Tag Archives: LGBT

Who bears the burden of withheld funds? #CWA09 #Goodsoil09

This is a repost from Pastor Robb Harrell who blogs as Lutherpunk. Pastor Harrell’s parish is a multi-ethnic mission church in Georgia.

An Open Letter to Lutheran CORE and all those Redirecting Benevolence Funds

Dear Friends in Christ –

This is a difficult time for us to be the church together. Whether we like it or not, the ELCA changed on August 21 when changes in ministry policies were approved by our Churchwide Assembly. Some see this change as the Holy Spirit moving in our midst, a sign that God is still speaking in favor of justice. Others see this as the ELCA officially endorsing a sinful, disordered lifestyle and a departure from universal witness of the Church Catholic through the centuries. I do not write to you today to speak either in favor of or against the changes. I write to you today to tell you about my parish, St. Luke Lutheran Church in McDonough, Georgia.

St. Luke is a redevelopment church in one of the fastest growing areas in the region. The church is the result of two churches merging to form a new mission congregation. Sadly, church mergers are often difficult and rarely prove to be successful. Like many other mergers, St. Luke found itself embroiled in conflict. The once promising mission lost more than half of its membership and its founding pastor. A little over two years ago I was asked by our mission director to come visit the mission, which meets in a storefront location in a multicultural neighborhood. We are nestled between an Asian nail salon and a Caribbean bakery (the bakery supplies us with the most wonderful communion bread each week). I fell in love with this little wounded church and its people, and moved my family from a place where we were very content to this new call. It is a rich place to be in mission and ministry together.

In the last two years St. Luke has made great strides and shown signs of stabilization. We average a little over 60 in worship each week. We are engaged in our community, with ministries that focus primarily outside of ourselves. Our primary ministries revolve around food during these tough economic times. Not only do we distribute meals around the holidays, but we feed the residence at a shelter once a month, we maintain a “Food Angels” ministry that identifies people in the community who lack necessary items such as food, baby formula, and diapers. We also maintain a small emergency food pantry in our storefront so that we can feed those who may wander in, which is a regular occurrence. All of the items we distribute are donated by our members and friends. We know can’t do everything and we can’t help everyone, but what we can do is make sure no leaves our church hungry.

While we are committed to this sort of ministry, our real joy is what occurs here on Sunday mornings. A diverse body gathers. Some are wealthy, some are barely subsisting on state assistance. We are the descendants of Europeans, Asians, Africans and Middle Easterners. We are young and old. When we gather, we are one. Our voices join together in singing praise to God the Holy Trinity as we gather around Word and Sacrament. All in all, we are a typical small church. We love one another, we love our neighbors, and we love God.

In order for us to find the stability so desperately needed, the Southeastern Synod has provided us with over $100,000 in funding over the course of three years. Because of this funding, St. Luke was able to call me to be their full time pastor. This funding also allows us to be present in the community in a way that allows us to share the Gospel with a broken and hurting world. All of the money St. Luke has received find sits origins in benevolence money sent from local churches to the synod. New mission starts and mission redevelopments like ours are dependent upon the generosity of local congregations and local Lutherans. Most of us are teetering on a financial edge that established churches cannot even imagine.

I know you are angry and hurt at the outcome of the Churchwide Assembly. I know you need to find a way to make sure your collective voice is heard. Redirecting your benevolence money away from your Synod and the ELCA seems like a good way to demonstrate how hurt and angry you are. I would ask you to reconsider. It is not the “people in Chicago” who will ultimately suffer from your withdrawal of funds. It is small mission churches like St. Luke and the people we serve that will suffer. If we lose our funding – even a portion of it – we may well not be able to continue in ministry in the same way. This deeply saddens me, not as a pastor who would have to seek another call to support his family of five, but as pastor who sees the look on the faces of the hungry as we fill grocery bags with food and diapers, providing a glimmer of hope and sign of love in this broken world.

