About the ELCA

[Zoness]

8. What is the Lutheran Church's stance on homosexuality?

Issues concerning homosexuality are the ELCA's bleeding edge at the moment. Next year a social statement will be presented at our churchwide assembly which may make a stand on the issues of same-sex unions and ordination of individuals in same-sex marriages. Currently we do not ordain non-celibate homosexuals or recognize gay marriage.

What do you think the social statement next year will say on this issue? And how will that affect the church? I'm curious of well-informed opinions from within the church. Also when is this statement to be released? Thanks

THIS IS NOT A DEBATE ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY DO NOT MAKE IT INTO ONE.

 

[Edial]

What do you think the social statement next year will say on this issue? And how will that affect the church? I'm curious of well-informed opinions from within the church. Also when is this statement to be released? Thanks

THIS IS NOT A DEBATE ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY DO NOT MAKE IT INTO ONE.

I am certainly not well-informed concerning this.

However, it is my personal opinion, a sense, is that this synod will go along with the tide of the times concerning this issue.

And the tide appears to start flowing away from a pro-homosexual stance. I saw the California decision negating the same-sex marriage and Barak Obama taking a stronger stance on that.

I could be wrong on this, but that's what I think.

Thanks,
Ed

 

[D.W.Washburn]

I am notoriously bad at prognostication, but my take is this:

The sexuality task force has been given charge to produce a social statement concernng human sexuality, includiing issues of homosexuality. Social statements are teaching positions. They are not doctrinally binding. People at both extremes in the debate have overlooked this key point.

The task force, so far, has tried to appease both ends of the spectrum. This is not their task. They are not commissioned to maintain the corporate unity of the ELCA. But, they have tried, so far, to appease both extremes.

I expect that they will try again, probably suggesting some local option or non-geographic synod. This will be amenable to the left, but not the far right. Taking even this much of a stance will disenfranchise some of the more conservative elements of the denomination. Some will go. Most will stay.

It is all needless.

 

[doulos_tou_kuriou]

Expect the ELCA to not condemn gay marriage or ordination, but support the decision of congregations that do not wish to marry or call gay persons. It will be the usual "for the sake of unity" stance that to some degree does not satisfy anyone.
But that is just my educated guess, it comes with no "inside information" (although some of the teaching at the seminary suggests that they are preparing pastors to be more open to ministering homosexuals).
pax

 

[Zoness]

Ok so it shouldn't be something I should concern myself with, thank you.

 

[RedneckLutheran]

Expect the ELCA to not condemn gay marriage or ordination, but support the decision of congregations that do not wish to marry or call gay persons. It will be the usual "for the sake of unity" stance that to some degree does not satisfy anyone.
But that is just my educated guess, it comes with no "inside information" (although some of the teaching at the seminary suggests that they are preparing pastors to be more open to ministering homosexuals).
pax

that's my take on it as well...

there are those of us in groups like WordAlone and LutheranCORE that are trying to stem the tide, but are fighting a losing battle...I love my Church...I love the ELCA...but sometimes I feel as though they are moving on without me...

 

[AngelusSax]

All I know is that, based on the Gospel of Matthew, the Church (the community of believers) is given authority to bind (forbid) and loose (allow) practices, and those bindings and loosings have been going on since the church in the book of Acts. Even then, with all the power of the Holy Spirit so readily known to them (as described in the events of Pentecost), the best they can say about their own decision is that it seemed good to them and the Spirit to decide as they did (not that it WAS, but that it seemed).

Whatever the church decides today on this or any other issue, I hope that it would allow for the same possibility that maybe they didn't get it 100% right, and that the best they (we) can say is that the decision seems right to us and to the Holy Spirit. But we also must recognize that we not only have this authority to bind and to loose, but that when we do so, Jesus promises that it will be bound and loosed in heaven accordingly. When we bind and loose, we must trust that God is somehow involved, even if the community's answer as a whole is not one that any of us as individuals happen to like at the moment.

 

[D.W.Washburn]

Hello AngelusSax!

I appreciate your post.

I have a friend who argues that, whatever the church decides on this issue, it belongs to the kingdom of God's left hand. And, because every temporal decision is tainted by our sinful nature, our decision will be imperfect. But we must decide.
So, we should decide according to the best information available and in keeping with a theology of grace and forgiveness.

This makes sense to me.

Our decison, whatever it may be, should be made with all due humility and in a recogniiton of our human falliblity, but with an eye toward God's goodness and grace.

 

[TheCosmicGospel]

This has more to do with a culture that follows a Beatlesque type of "Love, Love, Love" rather than anything having to do with the love of Christ who said, "If you love Me, you will obey all that I have commanded you."

I find the model for the Christian Church in these words.

"The promised seed to Abraham comes after the circumcision of the flesh, not by its energy but by its mortification, and by means of a change by the breathing of Him who now makes Himself known as "God Almighty". Where we are more, God is less. God will be more when we are nothing."
(Andrew Jukes)

The old casts offs used to be the homosexuals. The new cast offs will be those that still oppose homosexuality on Scriptural grounds. The real test in this age of "inclusion" is, how now brown cow, to minister to both.

My advice? Pray with others in the huddle of the Spirit.

Peace,
Cos