Author Archives: Obie Holmen

An ELCA sexuality statement and assembly primer: #CWA09

ELCA assemblyOn August 17, “1,045 voting members from 65 synods and 10,448 congregations serving on behalf of the 4,709,203 baptized members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America” will convene in Minneapolis for the 2009 biennial assembly. I will be there, too, and I plan to liveblog during the six day event.

There will be worship services, workshops, and plenty more to keep delegates busy, but all eyes will be on the plenary sessions in which the ELCA sexuality statement and LGBT issues will be debated and voted upon. The following is an overview of players and constituencies likely to play major roles or have significant interest in the proceedings.

Bishop Hanson

Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson. In the ecclesiology of the ELCA, this is an elected position for a limited term. The presiding Bishop is largely an administrative position without significant legislative functions. The body of delegates at this and other biennial conventions have ultimate legislative authority.

Church Council (Council of Bishops). Each of the 65 synods has a presiding bishop. As a collective body, the bishops serve as the Church Council, which acts as board of directors and legislative body between biennial assemblies. When the Church Council met late in March, it voted to submit the ELCA sexuality statement to the churchwide assembly for consideration. Significantly, it also set guidelines in which voting decisions on the statement would proceed according to majority vote (opponents of the various measures prefer a 2/3 or supra-majority standard). Of course, since the assembly itself has final legislative authority, these standards could be changed, and early skirmishes over procedures are likely to be telling during the assembly.

Sexuality Study Task Force. At the 2001 biennial assembly, a resolution was passed to create a task force to study and report on a proposed social statement on human sexuality.
Although the composition of the task force has changed over time, it has consisted of 27 appointed persons, most recently under the leadership of Pastor Peter Strommen (formerly the bishop of the NE synod of Mn and a personal friend of mine). The proposed Sexuality Statement is the work product of this task force. Three general comments can be made about the Statement: first, it is generally favorable toward LGBT persons; second, it allows LGBT persons in a committed relationship to become rostered clergy based upon local, congregational option; and, third, it is silent regarding “gay marriage”, but that may also be subject to local congregational decision.

Of course, there are advocacy/interest groups on both sides.

Since 1974, a group called Lutherans Concerned has advocated on behalf of LGBT Lutherans. This group’s official posture regarding the proposed statement is mostly positive since gay clergy will be allowed according to local congregational option but also concerned that the local option rule will also allow pockets of dissent within the ELCA that will fester over time. But the biggest criticism pertains to the absence of “a means of public recognition of same-gender relationships, no rite of blessing or marriage. Unacceptable, but correctable inconsistency.” Press release Feb 19, 2009.

Another organization supportive of LGBT issues is The Lutheran Network for Inclusive Vision, and their website may be found at The Network.

Perhaps the most proactive, pro-LGBT group is Goodsoil, and they solicit assembly delegates and other volunteers to offer a full range of advocacy activities during the assembly. I have joined this group and will volunteer my services during the assembly.

On the right is the well-known conservative movement within the ELCA known as the WordAlone Network. Originally founded in 1996 to resist the ecumenical agreement with the Episcopalian Church, the group has continued over the years to offer a conservative point of view within the ELCA. They now claim a membership of over 6,000 ELCA Lutherans and 1,000 clergy. Their website includes the following statement:

WordAlone’s primary concern is that the ELCA is losing its Christ-centered focus. ELCA churches and members are turning to authorities other than the authority of God’s Word, revealed in his risen Son, Jesus Christ, and in his inspired Word in the Holy Scriptures. The other authorities – human experience, wisdom and tradition – are used to turn aside the authority of God’s Word.

As to the Sexuality Statement specifically, the WordAlone Network claims that the ELCA usurps divine authority.

The usurped authority resolution criticizes the ELCA for voting on matters governed by Divine Law when it has no legitimate authority to do so and for sending proposals that “explicitly reject Scripture’s clear, consistent witness concerning marriage and sexuality” to the churchwide assembly.

It will be an interesting summer in the ELCA, and I will keep you posted from my vantage point on the left side of Northfield, Mn.

Feminist News

Here are a couple of week-ending notes.

First, highly regarded author, theologian, and elder in the African Methodist Church, the Rev. Dr. Renita Weems has an interesting blog post about Rabbi Alysa Stanton. Rabbi Stanton is apparently the first black woman to become a Rabbi. Congratulations to Rabbi Stanton and thanks to Dr. Weems for an excellent post.

Second, the popular GLBT website, Advocate.com notes that After coming out as a lesbian in 2006, Batwoman finally gets her own comic book series — and this time, she’s out, proud, and here to stay.