I pray that God will bless you as you gather for the Lutheran CORE meeting in September. I also implore you, in the name of Christ, to find another way to protest than withdrawal of funds from our Synods and the ELCA. Nothing less than the spread of the Gospel itself is at stake.

Your Servant in Christ,

Pastor Robb Harrell

Bishop Huck calls an ELCA synod meeting #CWA09 & #Goodsoil09

I’m new to Northfield and the Southeast Minnesota synod of the ELCA, one of sixty-five synods spread around the country. Each synod has a chief administrator and “pastor to the pastors”, a bishop. In Southeast Minnesota, that would be Bishop Huck Usgaard. On Wednesday the 9th, Bishop Huck invited the clergy from the 185 congregations of the synod to come together to discuss the recent ELCA Churchwide assembly actions approving gay clergy in “publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous” relationships and allowing congregations to recognize and support same gender couples. I was pleased to be present.

The bishop began by reminding the assembled that the ELCA and its predecessors have a history of conflict over issues of inclusion as old as Paul and his Gentile churches against James and the Jerusalem church. Closer to home, he shared the story of the two Lutheran churches of his home town in Iowa that had a vigorous dispute over the theology of predestination in their early days, but when they celebrated their centennial, those gathered couldn’t remember which congregation took which side. Then there was slavery and some churches were quiescent and others were activist, then women’s ordination divided congregations, and now policies of LGBT inclusion.“We’ll get through this, too,” was the implicit message of assurance.

Each of the clergy who had been voting members at the ELCA convention in Minneapolis in August were asked to share their impressions. Six or eight spoke. All, save one, were positive, even though some acknowledged they had voted “no” on the key resolutions. The one was quite negative and accused the ELCA of going against the word of God. He quoted extensively from the assembly address by the president of the Missouri Synod (LCMS), which in turn quoted from the 16th century Reformation era Formula of Concord. He fit the pattern of the Lutheran Core / WordAlone response, and he echoed their talking points … rejection of the Word of God … reference to Reformation documents … strong rightward tilt toward the LCMS. See my earlier posts here and here.

A question and answer session was followed by small group discussions. How were voting members picked? From conference meetings. The Bishop reported hearing suggestions that voting members were hand picked and/or were incompetent and/or were pressured, and for the only time during the day, he showed his irritation as he rebuked such suggestions. Have any congregations notified the bishop of an intention to secede? Not one, not yet. There was appreciation expressed for the pastoral leadership of presiding bishop, Mark Hanson, during the assembly.

We broke bread and drank wine together. Spontaneous hymn singing, a capella, broke out.

In closing, the bishop expressed hope that no members and no congregations would leave the ELCA, but he also said those staying should not be motivated by revenge or ill will—better to leave than fester. He quoted Gamaliel’s speech to the Sanhedrin after Peter and others were arrested:

keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!

More Light Presbyterians “Celebrating God’s Whole Family” followup

More Light Presbyterians, an LGBT friendly advocacy group, had its “Celebrating God’s Whole Family” get together last weekend in Nashville. Activist blogger, Pastor John Shuck, was there as a workshop presenter. Check his Shuck and Jive blog post for his report.

This photo of a discussion circle, and many other photos from the event, may be viewed here.

Next summer, the Presbyterian Church, USA (PCUSA) will meet for its national convention in Minneapolis. LGBT issues will be on the agenda. Could Minneapolis be the scene of another breakthrough as with the ELCA convention of 2009?

God willing.

A lost generation? #CWA09 & #Goodsoil09

The young woman nervously approached the microphone at the ELCA 2009 convention. This fall, she will be a high school senior. With apologies, I paraphrase her plea.

“Give us honesty,” she said. “My generation is turned off by what they see as hypocrisy in the church. ‘Love your neighbor’ is on the lips of the church, but a cold shoulder is what my generation sees.”

