Spirit of a Liberal

Marriage is an institution that strengthens and stabilizes society. It is an institution that has the capacity to bring profound joy and happiness to people and it is a matter of equality and keeping faith of one of the charters of the nation, the right to live your life.

What left wing politician made this radical statement?  Were the attendees at a high profile marriage equality fund raising party the usual suspects, the bleeding heart liberals?

Actually, no.  Turns out some big shot Republicans are getting on board:

I think there is a growing mass of people in Republican politics who are fundamentally sick and tired about being lectured to about morality and how to live your life by a bunch of people who have been married three or four times and are more likely to be seen outside a brothel on a Thursday night than being at home with their kids… There is a fundamental indecency to the vitriol and the hatred directed against decent people because of their sexuality. People have reached a critical mass with this.

According to Sam Stein’s blog, the prominent Republicans who are publicly backing marriage equality include former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt, former Bush campaign manager and Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman (who recently came out of the closet), former New Jersey governor Christie Todd Whitman, Mary Cheney (the lesbian daughter of former VP Dick Cheney), and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.  Of course, we previously blogged about the influential Republican lawyer (Ted Olson) behind the court case challenge to Prop 8 that is working its way through the court system.

But then there is the little matter of the Tea Party–the angry, gun-toting, populist, nativist, anti-Muslim, homophobic, racist, modern version of the “Know Nothings”* who are threatening to take over the Republican party, if they haven’t already done so.  Time will tell if the Republican big tent can contain the bloody wrestling match between the establishment Republican elites and what is euphemistically referred to as “the base”.

*”The Know-Nothing movement was a nativist American political movement of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to Anglo-Saxon values and controlled by the Pope in Rome. Mainly active from 1854 to 1856, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization, though its efforts met with little success. Membership was limited to Protestant males of British lineage over the age of twenty-one.”  Wikipedia

Since the formation of the ELCA in 1988, the denomination has been shepherded by three presiding Bishops:  Herb Chilstrom, H George Anderson, and currently Mark Hanson.  Herb and wife Corrine now reside in retirement in St. Peter, Minnesota.  On August 26th, Herb penned an op-ed piece for the newspaper in nearby Mankato—his response to the formation of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) as a splinter from the ELCA.  Bishop Chilstrom asked three rhetorical questions of those who have departed the ELCA for NALC, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC), or another church body.

First, what is it about sex that pushed you over the edge?

The retired Bishop wonders why some elevate questions of sexual behavior over more momentous issues such as abortion, war and peace, and the death penalty.  What is it about the sexual behavior of others that causes such a visceral outcry and schismatic response?

[Other issues seem] far more serious than getting upset about two adults of the same gender who, like most of us straight folks, chose to live peacefully in a life-long relationship — the only such pairing the ELCA has approved. Like their straight neighbors, they live peacefully, go to their jobs every morning, pay their taxes, volunteer for good causes and, in many cases, worship with us. What is it that upsets you about this?

Ah, the straw that broke the camel’s back comes the response.  The various dissident groups go to great lengths to suggest that LGBT issues were merely the tipping point that reflects a lengthy ELCA drift away from tradition and traditional Biblical interpretations.  To be sure, LCMC was formed nearly a decade ago, and many LCMC congregations departed the ELCA prior to CWA09 (but the LCMC has doubled in size since CWA09).

Here is my take.  CWA09 resolutions were not the tipping point but the opportunity seized upon by long time ELCA detractors to scare the the folks in the pews into following their leadership.  For much of the hierarchy of WordAlone, CORE, NALC, and even LCMC, their disaffection with the ELCA goes back to the very beginning, and it can all be summed up in one word—CONTROL.  This blog has previously critiqued the comments of dissident theologians Nestingen, Braaten, and Benne who in similar ways lamented the egalitarian impulses of the newly formed ELCA thereby diminishing the power of the male elites.  Over the years, this coterie repeatedly attempted, unsuccessfully, to achieve leadership status within the ELCA.

But then came CWA09.  They saw their chance and they took it.  CWA09 handed the dissidents a cultural wedge issue that they could use to drive ELCA congregants and congregations away from the ELCA and into their own organization, under their control.  So, Herb, it is not about sex.  Nor is it truly about Biblical interpretation.  Here the Missouri Synod critique of the new Lutheran church bodies makes sense—if these new organizations truly want to be Biblical traditionalists, why do they allow female clergy?  Or divorced clergy?  The existence of female and divorced clergy within their ranks puts the lie to the claim that it is all about strict and traditional Biblical interpretation.  No, Herb, it is something else.  It is all about power and control.