Third, Desert’s Child Blog reports on a speech by award winning actress Patricia Clarkson to the New Orleans gathering of the Human Rights Coalition. “The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks,” she said, quoting playwright Tennessee Williams. The theme of her talk was the groundswell of support for gay rights and gay marriage breaking through the hard, the cold, the oppressive … by a force that is beautiful, natural, colorful, alive.

Finally, happy Father’s Day (to mothers, too). You are my child, my beloved; I am well pleased with you. This paraphrase of the gospels is my view on the most important attitude a parent can manifest to a child. Let us celebrate our parents, and our children, this weekend.

Catholics Right and Left

I offer a couple of tidbits of Minnesota news, one from the Catholic right and one from the Catholic left.

The ultraconservative Catholic Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) made local news in Minnesota today. This is the breakaway group whose four bishops were excommunicated two decades ago then recently reinstated by Pope Benedict XVI despite controversy over holocaust denials by one of the four, Richard Williamson. Williamson was recently booted out of Argentina where he had been serving.

In Minnesota, the group has reappeared in the news due to the announcement that thirteen seminarians will be ordained by one of the four reinstated bishops, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais. Although the excommunications of the four bishops have been lifted, the Vatican states that the four have no official standing; thus, the ordinations will not be recognized by the church. In an article in the Mpls Star Tribune, Rose Hammes, spokesperson for the Winona Diocese, states:

the men being ordained by the society on Friday would not be eligible to serve as priests in any Roman Catholic diocese.

The St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary of Winona, which is affiliated with SSPX, will host the ordinations.

Meanwhile, in local Minnesota news from the Catholic left, the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM) has announced that Democratic candidate for governor, Sen John Marty, will speak at The Committee’s annual community meeting on June 22. Marty is sponsor of a pending bill in the Mn Senate that would provide for gender-neutral marriage laws, and he will speak on why as a person of faith he supports marriage equality for LGBT people. Marty’s father is Martin Marty, a well known Lutheran theologian, who has strong ties to St Olaf college of Northfield. The event will take place at St. Martin’s Table.

Book Review: The First Paul by Borg and Crossan (Part 2)

Tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to talk back, not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity … Titus 2:9-10a NRSV

How can these words of Paul that were used to justify slavery a century and a half ago be excused as part of “Reclaiming the Radical Visionary”?

Read more …

Obama criticized by left and right

Obama memorandumOn June 17th, President Obama signed a memorandum extending partial benefits to same-gender partners of federal employees, a decision that has drawn criticism from opposite sides of the gay rights debate.

The left has been emboldened by hallmark advances at the state level and wants nothing less than a full loaf. According to MSNBC.com:

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama signaled to gay-rights activists Wednesday that he’s listening to their desire for greater equality in “a more perfect union.” But he didn’t give them even close to everything they want, bringing to the surface an anger that’s been growing against the president.

While Pam Spaulding was receiving an award at the Women’s Media Center Awards, others filled in on her popular blog, Pam’s House Blend. In a post entitled, “Dump DOMA“, guest poster Lurleen includes a series of angry comments such as What a lame-assed, watery, pathetic presidency this is. Although the President has spoken in favor of repealing DOMA, the brief filed by the Department of Justice in support of DOMA is especially vexing.

Similarly, The Other McCain vents and offers commenters space to vent also.

But much as certain conservatives are gloating at the response of gay Democrats (see Glen Reynolds at Instapundit), conservatives are mostly critical. Well known conservative Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council suggests that the President has violated both the letter and spirit of DOMA. Dan Gilgoff of God and Country blog reports:

Conservative Christian groups criticizing the president’s memorandum extending certain benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees are alleging that the president is approximating the benefits of marriage—that he’s basically creating ‘marriage light.’

While the left complains about the pace of Obama’s reform, the right fears the direction. As an old negotiator, I am reminded of the adage that when neither party to a deal is satisfied, then the agreement is probably a fair compromise.

Goodbye Blue Monday

Blue MondayDowntown Northfield is a delicious blend of shops, restaurants, bars, bakeries/ice cream/coffee shops, museum, bookstore, library, and much more. “Eat at Tiny’s. Save America,” says the bumper sticker available at Tiny’s Hot Dogs. “Get your guns, boys, They’re robbing the bank,” say the T-shirts available at the museum store that honors the shootout with the Jesse James gang in 1876, perhaps the most famous episode of banditry in the lore of the wild west.