Is she alone in her view? Not according to Harvard University professor Robert Putnam, who conducted research into the declining participation of youth in religion, which he summarized in advance of publishing his book, “Amazing Grace”. His research indicates that many youths have turned their backs on organized religion.

While the young may be unchurched, they are not necessarily atheists.

“Many of them are people who would otherwise be in church,” Putnam said. “They have the same attitudes and values as people who are in church, but they grew up in a period in which being religious meant being politically conservative, especially on social issues.”

Putnam says that in the past two decades, many young people began to view organized religion as a source of “intolerance and rigidity and doctrinaire political views,” and therefore stopped going to church.

A commenter on this blog said this earlier this week:

Thanks for writing this. It’s good to hear not all “Christians” subscribe to hate. As a gay man, I hear A LOT of hate spewed from Christians and I’ve been told I can’t be a Christian because of how I was born.

Unfortunately, I believe your efforts may be too little too late. I, along with so many others have moved passed and found peace without “Christian” leadership.

I will never go back to a faith that promotes hate.

While many in the ELCA are wringing their hands, worrying about losing members, wondering how to defend Convention actions, wistful about the loss of a Bible writ in block letters, black and white and bold print, I say this is an opportunity. An opportunity for mission. An opportunity to live the gospel and not merely preach it. An opportunity for honesty. Let this be a teaching moment in which we plumb the depths of scripture far beyond the literalistic superficialities of the past. Let us invite, encourage and inspire a new generation by our deeds.

“Jesus said, ‘Be fishers of men,’” says Putnam, “and there’s this pool with a lot of fish in it and no fishermen right now.”

A 16th century approach to 21st century problems: #CWA09 & #Goodsoil09

With feet planted squarely in the sixteenth century, octogenarian and retired theologian Carl Braaten has assumed the intellectual mantle as defender of Lutheran orthodoxy. On behalf of Lutheran Core (fellow travelers of the WordAlone network), he penned an open letter to delegates to the recent ELCA 2009 convention; later, he engaged in an ongoing debate with former Presiding Bishop Herb Chilstrom.

Presently, Braaten argues that ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson is wrong, our ELCA unity is not in Christ, as Hanson suggests, but in our Reformation era confessions. Braaten longs for the good old days of the Augsburg Confession (1530), but then he muses that even the Reformation was too radical: “When the first Lutherans lost the magisterial authority of the Roman Catholic Church, it had no sure authority to put in its place.” Too much democracy, that’s the problem. Too much enlightened thinking. Too much reason and rationality. Ah, if the Lutherans only had an authoritative, top down Magisterium like the Catholics, this slippery slope modernism would be held in check. Why, just look at who the ELCA’s ecumenical friends are these days! The Episcopalians, the UCC, the RCA, the Presbyterians, and the Methodists. Mainline Protestants all.

The Lutheran Core website claims that the ELCA convention’s approval of gay clergy and gay marriage has resulted in strained ecumenical relationships. With whom? Not with these mainline protestant ecumenical partners, but with the Roman Catholics and Missouri Synod Lutherans. A sharp turn to the right is in order, according to Braaten and the Lutheran Core reactionaries.

With tongue firmly in his cheek, Lutheran Pastor Erik Samuelson responds to Braaten:

Dr. Braaten-

Thank you for your comments. I have always held you to be one of the great doctors of the Church. Though I have never met you, through your writings[, you] are one of my teachers. I was hoping I would run into you at the Churchwide Assembly, where I was a voting member, so you could answer a question that came up for me while watching the lecture video LutheranCORE distributed.

In the video, you refer to Jesus’ teaching that remarriage after divorce is adultery as “one of the great absolutes of Jesus”. You even mentioned your own children who had been divorced (though didn’t mention that you have, as I assume you have, advised them to remain celibate so as not to enter into adulterous remarriage relationships).

