If you are interested in the recommendations of the sexuality study task force in the ELCA as well as the proposed social statement on sexuality, please check it out at www.elca.org. The recommendations related to homosexuality and the church are basically a local option type of recommendation, which means there will not be one standard for the whole church. I personally would prefer they choose one side or the other and go with it.
Here is one pastor's reaction (I do have permission to print it.):
The Coming Storm
by John S. McKenzie
For many years, there has been a movement within the ELCA to normalize same-sex practice. In the last ten years, this has taken the form of a push to ordain practicing homosexuals and lesbians into the public ministry.
Scripture is not ambiguous about same-sex relations. It is clearly against them. The moral tradition of the Church is not ambiguous about same-sex relations. It is clearly against them. As far as God’s will can be discerned from Scripture and the Great Tradition, God’s will is not ambiguous about same-sex relations. It is clearly against them.
In 2005, revisionists approached the national convention with a proposal to change discipline and allow practicing homosexuals to engage in the public ministry of the Church. The national assembly said “No”, but allowed for a task force on a social statement on sexuality to address the question in their report. The task force has now reported back with its recommendations. They recommend a variation on local option. If a synod wants to ordain practicing homosexuals, it should be allowed to do so. To borrow a phrase from Elijah, we would limp about with two opinions regarding the will of God for those engaged in the public ministry of the church.
Homosexual behavior should not be singled out among sins. All of us are all guilty of private sin. Martin Luther insisted that private sins be dealt with by confession and absolution which is what we do every week. Luther, however insisted that public sin of which one refused to repent was to be dealt with by excommunication until public repentance could happen. That is because a church that continues in fellowship with those who sin publicly and refuse to repent is undermined. We look to all the world as hypocrites who do not believe what we claim to believe.
It is for this reason that ongoing, public and unrepentant sin among persons involved in the public ministry of the church is such a problem. It says to all the world, “God thinks one thing, but we think something else.” This is true whether the sin is pride, envy, anger, covetousness, sloth, gluttony, or lust. It is not that clergy do not commit all of these sins early and often. They do and they repent and they try to do better. The problem is when clergy refuse to repent saying, “That which I do is not really sin. I do not need to repent.” This is what the denomination is preparing to affirm in August: The sin of homosexual behavior committed by clergy in life-long committed relationship is not sin.
If any of the task force’s four propositions passes in August, the ELCA will be officially post-Christian. That is to say, without ambiguity, we deliberately chose to believe and act outside the revealed will of God. If anyone ever asks you what Unitarians believe, give them a copy of the four propositions. In the 1800s influential leaders in Christian congregations disagreed with the Great Tradition on the nature of God. The solution was to respect every member’s bound conscience and hold all truths as relative. The Unitarians embraced a different gospel. The Gospel of the redemption of sinners was replaced by the gospel of inclusion: It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you come to a Unitarian church to believe it. The Unitarians became post-Christian.
Look at some of the post-Christian implications contained in the four propositions forwarded by the task force:
“If we disagree, then God has no opinion.”
“It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere.”
“My conscience trumps the will of God revealed in Scripture and the Great Tradition.”
“It is more important that everyone feel welcomed and included than that we be obedient to God.”
“You can hold to a truth as long as you don’t express it in a way that offends or limits another person’s truth.”
“In the end, everything is relative: the will of God is a wax nose that we can shape any way we want.”
The point of participation in any denomination is that it provide a connecting link with the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. At one time, I believed the ELCA might be the fullest expression of that Church. Now I am bitterly disappointed with what the ELCA has become. Rather than the vineyard of the Lord, it has become a playground for groups with agendas. Here is the question that drives me out: Why would a Christian remain in a denomination that had intentionally severed its connection with the one holy catholic and apostolic Church in order to appease special interests?
Let me take an aside here. I have long thought and prayed about the motives of the revisionists. They see themselves as compassionate people defending poor beleaguered homosexuals from the ravages of evil hetero hate-speaking homophobes, and as advocating for justice.
Yet this self-perception is not a necessary and sufficient explanation for why they are willing to undermine Scripture and Tradition, change gospels, and take the ELCA out of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. This is something that has kept me puzzled for a long time.
Here is my answer. Whenever you establish a special class within an organization for whatever reason, there is a temptation for the members of that class to see themselves as an elite. We have a class of pastors, academics and professional church bureaucrats in the ELCA. They feel great solidarity with one another and with the elites in politics, in the media, in liberal denominations, and in academe. Our elites have become elitists. They see themselves as the intellectuals—the ones who should be doing the thinking for all the rest of us. Elitists love to call the shots and create movement in an organization. They crave progress which other elitists can recognize and applaud. They need both for themselves and for others, demonstrations of their power and authority. The presenting issue of the normalization of homosexual behavior in the public ministry of the denomination is something of a Trojan horse. The real point is that the elites establish themselves and their “bound consciences”, rather than the revealed will of God in Scripture and Tradition, as the final authority in this organization. This is why they can never accept “No” as an answer. This is why they have turned the church upside down in the last ten years. The game is not over until they win.
The four propositions look like a formula for peace extended in the spirit of compromise. But beware elitists offering peace. They do so in true Stalinist fashion. This will be temporary peace. Since this has little to do with sex and mostly to do with control, the resistance will gradually be mopped up, the evil hetero hate-speaking homophobes will be pushed out or isolated, and the revolution will continue. More demonstrations of their power must come. The only thing ruling elites ever wanted was more control. The vote in August is about taking the Church away from the Holy Spirit so that the smartest people in the room might increase their control.
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---Katie
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