A recent article by free lance writer Barbara Tuttle published in MinnPost.com conveys the essential ambiance of downtown Northfield, and I post it here in its entirety:

The first time I drove through downtown Northfield, four years ago, I noticed the funky sign: “Goodbye Blue Monday.” What a great name for a coffee shop! I learned later that it was named after a Kurt Vonnegut story. My daughter Kate was beginning college at St. Olaf. I didn’t dream what a welcome part of our routine Blue Monday would become.

When you have kids, the goodbyes fall like leaves, one after the other, from the moment you give birth. Shortly before Kate’s graduation from high school, I moved to Minneapolis in the wake of a flurry of some particular tough goodbyes: one daughter studying in California, a son in France, a collapsed marriage, which even meant goodbye to my beloved Bijou the cat. I found a bit of an anchor in a part-time job at a tech college in the far southeast metro.

Kate had a college decision to make, between St. Olaf and a liberal arts college in Oregon. Being a budding environmentalist, she hankered to go to the Pacific Northwest. But around the time of my move, Kate announced that she’d made a decision. (“The white smoke went up,” we joked, as the cardinals were simultaneously electing a Pope.) St. Olaf it was to be.

Hooray! — a reprieve on one of the most difficult goodbyes. To my delight, I learned that St. Olaf was only 30 miles from what had felt like my out-in-the-boondocks job in exurbia. In fact, Kate lived closer to my job than I did!

A reassuring routine
Every couple of weeks or so, Kate would call and suggest I take her for a Target run and dinner. It was a reassuring routine, doing the habitual mother-daughter errands in the midst of my new life. I always made the same corny joke. Depending on the day of the week, I’d tell her I’d meet her at Goodbye Blue Tuesday or Goodbye Blue Wednesday. She would groan while I re-delighted myself every time at the feigned “cleverness” of my joke.

I got off work at 1, so I’d grab lunch, then drive to Northfield, and pass a pleasant couple of hours at Goodbye Blue Monday, enjoying free wifi, reading the newspaper and drinking coffee till she was free. Then we’d hit Target to replenish her supplies and snacks, marveling at how we gravitated toward the same flavors: anything with dried cranberries, nuts, pumpkin, anything autumnal. “You’d almost think we were related,” she’d say. We’d top off the visit with a trip to the Indian restaurant for chicken tikka masala.

Blue Monday is the Un-Starbucks, for sure. Funky retro lamps adorn little laminate tables, and there are sofas, as well: garage-sale treasures.

It’s an ideal spot for the overheard conversation. Situated directly between Carleton and St. Olaf, it’s a favorite spot for both camps. One of my pastimes was trying to figure out which campus my fellow coffee-sippers came from. Were they discussing who was bringing the wine to the party? Ah, Carleton. (St. Olaf’s a dry campus.) Were they sophisticated and Eastern, or earnest and Lutheran?

Concentration only for Net surfing
On the unusually bright afternoon of Election Day 2008, I sat at my table in the storefront window overlooking Division Street, unable to read, coiled with anticipation at the outcome, like waiting for Santa Claus. Thank God for the wifi, because I had concentration only for surfing the Net, and reading news reports and chat boards like tea leaves.

And Blue Monday is where, on a wintry day, I was reading my new paperback copy of “Dreams from My Father.” I flipped it over to read the short author bio on the back: “In November 2008, Barack Obama was elected president of the United States,” and remembered I’d been in that spot a few months before not knowing the outcome.

This year, on a perfect May day with the crabapples and lilacs in full bloom, I went to Goodbye Blue Monday for the last time. Graduation was imminent, and I was making one last trip to Northfield. No Target run would be needed, as Kate was now cleaning out her dorm room. Next week, she will head to the Dakotas for a summer internship monitoring grasslands. In August, it’s off to Senegal for two years with the Peace Corps.

One more time
My cell phone rang, and it was Kate. Class was over. Could I pick her up at the science building? When I found her, she said, “I haven’t had anything to eat. Want to go to Blue Monday?”

Back we went for more coffee, another chocolate-chip cookie. Seems I’m often blessed with one more reprieve. Of course, nothing’s stopping me from going to Northfield in the future. It’s a pleasant town. But with Kate gone, I know I won’t.

So goodbye to the friendly barista who makes a great dry cappuccino with a perfect froth. Goodbye, ceramic ’50s lamps and sofas and fellow sippers. Goodbye, Goodbye Blue Monday.

Gone fishin’

Canadian walleyeSorry for the lack of activity these past few days.  I was finishing my novel manuscript to get it to the publisher, and this morning I head to Ontario for a fishing trip.  I’ll be back on Tuesday the 16th.  Here’s a photo from last year.

UPDATE:
Eleven veterans and one newbie camped on a remote island of Rainy Lake for four nights (Brule Narrows). The traditional refrain has been: fish, eat, sleep. We realized we needed to add a fourth to that list: smoke cigars.