My question is, how can the ELCA allow remarried pastors (unrepentant adulterers) and bless second “marriages”? Both of these actions and the underlying teachings put us out of line with the historical teaching (and 2000 year consensus on human sexuality) of the Christian Church and threaten our ecumenical relationships with both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches? Why have we tolerated this open sin for so long in the ELCA? Might this be the next campaign for us to embark on? Perhaps LutheranCORE can tackle this next? This certainly affects more congregations and pastors than the homosexuality discussions have. Have you written anything on this that might help in our efforts?

Paul Sundberg, another commenter adds, “and what about those pesky women?”

Forward or back, whither shall we go?

Are the Holy Ones leaving? Or, holier than thou? #CWA09 & #Goodsoil09

A group of ELCA pastors huddles over coffee for their weekly text study, but sermon ideas are not the center of discussion this week. “What’s happening in your congregation?” is the question for each in turn. “Just talk, so far,” reports one. “My congregational president has resigned,” says another, “but that prompted two families who didn’t like his heavy handed leadership to return!”

It seems that there is a trickle of disaffected parishioners who are leaving or threatening to leave the ELCA over the new LGBT policies but not a trend–much less a torrent–at least not among this coffee shop gathering.

Word Alone and Lutheran Core, the voices of the opposition, are counseling patience and due deliberation:

We will want to give ourselves time for patient and careful reflection. Now is not the time to make rash, hasty decisions. Most people make serious mistakes when they make decisions under pressure. We do not want to make this mistake now. Our relationship with the ELCA is a serious matter for us. I ask that we all take time to reflect patiently with ourselves and with others and not to make rash decisions now. We all have the time for God to disclose his will for us. Lutheran CORE and our supporters have consistently urged us to maintain at least a formal relationship with the ELCA. The question now before us is the level of our participation within the ELCA.

Around the country, there is anecdotal evidence that the Lutherans are not jumping ship, at least not yet and not in great numbers, over the ELCA 2009 convention actions approving gay clergy and gay marriage. Many congregations are promoting discussion, and folks are seriously wrestling with the question, “what is the Bible and how do we use it?”

Those who leave echo a common refrain, “But there’s this line in the sand. It’s about the Bible and whether we believe what it says.” The Lutheran Core talking points include the statement: “Lutheran CORE is continuing in the Christian faith as it has been passed down to us by generations of Christians. The ELCA is the one that has departed from the teaching of the Bible as understood by Christians for 2,000 years.”

It pains me when some suggest that the ELCA decision was unbiblical, that those of us who agree with the inclusive actions of the assembly don’t “believe what the Bible says.” While we may disagree over interpretation of Scripture, it is self-righteous and judgmental to dismiss contrary opinions as unbiblical or even unchristian.

To the contrary, we believe in the heart of the matter, the “canon within the canon” (Luther’s terminology), the “core testimony” (Walter Brueggeman’s terminology) that compels us to open our arms, our hearts, and our pulpits as we did forty years ago to our sisters despite apparent Biblical admonitions. Luther suggested that all Scripture is not equal, that all passages do not carry the same weight, that some verses must surrender to the greater authority of the core testimony. We agree with Luther, but that does not mean that we reject the authority of the Bible, as charged by some in Lutheran Core and WordAlone.

The Bible says, “Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh” 1st Peter 2:18 and “I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent” 1st Timothy 2:12. Yet, despite nearly two millennia of teaching and tradition, the church now rejects slavery and sexism, by finding deeper streams of meaning in the core testimony of the good news of Jesus of Nazareth, the one who included those that society rejected, those who failed according to the purity rules of the church of his day, those deemed unclean by the Levitical holiness code–the same wellspring that spills out the harsh texts that “clobber” our gay fellows.

The gospel text for yesterday that most Lutheran pastors preached on around the country was Mark’s narrative of the foreign woman who pushed against the traditional Jewish walls of exclusion. For the early church, the question was not “gay” but “Gentile”. Should the Jewish Jesus movement include non-Jews, the Gentiles? Despite their uncleanness? Despite their failure to follow the Jewish law? Despite centuries of tradition and teaching that these did not belong to the family of God?

