both V&E and D&G prescribe chaste lives for ordained ministers. There is a heavy emphasis on the biblical and traditional understanding of marriage. But the proposal put forward by the Church Council necessarily negates such sentiments and places marriage on the shelf. Marriage is no longer a concern when considering a candidate for ordination! The Church Council apparently agrees with a minority in American society that marriage is of little or no value.

Of course, it will be somewhat of a difficulty for homosexuals to provide evidence of their intent to live in life-long, committed, faithful, relationships, as the proposal demands, since the marriage of homosexuals is not sanctioned by the Church and is illegal in most states. No clear provision was made in the Council proposal for blessing same-sex unions, although it seems that something approximating them is demanded by the proposal. The Church Council has not thought this proposal through at all.

Redefining the Christian

Who is a Christian? Is it someone whose life has been transformed by God’s Word and who now worships and follows Jesus Christ? Or is it someone who has deep desires, impulses, or passions for something or someone? Is a Christian’s identity determined by Christ, or by the self? Is our desire to be conformed to Christ, or is he to be conformed to our desire? Is our identity established at baptism, or in our sexual urges and practices?

Such questions strike at the heart of the gospel for they address the central question of who Christ is and who we are in Christ. If we believe in Christ then we belong to him as a slave belongs to the master. He then becomes our external moral authority in life and what Christ says and does determines that life. If faith is not merely intellectual assent to a set of propositions but a vibrant, living and active transformative force in our lives, then our true self is not defined by biological urges or even by our own conscience, but by the self-sacrificing redemption of God’s Son who did not give in to his own feelings in the Garden of Gethsemane but rather followed the will of his Father. He denied himself, just as he commanded us to do. That is the supreme example of true Christian identity graciously bestowed upon us at baptism.

This is in contrast to what the Church Council accepted when it openly affirmed homosexual behavior, as it has done this past weekend. In order for the Council to approve this proposal it had to accept, consciously or unconsciously, the self-definition that homosexuals have for long maintained: that their “sexuality” defines them. That is, that their identity is constructed from within themselves and they do not need to deny themselves or their feelings.

What this means is that the Church Council, wittingly or unwittingly, has decided that the Christian is not defined by self-denial but by embracing the self and its impulses. To be sure, the Council did mention that gays and lesbians are baptized children of God as are all Christians, but it rejected any necessity for the reformation of one’s sexual life. In effect, the Church Council has established that homosexuals need not repent for their practices and behavior since their identity is constituted by their homoerotic impulses and they must be left to act upon them. If the Churchwide Assembly adopts this concept it will adopt a new definition of Christianity in which we are each able to define ourselves regardless of scripture, Church tradition, the wider Church, or the influence of the One who denied himself for our sake.

Out of Touch

The leadership of the ELCA has demonstrated that it is out of touch with the people in the pew. It has taken a minority view and elevated it to the status of policy, regardless of the responses given to Journey Together Faithfully: Part Two, which indicated a majority is in favor of the current policies and practices. It is as if the Church Council is deaf to the voice of the Church.

Rev. Roy A. Harrisville III, Ph.D. Executive Director Solid Rock Lutherans

---Katie

How we voted.

So we had two resolutions regarding the sexuality issue on the floor at the FL/Bahamas Synod Convention. There was a third resolution submitted by Lutherans Concerned, Central Florida, a pro-gay- ordination group, but it was not acted upon because it did not have the required 25 signatures of voting delegates. My husband and I were two of the 25 signatures on resolution 05-4.

As I said before, recommendations 1-4 were approved from resolution 05-1. When we got to recommendation #5, however, Pastor Dan moved that we substitute the three resolveds from 05-4 for recommendation #5. There was quite a bit of debate of course, including modifying wording and such, but eventually the question was called and the motion was accepted, 224 to 201. Then, we voted again to accept or reject those three resolveds as part of the overall resolution. It passed, 237 to 171.

So our synod has said no, by a small margin, to ordaining non-celibate homosexuals.

This is not binding in any way on anyone, it is just a recommendation to let the Churchwide Assembly know what we are thinking. The margin is not nearly large enough to suit me, but we'll take what we can get.

I will keep adding info over the next few days about what we saw and heard at the assembly. Right now I need to get to bed so I can go back for one more morning of presentations and voting.

---Katie

Resolution Concerning the Report and Recommendations of the ELCA Sexuality Task Force

Here is the other recommendation that made it to the floor of the FL/Bahamas Synod today. The Reference and Counsel Committee presented it without recommendation.

