The ELCA has its new sexuality study available online. Check it out by clicking on the title.
I don't see why we need to even do it! After all, this last paragraph seems to have already reached the conclusion:
In Galatians, the apostle Paul declares, "In Christ Jesus...the only thing that counts is faith working through love"(5:6). May this bold statement guide your reading and reflecting, your discernment and your deliberation, your listening to and speaking with one another.
So as long as we have faith and we do what we do in love, we can do what we want! Whoopee! (In my ethics class I have studied Joseph Fletcher's Situation Ethics. That is what situation ethics teaches - one ethic, the ethic of love. So we Lutherans are now situation ethicists, with faith thrown in.)
I wonder if this is what we will be teaching our kids in confirmation and youth group? That we can throw out the moral teaching of the Bible as long as what we are doing is loving?
Hmmm....I wonder if it is more loving to give our tithe to a bloated church bureaucracy or to organizations that are interested in teaching people about the transformational power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, that's right, we don't need to be transformed! We are ok just as we are...as long as we are "loving."
Sheesh.
OK, so I haven't actually read the whole study. I have read others' comments and I, sadly, formed an opinion as soon as I saw the title. I'll have to read it in bits and pieces. My church life is depressing enough right now without more evidence that the ELCA is charging headlong into complete antinomianism.
My friends at a local LCMS church tell us they are saving us a spot.
----Katie
2 comments:
Did you know that the only place in the Bible where love is DEFINED (not DESCRIBED, as in 1 Cor 13)is Romans 13:10: "Love is the fulfillment of the law." So put that in their pipe...
Ever checked out the AALC?
The problems with this study are readily seen. The introduction to the study makes it plain that while one may debate "things sexual" one must understand that in the end, God doesn't care what we do with ourselves. To quote directly, issues of sexuality are not "matters of salvation or the Gospel."
Interesting that Saint Paul doesn't agree. In the very letter this study claims to lift up, Paul makes it clear in Galatians 5 that among other sins, sexual immorality in all its forms will keep people from entering the kingdom of heaven. After listing the vices (including sexual immorality, lack of sexual self control, orgies, etc.)he says, "I remind you now as I reminded you before. Those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
Paul makes a similar statement in 1 Corinthians 6:9ff. He says, "Do no be decieved. Neither the sexualy immoral, nor the adulterer, nor the idolater, nor the male prostitute, nor the homosexual offender, nor the greedy, nor the drunkard...shall inherit the kingdom of God."
We have Jesus himself in Rev.2 and 21 (to just mention a couple of verses) insisting that the sexually immoral (those who continuously violate those sexual sins mentioned in Leviticus 18) shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The real point here is not sex though. This is just a symptom of a larger and more important issue. The real point is that Holy Scripture means almost nothing now. The assault on the Scriptures as normative and authoritative for the life of the church is almost complete. God's judgement is upon us. God have mercy....Christ have mercy.
Peace in the Lord!
Rob Buechler, Pastor
Trinity-Bergen/Faith Lutheran Parish
Starkweather,ND
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