Halfway through his sermon, my pastor interrupted himself. “There he goes again, some of you are thinking, he’s promoting the gay agenda. It’s not an agenda,” he said. “It’s the gospel.”

There it is. The heart of the matter. The canon within the canon. The core testimony. It’s not unbiblical. It’s not unchristian. It’s the gospel.

I’d like to ask for Sinead’s hand in marriage

With a hat tip toward Madpriest, who borrowed from Kathy, here’s an Irish video clip that makes my Swedish eyes smile.

Where’s the Biblical support for the ELCA action? #CWA09 & #Goodsoil09

I hosted a discussion at my local Lutheran congregation a few nights ago about the recent ELCA Churchwide Assembly 2009, which approved gay clergy and possibly gay marriage. When I was asked the question, “What’s the Biblical basis for the ELCA action?”, I’m afraid I didn’t provide an adequate response. That’s partly my fault and partly because the answer is complicated and nuanced and not a black and white, unambiguous, simple “proof text”, which is what many conservatives on this issue demand.

Does the Bible speak to nuclear disarmament? Universal health care? Teaching evolution in biology class? The flat earth society? Does the Bible speak to twenty-first century issues that are far beyond the purview and understanding of the ancients who authored the words of the Biblical texts? (Ok, if you’re of a mind that God wrote the Bible, you may as well stop reading now).

Does the Bible speak to “publicly accountable, monogamous, life-long same gender relationships?”

Yes, but we must use modern lenses to filter the pre-scientific, culturally conditioned worldview of ancient authors. We must view the issue in light of a twenty-first century understanding and apply broad Biblical principles and not isolated proof texts.

The sixteenth century monk and priest Martin Luther, the greatest sexual revolutionary in history, not only confronted the church’s insistence upon a celibate priesthood when he gleefully married his love, the nun Katy von Bora, but he also reversed a millennium of sexual angst by rejecting the hangups over human sexuality dating to the fifth century, the time of Augustine and Jerome and others who saw sex–even within marriage–as the spreading of the sinful seed of Adam. The joy of sex: the author of the modern book by that title can thank old Father Martin.

But I digress …

It was Martin Luther who suggested that we view, interpret, and understand Scripture through the lens of “the canon within the canon.” Not all scripture is equal. Not all verses carry the same weight. Had it been up to Luther, he would have excluded the “epistle of straw”, the book of James, altogether. He also had serious doubts about the book of Revelation. With deep devotion toward the Holy Writ, he was nevertheless willing to challenge that which should be challenged.

And what is the heart of the matter, Luther’s “canon within the canon”, or the Scripture’s “core testimony”, to use the terminology of theologian Walter Brueggemann? I think most Christians would agree that it has to do with the gospel, the good news of Jesus of Nazareth, the one who accepted and included those rejected by society.

And what of the law, the rules and regulations, the moral precepts that guide and instruct? Here too, there is a heart of the matter, a canon within the canon, and core testimony attributed to the words of Jesus himself. Love God and love your neighbor, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Or, as John the evangelist records the words of Jesus, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.”

Christian ethics is less a set of rules than a principle: a measuring stick, a gauge, or a scale. What is the loving thing to do? The evidence must be weighed–and that includes the best evidence available—scientific, cultural, academic, historical, medical and psychological. Faith and reason. If the weight of the evidence tilts the scale one way—despite the ancient words of the Levitical priests or Paul the apostle—our way forward as faithful Christians is clear. The heart of the matter, the canon within the canon, the core testimony compels us.

While others may disagree, it is unfair to judge this view as unbiblical or unchristian. With Jacob at the ford of the Jabbok, we have wrestled with our wonderings. We believe we have plumbed deeper streams that wash away the passages that some would use to clobber their fellow.