Resolution 05-4

Whereas, Vision and Expectations and Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline are authoritative policies already in place, and relate to matters of doctrine, morals, and conduct for al rostered persons in the E.L.C.A.; and

Whereas, all rostered persons are under the authority of a Synodical Bishop; and

Whereas, there is a need to prevent instances of inconsistent implementation of Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline and to ensure vigilance in that implementation in order to avoid discord to the Body of Christ and public scandal; therefore be it

Resolved, that the Florida-Bahamas Synod, meeting in Assembly, memorialize the 2005 Churchwide Assembly to affirm and endorse Vision and Expectations as the normative expectations of this Church for its rostered persons; and be it further

Resolved, that the Florida-Bahamas Synod, meeting in Assembly, memorialize the 2005 Churchwide Assembly to urge all Synodical Bishops to enforce the current standards in matters of doctrine and conduct according to Definitions and guidelines for Discipline among all rostered persons under their care; and be it further

Resolved, that the Florida-Bahamas Synod, meeting in Assembly, memorialize the 2005 Churchwide Assembly to support a process to ensure consistent, and collegial implementation of Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline for the greater well-being of the Body of Christ and its mission.

Resolution Concerning the Recommendations of the ELCA Church Council On Sexuality Studies

Below is the resolution recommended by the Reference and Counsel Committee of the FL/Bahamas Synod. It was submitted by The FL/Bahamas Synod Task Force on Homosexuality and the Church. Numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 were approved by the assembly.

Resolution 05-1

Whereas, the people of the Florida-Bahamas Synod give thanks to God for our oneness in Christ Jesus and for the gift of the Holy Spirit working in this synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America during this time of study and discernment of God's will for this church; and

Whereas, we give thanks for the variety of gifts and richness of diversity within our church, and recognize that people within our synod are not of one mind on the matter of sexuality, at times presenting fundamentally differing perspectives grounded in credible Lutheran theological and biblical teachings, and

Whereas, the 1993 statement of the Conference of Bishops provides counsel and advice to pastors and congregations leaving room for pastoral response to missional needs for caring for and supporting all persons, including those in committed same-gender relationships; and

Whereas, the recommendations of the ELCA Church Council place the trust of the ELCA in the congregations, synods, candidacy committees, and bishops to discern the Holy Spirit's gifts for ministry among the baptized and make decisions appropriate to each situation while respecting conscience-bound positions that are in disagreement;and

Whereas, no congregation of the ELCA is compelled to consider or call any candidate for a rostered position; therefore, be it

1. RESOLVED, that the Florida-Bahamas Synod, in Assembly, affirm with gratitude the involvement of congregations and individuals in this study and conversation, and affirm with gratitude the work of the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality, the Conference of Bishops, and the Church Council in preparing the recommendations to be presented to the 2005 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Church in America; and be it further

2. RESOLVED, that the Florida-Bahamas Synod, in Assembly, encourage all congregations of this synod to hold in prayer the voting members of the 2005 Churchwide Assembly, and further pray for the blessing of the Holy Spirit to guide the deliberations and decisions of the Churchwide Assembly; and be it further

3. RESOLVED, that the Florida-Bahamas Synod, in Assembly, memorialize the 2005 Churchwide Assembly to approve the resolution related to Recommedation #1, as presented by the Church Council, affirming our unity while recognizing our diversity as a people of God, and encouraging us to find ways to live together faithfully in the midst of our differences; and be it further

4. RESOLVED, that the Florida-Bahamas Synod, in Assembly, memorialize the 2005 Churchwide Assembly to approve the resolutions related to Recommendation #2, as presented by the Church Council, respecting the 1993 statement of the Conference of Bishops as pastoral guidance, ad trusting pastors and congregations to provide faithful pastoral care to all persons; and be it further

5. RESOLVED, that the Florida-Bahamas Synod, in Assembly, memorialize the 2005 Churchwide Assembly to approve the resolution related to Recommendation #3, as presented by the Church Council, which provides a way to create space in this church for ministries that would fully accept the gifts of gay and lesbian rostered leaders living in committed, same-gender relationships.

FL/Bahamas Synod says no to ordination of non-celibate homosexuals!

Not that it makes a difference in the overall vote in August, but we are telling the CWA what we think.

More to come.

I'm going out to eat with my family.

I'll blog when I get back.