Walleye fishing was extremely spotty – very hot or very cold. Between four boats, we boated over 300 walleyes with about 80% of those too large for the 17.5″ max according to Canadian regulations. The largest was a shade over 25″ with a median of 20-21″ (3-3.5 lbs).

The largest northern pike was around 39″ (16.5 lbs).

Miscegenation: Loving v. Virginia

lovingsIn 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving were arrested in Virginia and charged with violating that state’s anti-miscegenation laws prohibiting inter-racial marriages.  With the assistance of the ACLU, the couple fought all the way to the US Supreme Court which overruled their conviction in June of 1967, 42 years ago.

According to blogger Nick Covington, the trial court that found them guilty cited religious “truths”:

“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”

My wife and I are white folks of Scandinavian ancestry, but this fall we expect to become grandparents of a “beautiful brown baby”, in the words of my now deceased mother.  When mom was dying of ALS, she expressed few regrets, but she confided to Guni, my black son-in-law-to-be, that she was sorry that she wouldn’t get to meet her great-grandkids, the “beautiful brown babies” to be born of his marriage to our daughter Greta. 

Greta and Guni

Guni and Greta

So, when the child is born sometime around Oct 1, one of the prayers I will offer will be thanks for mom’s compassionate heart.  I will also remember the words of our friend, Sandra from Barbados, who said life is good “when you’re all mixed up” referring to her own pot pourri ethnicity of English, African, and East Indian.

While vestiges of racism remain, America has clearly traveled far down the road of racial justice in the 42 years since the arrest of the Lovings.  But  interest in the Loving’s story is rekindled as precedent for the analogous struggle for gay marriage.  Although she has since passed away, Mildred Loving herself stirred the debate with her own statement two years ago on the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in her own case (quoted in Mountain Sage blog):

My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.gaymarriage

Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.

I’m not sure about imbedding video in this blog, so I will simply refer you to another blog, Down with Tyranny, to listen to Nanci Griffith’s title song from her album to be released on June 9, The Loving Kind.

 

nanci-griffith1

Rainbow Sash followup: GLBT Catholics

Last week, before Pentecost, I posted on the upcoming Rainbow Sash plans for Pentecost mass at the Cathedral of St Paul (Minnesota).  A reader asked what happened at that mass, and here is what I know.

Michael Bayly, in his blog Wild Reed, quotes extensively from Brian McNeill, Rainbow Sash organizer … who disrupted the Pentecost mass?

“Was it the thirty people who quietly and prayerfully were present as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Catholics?” he asks. Or was it Archbishop Nienstedt and Fr. James Adams who “perhaps intentionally opted for the alternative reading from Galatians because it served their sectarian and political purposes . . . [among them to] discredit the wearers of the Rainbow Sash as disruptive protesters?”

Paula Ruddy, in a lengthy and insightful post called “One Archdiocesan Community, Two Mindsets” on The Progressive Catholic Voice goes beyond the issue of GLBT Catholics and suggests there are fundamental differences in the view of “church”:

The Archbishop, as a good leader, wants to maintain order. He is focused on the external behavior of respect and reverence for the sacrament, shown in this case by not drawing attention to the fact that there is disagreement among the communicants. He is concerned for the inner life of the church in that to function well the members should be in agreement on all the basics and obedient to the leaders. The Church is one body, thinking alike, acting reverently, producing a right minded, godly membership. He is speaking like a Communion Catholic.

The Rainbow Sash Alliance, on the other hand, wants to affirm difference. There are many ways we are not alike. Perhaps it would be acceptable to leave differences at the door of the Cathedral when going in to celebrate Mass if there were a forum within the Archdiocese for bringing them up and having them affirmed in another venue. But there is such a high value on uniformity within the Communion leadership, that there is no room for difference. Individuals who do not fit are stifled. GLBT persons do not fit the mold, defined in formulations about sin. People who question do not fit the mold, defined in dogmas and “unchanging truths. [These are Kingdom Catholics.]”

This is a variation on the theme of “polity vs policy”.  That is, what is more important … denominational unity, harmony, peace, etc. (polity) or an underlying issue of injustice (principle)?  In my own ELCA, there will be a contentious national assembly this summer in Mpls over the issue of gay clergy.  Many who resist the movement toward ordination of gays suggest that will be disruptive, schismatic, unsettling, etc., and I suspect they are right.  If church unity (polity) is most important, then the ELCA should not ordain gays. 

But, did Martin Luther or Martin Luther King worry about the unsettling consequences of their actions as they advocated for change (policy)?