Here is Bishop Chilstrom’s second question:

Second, why are you organizing new churches?

Surely there must be one among them [existing Lutheran bodies] that would welcome you. Why go to all the unnecessary expense of setting up an entirely new structure with officers, boards, committees and institutions?

This might be a good place to interject some basic data about the numerous small and uniformly conservative Lutheran Church bodies that exist in the US in open criticism of the more-progressive ELCA.  For comparison, the ELCA has over 10,000 congregations and over 4 million members (statistics for each derived from Wikipedia or the organization’s website)

• Missouri Synod (LCMS) 2.4 million members
• Wisconsin Synod (WELS) 1,300 congregations
• Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) 500 congregations
• Free Lutheran Churches (AFLC) 270 congregations
• Lutheran Brethren 123 Congregations
• North American Lutheran Church (NALC) 18 congregations.

Bishop Chilstrom assumes the reason why LCMC and NALC don’t join one of the other bodies is because LCMC and NALC will continue to ordain women as their legacy from the ELCA.  I know the LCMC is attempting to to position itself as the moderate middle of Lutherandom with the more progressive ELCA on the left and the more conservative others on the right.  There would also appear to be an organizational difference between LCMC (congregational autonomy) and NALC (a denominational structure).  I have previously characterized LCMC as a website and a mailing list.  Their organizational paid staff is minimal.  No seminaries, no colleges, no candidacy committees, no disaster relief, no missionary support, no … fill in the blank.  It is merely an affiliation of like minded congregations that are free to do their own thing with minimal organizational support or control.

There’s that word again.  CONTROL.  See the answer to number 1, Herb.

Here is Bishop Chilstrom’s final question:

Third, what will you say to your sons and daughters, sisters and brothers and others in your churches when they tell you they are homosexual?

This is the nub of it.  We can argue about “gay issues” till we’re blue in the face, but we miss the human element.  This not some academic argument; this is about real lives, children of God, baptized brothers and sisters.  I asked last week how many church bulletins proclaim “all are welcome”—and really mean it. 

“What will you say to your sons and daughters?” Herb asks. 

Will you offer empty platitudes (hate the sin but love the sinner)?  Will you “pray the gay away?”  Will you offer junk science such as reparative therapy that will only deepen their pain?  Will you turn your back or offer an embrace?

Retired Pastor Duane from my congregation tells the story of the gay high school boy who came out to him and then asked Duane to accompany him when he came out to his parents. 

Mom came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron, with a worried look on her face when the pair arrived in the driveway.

“Mom, I’m gay,” the boy said.

“Is that all?” and mom smiled with relief and gave her son a hug.

They were still in the driveway when dad arrived in the pickup with mud flaps and a rifle slung in the rear window.  He exited the cab with a mixed expression of anger and concern.

“Dad, I’m gay”, the son said.

Dad’s face drained of all color, and his eyes turned black.  He looked at his son, his wife, Pastor Duane, and back at his son.  Then, his eyes moistened and his lips quivered.

“I don’t understand,” he said, his voice cracking, “and I probably never will.  But, you’re my son, and I love you.”  Father and son fell into each other’s arms, shaking and sobbing.

This isn’t about doctrine, or confessionalism, or Biblical interpretation, and it ought not be about control.  This is about grace.  This is about trust.  Let go and let God.  Listen to the wisdom of Herb Chilstrom:

I am both sad and relieved that you are leaving. Sad, because this was not what we hoped for when the ELCA was formed some 22 years ago. We believed we could be a church where we held to the essentials and allowed for differences on non-essentials.
But I am also relieved. Now those of us who remain in the ELCA can get on with our primary mission of telling everyone  — everyone — “Jesus loves you. You are welcome in this church.”

The long awaited and much ballyhooed Convocation of Lutheran CORE is underway in Grove City, Ohio.  At the Convocation, eighteen former ELCA congregations have banded together as charter members of the CORE created Lutheran denomination auspiciously called The North American Lutheran Church (NALC). 

Eighteen. 

Newly elected NALC bishop Paull Spring predicts the new denomination will soon grow to as many as two hundred congregations.  Even this optimistic view seems a far cry from “A Reconfiguration of North American Lutheranism”, yet the press release yesterday persisted in that hyperbole and added the prideful presumption that the actions of CORE were the Lord’s doing:

Our Lord’s reconfiguring of the Lutheran landscape not only in North America, but worldwide, is breathtaking and exciting.