When Herb Chilstrom speaks, Lutherans listen: #CWA09 & #Goodsoil09

When the ELCA was formed in 1987 as the result of merger, the first Presiding Bishop was Herb Chilstrom, and he shepherded nearly five million Lutherans during the formative years of the ELCA’s life. Herb is now retired and resides in St. Peter, Mn, the home of Gustavus Adolphus College. My wife and I were in St Peter yesterday visiting our dear friends, Alan and Gretchen Bray. Alan was our pastor for a decade in the 90’s in Upsala, Mn, and he has been Herb’s pastor since leaving Upsala. While visiting, Alan shared an email that Herb had circulated following the recent ELCA 2009 Convention, which he entitled Reflections on the Minneapolis Churchwide Assembly.

With the permission of the gracious retired bishop, I reprint portions of his email here.

The final votes had been taken. On Friday evening many of us gathered to worship and reflect on what had happened. The room at the Minneapolis Convention Center was filled to near capacity [Goodsoil Central]. We were a mixed group: a synod bishop, straight couples like Corinne and me, straight and gay singles, gay couples, clergy and lay, young and old—a microcosm of the ELCA.

There was no shouting, “We won!” There were no banners proclaiming, “Victory at last!”

The mood was one of quiet and calm. We began with a simple plainsong:

Eternal Spirit of the Living Christ,

Come, pray in us the prayers we need this day.

Our hope, our homing ever in your grace.

We’ve come this far by faith; we can’t turn back.

We listened to words of healing from the Bible … we had prayers for healing and hope … we sang.

At the end of the evening, I was invited to share a few thoughts before I pronounced the benediction. Here is what I said.

I have been asked many times since the voting ended, “What are your thoughts?” I could only come up with one word: “Bittersweet.”

This is surely a moment of sweetness, of thanksgiving at the end of a very long struggle.

But there is a also a heavy stone at the bottom of my heart this night. I realize that words I have written and spoken almost surely have contributed to the decision of some to leave our dear church. Along with so many others, I poured my heart and soul into the formation, birth and early years of our ELCA. I do not want even one to leave.

But over against this heaviness is the memory of those—and their family and friends—who have already left our church. And I am also thinking tonight of all those—and their families and friends—who would leave in even greater numbers had they heard another word of exclusion from this assembly. The door has been opened. We can’t turn back.

Now, nearly a week later, that same mixed feeling persists. Here are some of my most poignant memories from the assembly:

**I remember with admiration the words of former Minnesota governor, Al Quie. He was opposed to the proposals. But like the statesman and churchman that he is, Quie reminded those on the losing side that the church is bigger than this decision and that we must all remain loyal.

**I take some encouragement from the vote on the final recommendation, the call for implementation of the actions that had been approved. That it passed by nearly 70% tells us that many who were disappointed by the outcome also realize that we must move on, living out the implications of the decisions.

**I was impressed by the youth who spoke. I don’t think I would have had the courage to speak at such a huge gathering when I was a teenager. The word we heard from them was that the issues we were debating were not at the top of their list of concerns. They want a church that does not exclude any who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Where does all this leave us? Here is my hope:

That all of us will take a deep, deep breath, asking the promised Holy Spirit to be our Guide, Helper, Counselor, and Friend in the days to come.

That we will give ourselves the time we need to live into this new reality.

That we will pray earnestly for those who lead us.

That will we will concentrate on evangelism, accenting that we are now, more than ever, a church that invites all to share in our rich treasures of Word and Sacrament.

Amen. Thanks again, Herb, for your graceful leadership.

Northfield meeting about ELCA Convention: 7:00 pm, Sept 2

Northfield followers of this blog, please note that I will be hosting a local discussion regarding the recent ELCA Convention, which I attended. The discussion will be at Bethel Lutheran at 7:00 pm, on Wednesday, Sept 2. The informational meeting is open to all: whether members of Bethel or not, whether Lutheran or not, whether in agreement with the recent actions of the ELCA or not.