Well, I am not Lutheran (though as a TEC member, I'm entitled to a small voice about ELCA through CCM). But what I see as the bottom-line issue here is that the "confessional Lutherans" (LCMS and WELS, about the latter of which the joke is that they stand in opposition to those 'dangerous radicals' in the Missouri Synod!
) are holding up the precise words of Scripture and viewing them as absolute condemnation of homosexual practice under any circumstances, w
hile ELCA, TEC, etc., are trying to be analytical and saying, in effect, "they don't say what it appears at first glance they say, owing to the circumstances in which they were taught." To the confessional Lutherans this is tantamount to "throwing out the Scripture."
However, let me note that if one is going to do this, one should be consistent. The precise words of Scripture are "Thou shalt not kill." Not "don't take another's life into one's own hands without regard for the law" as many understand its proper interpretation to be, but a blanket "Thou shalt not kill." Does this not mean that all unrepentant servicemen and policemen should be excommunicated, disfellowshipped, whatever the proper Lutheran term is, until they repent of their sin in being in professions where they are likely to be called on to kill?
Consider these passages:
- "If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest." (Exodus 22:25)
- "Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit." (Leviticus 25:36-37)
- "Do not charge your brother interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a brother Israelite, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess." (Deuteronomy 23:19-20)
It would appear that you also need to excommunicate all bankers, anyone who works for Beneficial or Household Finance, GMAC, motrgage companies, etc., and, given the Leviticus passage, also anyone who works in a grocery or supermarket.
Those are not passages from the dietary or ceremonial law. They must therefore be from the moral law, same as good old Leviticus 18:22. And they are backed up by Jesus's own teachings about generosity, turning the other cheek, giving someone your cloak, etc., so they're confirmed in the New Testament.
If you are condemning gay people but not servicemen, bankers, policemen, and grocers, then you're playing at Scriptural cherry-picking.
Or else, maybe, what Jesus said about how to apply the Law to one's own life and the lives of others actually means something, something important to one's everyday life.
But naah, that's too radical an idea. Can't be what God
really meant. It's much easier to blame those Muslims, illegal immigrants, liberals, and gays for what's wrong, than that we ourselves are not obeying what it is that God really meant, and in fact explicitly said.
