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Lutheran Church (ELCA) abolishes ALL anti-gay policies

Mongo

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The Lutheran Church Embraces the LGBTQ Community!

George Bernard Shaw once said, "Certainly all great truths begin as blasphemies." On April 11, 2010, those who identify as people of faith and as "non-heterosexual" were given particular cause to celebrate Shaw's wisdom: a most unlikely church has given a most unlikely people a gift of love and truth, and I cannot stop smiling.

After twenty-five years of deliberation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Church Council has abolished its anti-gay policies, effective immediately. Following from discussions at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly last summer, the ELCA will now allow people in same-sex relationships to serve as rostered leaders. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) human beings are no longer considered abominations but blessed church members with full standing. Same-sex partners and families can now fully participate in the ELCA Pension Plan.

Best of all, the ELCA is reinstating people who were removed from ministry positions because they were truthful and came out of the closet, as well as those who conducted holy unions for non-heterosexual couples. The ELCA has practiced restorative justice.

The Lutherans -- breaking from Garrison Keillor stereotypes as shy, retiring, or stoic -- said, "Just do it!" All votes passed overwhelmingly, with no votes against and no drawn-out hassles about how to implement the policies.

I'm particularly grateful to the ELCA for adding restoration to its reforms. My colleague, Rev. Paul W. Egerston, faithfully pastored and served as Bishop in the Lutheran church for 31 years. He resigned one month before the end of his term in 2001. Why? He ordained a lesbian as a Pastor and took a public stand for justice in opposition to the official anti-gay policy of the ELCA. Now, Paul and his wife, Shirley, and their six children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren can take a day off. I believe that through the ELCA's restoration, God has sent them a message, "Well done, my good and faithful servants."

In the midst of this week of celebration, I have been asked, "What about the rest of the churches? How can we get them to change their minds about gay people and our rights as human beings?"

Let me suggest a simple formula: praise, publicize, and participate. It is important that we actively support the ELCA leaders and the early adopters with our public affirmation and praise. Write a letter of commendation of the ELCA to the editor in your local paper and send a copy to the denominational headquarters. Carbon copy your letter to the leadership of non-affirming denominations. Financially support the organizations who "push the envelope" of denominational resistance to change. Anti-gay fundamentalists outspend pro-gays by a ratio of four to one. Participate in community-based engagement efforts. These have proven highly effective in shifting attitudes of fundamentalists towards gays.

The good news is that science is on our side. Consumer adoption theory tells us that the rate at which people accept change or innovation accelerates once early adopters embrace the idea and people hear about the change. This makes sense when you think about the way in which people buy new technology. There are always people who buy the first release. They tell their friends and families. They weather the challenges of operating systems that are less than perfect.

The ELCA has served as the beta test site for a process through which a very traditional faith community can reverse its thinking and policies. They will continue to push the envelope and all of us will learn from their experiences. Other denominational leaders and congregants will be glad that they tested the waters first.

And, soon, as we've seen with microwaves, cell phones, the Internet, and even the Model-T, the rest of us will wade into the water as well.

The Lutherans have made a crack in the dam of religious bigotry that is now set to break wide open for the rest of the fundamentalist world -- we are at a tipping point.

The ELCA has conducted itself with grace and dignity, and many of us are longing for some of that type of public civility. Their example is going to make people within other embattled denominations long for a better process within their own communities. The ELCA members didn't wage war in public with one another. There was no public outcry that diminished everyone while they worked their way through a quarter century of discussion.

The ELCA press release about the decision reads:
These actions are important because they are a major milestone along the journey of full inclusion. We have a policy that recognizes the gifts of its members [...] and that will allow the return of those who have been removed or alienated [...]. [There will] be new life in the church through new leaders. [...] [W]e have lifted up crucial questions for the church: What is the relationship of sexuality to salvation in Christ? What is the diversity in God's wondrous creation? What is sinful? [...] Who continues to face barriers to ministry and mission? How do we journey together faithfully, in spite of so many differences? What some people have dismissed as a narrow issue has both opened up and profoundly deepened our moral and theological life.

Amazing. It sounds like the Lutherans think LGBTQ people have helped them get closer to God. A great truth has been realized today that Jesus Christ demonstrated throughout His ministry 2000 years ago. It is not blasphemous to include and embrace the prayers and relationships and service of those outside society's gate. In fact, it's a blessing.

Although I would not call the Lutheran church "fundamentalist" at all, they are very much "mainstream" instead. I would have considered them (even before reading this) to be among the most likely to adopt such policies.
 