---Katie

FL/Bahamas Synod convention begins!

My husband and I are delegates to our synodical convention this weekend, the first time we have ever done that! The last synod convention I attended was the first ELCA one in FL, in 1987, I think. I attended a number of LCA FL synod conventions before that, but only because I was working with the youth pages or the youth convo that was occurring at the same time.

Well, we had our first shocker - the keynoter, Pastor Susan Briehl, announced that she is a universalist - God is saving the whole d*mn thing, she said. She admitted it was her personal heresy...and seemed quite pleased with it.

This will be an interesting weekend.

---Katie

Welcome Dennis!

I am pleased to introduce and welcome Dennis, who will be posting on this blog - a lot, I hope!

I won't tell you too much about Dennis because he will be introducing himself soon. However, I will tell you how I know him. I used to be the Director of Youth and Family Ministries at my ELCA church in Winter Park, FL. I cannot remember the exact year (around 1990 perhaps?), but I had the joy of serving on a task force that hired Dennis for that job several years after I retired to be a stay at home mom. Dennis did a little bit of everything at St. John. When our DCE left, he moved into that job. When we needed an interim principal at our school, he did that. Then he served as our Director of Children's Ministries before leaving for a brief sojourn in Atlanta. Now he is back in Central Florida and is serving a local LCMS church as Director of Christian Education. While we miss having him at our church we are so glad that he and his family are back in the area! We are especially looking forward to watching their kids grow; our oldest was their first babysitter, I think. If not the first, she was one of the first.

Dennis is a faithful Lutheran Christian as well as an excellent and creative writer. I look forward to adding an LCMS flavor to the blog; that is my background as well, even though I have been in the ELCA for a long time.

We are happy to have you here, Dennis!

---Katie

Coming to a Churchwide Assembly near you...

Or near me at least. Soulforce plans to be a presence at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in August in Orlando.

Parents, gay son arrested at Dobson headquarters

2nd day of protest at Focus on Family

By Judith Kohler The Associated Press

AP / Ed Andrieski Jacob Reitan, 23, center, and his parents Phil and Randi Reitan, of Eden Prarie, Minn., are applauded by other protesters as they walk to the entrance of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs today to deliver a letter criticizing founder James Dobson's stand against gay rights. The Reitans were arrested for trespassing.

Colorado Springs - Two parents and their gay son were arrested today when they crossed a barricade at the Focus on the Family ministry and tried to hand-deliver a letter protesting Christian activist James Dobson's campaign against gay rights and same-sex marriage.

When police warned Phil Reitan, his wife and son they would be arrested, Reitan said, "I'm an attorney, I'm a Christian, I'm a father, I love my family."

Phil and Randi Reitan and their son Jacob led a single-file march of about 150 people to the headquarters of Dobson's Focus on the Family on the second day of a protest by Soulforce, a national interfaith organization that supports gay rights.

A Focus on the Family representative met the demonstrators outside the light metal barricades and accepted stacks of letters from Soulforce.


You can read the entire article by clicking on the title above. Tell me if you detect any bias in the original article or if I am just paranoid.

---Katie

This ought to be interesting....

The Vatican is going to evaluate American Catholic seminaries in response to the clergy sex abuse crisis. In particular, they will focus on the question of whether homosexuals should be priests, even if celibate homosexuals should be priests.

From the article:

Church officials conducting the review will inevitably take up complaints that gays are enrolling in large numbers in the seminaries and their sexual activity is tolerated at the schools, experts on Catholicism said. Some Catholics contend an atmosphere of sexual permissiveness - for straight and gay seminarians - was a factor in the crisis, which has led to more than 11,000 abuse claims in the last five decades.

This could be interesting to us as ELCA Lutherans because our leadership seems to fancy ourselves in communion to some degree with the Roman Catholic church, or at least on our way to being in communion (that has a technical meaning - that we share pulpit and altar fellowship, which we definitely do not at this point. I don't mean to imply that at all.) Yet, they just selected a conservative pope who seems likely to continue the policies of Pope John Paul II, meaning no women priests, no approval of homosexuality, no abortion whatsoever, no birth control, for Pete's sake; I have trouble understanding this desire amongst our leadership to align with the RC church. They don't agree with us at all on our many liberal leanings. Then our leadership condemns Protestant churches for their stands on moral issues that are quite similar to the RC church. Makes no sense to me....

Anyway, you can read the entire article by clicking on the title.

---Katie