Eighteen.

Spring suggested that the ELCA gay friendly resolutions of a year ago were merely the tipping point, and it was the ELCA’s long term drift away from Scripture that is really the issue.  According to the Associated Press report on the Convocation and an interview with Bishop Spring,

He gave as an example the ELCA’s use of inclusive language that strips male references to God — such as “Father” and “Son” — replacing them with words like “Creator” and “Savior.”

Did he really say that?  Did he really claim that “Creator” is non-scriptural?  Did he really argue that “Savior” is non-scriptural?  The verses that prove the contrary are too numerous to list, but here are a couple of obvious examples.  Surely the recycled Bishop is familiar with Romans 1, perhaps the favorite “clobber passage” of those who would use Scripture to bash gays, where Paul nobly references “the Creator”.  And what about those favorites of churchly misogynists, the Pastoral Epistles–surely the Bishop knows these well?  How did he miss the numerous references there to the “Savior”?  What kind of Biblical parsing is the Bishop up to? 

In this case, at least, it would appear that the arrogance of Biblicism is matched by its incompetence.

In 1984, a new restaurant opened in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, between the west bank campus of the University of Minnesota and Augsburg, a private liberal arts college of the ELCA.  Restaurants come and go, and this new start was hardly noteworthy except that the goal was not to make money but to give it away, and they have succeeded beyond the founder’s wildest imagination.  By the time that St. Martin’s Table serves its final customers this December, 26 years after it first offered delicious, homemade vegetarian fare, it will have gifted over $700,000 to alleviate hunger locally and globally.

St. Martin’s Table is an outreach ministry of the Community of St. Martin. It is a bookstore and restaurant open to the general public. St. Martin’s Table strives to be a center for peacemaking and justice seeking. This focus springs from the Community’s faith, centered in the life and teachings of Jesus, and so we seek to provide hospitality to all people in their journeys toward peace, justice and wholeness.

The existence of St. Martin’s Table was one of those things that lay somewhere in the recesses of my mind.  I knew about it, but I didn’t really know about it.  Thus, when I stopped in for lunch for the first time a month or so ago, my response was “why haven’t I been here before” and “I can’t wait to come back.”  The homemade gazpacho and generous wedge of carrot cake were part of the attraction, but it was much more than that.

The food served is a celebration of God’s gifts to us. To that end, St. Martin’s Table serves vegetarian meals with and emphasis on locally grown and organic food. Volunteer servers not only contribute their time, but also contribute their tips to programs that alleviate hunger in the global community.

Conversation takes place not only around the table at noon, but also during programs centered on peacemaking, justice issues and community-building through the arts. St. Martin’s Table is also available for study, worship, fellowship and special events for the wider community.

St. Martin’s Table strives to be fiscally sound and to be a good steward of all resources, especially as they relate to the long-term vitality of the Table. As an alternative business, it is our priority to model a more just way to live and have that reflected in the relationships we cultivate. The Table strives to be a place of peace where creative visions for a world of justice are welcomed and nurtured.

And who is St. Martin, the namesake of the community and the restaurant/bookstore?

The restaurant/bookstore, like the ecumenical community, was named for five Martins who have been models of change, truth and resistance in the Christian faith:

• Martin Luther, the 16th century reformer who taught the theology of the cross
• Martin Luther King, Jr., for his leadership in nonviolent protest to end racism and injustice
• Martin of Tours, a fourth century Roman soldier turned pacifist
• Martin de Porres, a Spanish-Indian healer who served the poor of Peru in the 1600s
• Martin Niemoeller, a German pastor imprisoned for his nonviolent resistance to the Nazis during World War II

On August 25th, I received an email that announced that The Table would serve its last meal this coming December.

It is with thankfulness for all of the hospitality that has been shown here for 26 years, and also with great sadness that we announce that St. Martin’s Table will be closing in December, 2010.

Bookstore manager Kathleen Olsen encouraged people to continue to support The Table between now and Christmas. “We hope that our loyal clientele, in addition to those who have never been to The Table, will join us in the upcoming months for good food, good books, and good conversation. Help us celebrate a great 26 years!”

Drop in for lunch or leave a greeting on the Facebook page ( which lists the Thursday menu as “Soups: Creamy Curry Split Pea and Chilled Cucumber Yogurt followed by Cashew Carrot (cold). Spreads: Swiss Dill, Tofuna and Bunny Luv”).