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As a regular church go'er myself, I think the mainstream churches need to address the apparent disconnect between scripture and same sex blessings. Leviticus 18:22 clearly says "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." To many right wingers, that's all it takes, there is no more argument, male-on-male homosexual sex acts are a sin.

However, to me it's not that simple. No where in the Bible does it say that male homosexual sex is any greater a sin than any of the other hundreds of sins listed. http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibh4.htm If you believe in Christianity, you'll know we're all sinners, so it doesn't matter if you're gay, straight or somewhere in the middle.

This is the debate the liberal-minded churches need to address, they need to say that they understand scripture, and these are the reasons same sex blessings are okay. Besides, the church would be blessing the loving relationships, not the sexual acts, of couples. In my church there are well over a dozen gay and lesbian folks, and I see no problem in valuing their relationships. Now, if you'd asked me this 20 years ago, I'd say you were nuts, but in my highschool in the 1980s there "were no gays".
 
Doesn't that same passage in Leviticus condemn the eating of shellfish and barring the wearing of mixed fibre clothing? (it's been a long time since I cracked open that book)

Traditionally, if people had not become fixated on the really vague man-lying-with-man part, we might be tossing people in jail for eating lobster.
 
Speaking of shellfish, this is one of my all time favorite clips:

[video=youtube;R4PIJpc0pIs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4PIJpc0pIs[/video]
 
Doesn't that same passage in Leviticus condemn the eating of shellfish and barring the wearing of mixed fibre clothing? (it's been a long time since I cracked open that book)

Traditionally, if people had not become fixated on the really vague man-lying-with-man part, we might be tossing people in jail for eating lobster.

the great thing about the bible is that god said you can choose which passages to follow and which to ignore.

regarding the topic at hand, good for the lutherans. i have the same amount of respect for that group as i have for hamas for funding children's hospitals.
 
It will be interesting to see if the Lutheran church survives this though. Liberalized churches seldom are as successful in membership or finances as more traditional/conservative RC and Evangelical churches. The UC became the United Church of Everything and has seen its numbers plummet.
 
I suppose it's due to the fact that when a church leans more liberally, it's congregation will be more likely to just not show up. When you're saying that God has very strict guidelines and will light your pants on fire if you disobey, you'll be much more likely to go to church than if God's a lot more lenient on what you do. It's either that the congregation becomes more liberal and less likely to attend, or the more conservative and more likely to attend members will go to a more conservative church.
 
but who needs church when you can watch it on tv! no need to wear your sunday best when you can praise the lord sitting naked on your leather couch in your air conditioned living room! actually, come to think of it, that is wearing my sunday best. ;)
 
Bottom line, people's interpretations of the Bible (and, while we're at it, the Qur'an,) aren't exactly the purest forms of the word.

thank goodness for that!
 
It will be interesting to see if the Lutheran church survives this though. Liberalized churches seldom are as successful in membership or finances as more traditional/conservative RC and Evangelical churches. The UC became the United Church of Everything and has seen its numbers plummet.

I think there's some truth in that..as liberally minded people tend to be a lot less religious than conservatives.

Most data I've seen shows Protestants in Canada have pretty much always given a plurality of their votes to the Tories. Harper received something like 70% of the votes of weekly-attending Protestants last time.

ETA: I should add that I'm an atheist or agnostic (depends on how you define it) and applaud the de-Christianization of the West. At the same time though, I'd prefer to have religious progressives around to fill the void for people who need a religious outlet, and there are a lot of people of faith I respect (Tommy Douglas, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, etc.)
 
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Atheist = You don't believe there is a god (from the greek a- meaning without, and theos meaning god.)
Agnostic = You believe that god can not be proven which also means that any of the more developed ideas of god (Christianity, Parthenon, Hinduism,) aren't credible (from greek a- without, gnoskos- knowing)

I personally believe that faith's being manipulated way too much. It is and always will be important to have a religious system. However, religion's become so heavily politically charged that Christianity, Islam and Judaism are almost synonymous with right wing conservative policies. Unfortunately, people will continue to take these religions as ways of life rather than philosophies, and there's still the extremely prevalent problem these days that people are just so afraid of change. Traditionally, right wingers are traditional. And unfortunately, with the world slowly coming to it's knees with economic, environmental and social disasters, people are feeling more pressured to keep a conservative nature and so there won't be support for the radical ideas which are the only hope for solving problems. Along with more conservative standing, beliefs are also a bigger player in these times of struggle (kind of stupid when talking about Canadians losing their christmas bonus, but it's still true.)
 

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