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WHEREAS, as Lutherans “We believe, teach, and confess that the only rule and guiding principle according to which all teachings and teachers are to be evaluated and judged are the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments alone”[1], and

WHEREAS, many passages in Scripture both speak, and have been consistently throughout history heard to speak, in a plain and unambiguous voice concerning marriage and the exercise of human sexuality, and

WHEREAS, the Scriptures teach very positively of God’s design for marriage as reflected in the words of our Lord Jesus, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh” (Matt. 19:4-6a RSV); and

WHEREAS, a majority of ELCA members, and most Christian churches - including most in the Lutheran World Federation – believe that marriage is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman; and

WHEREAS, the erotic expression of our sexuality is consistently taught and celebrated in Scripture as being rightly ordered to be exercised within the bounds of marriage; and

WHEREAS, Scripture also consistently prohibits any other expression of sexually erotic activity outside the bounds of the marriage; and

WHEREAS, the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly will consider the Report and Recommendations on Ministry Policies from the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality which asks the ELCA to change its teaching and policy to affirm the possibility of same-sex sexual relationships, for pastors and other rostered leaders in the ELCA; and

WHEREAS, a synodical or congregational option on ministry standards would represent a real change in the teaching of our church forcing even those synods and congregations that do not agree with this change implicitly to accept the notion that Scripture is not clear in its teaching about marriage or about homosexual behavior; and

WHEREAS, the interdependent relationship between the churchwide, synod, and congregation expressions of the ELCA requires one Office of Ministry, one roster of pastors, and one set of expectations for pastors and other rostered leaders throughout the ELCA; and

WHEREAS, the ELCA currently expresses its expectations of pastors and other rostered leaders through documents called Vision and Expectation[2]s and Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline which are in harmony with the plain sense of Scripture and its overwhelming understanding throughout history; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the ____ Assembly thank the members of the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality for their work; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the ____ Assembly memorialize the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to reject the proposals in the Report and Recommendations on Ministry Policies from the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the ____ Synod Assembly memorialize the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to reaffirm the ELCA’s current standards for pastors and other rostered leaders as expressed in Vision and Expectations and Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline.

[1] Formula of Concord, The Epitome, 1. – The Book Of Concord, Edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, Fortress Press.
[2] Especially pertinent are the lines: “Single ordained ministers are expected to live a chaste life. Married ordained ministers are expected to live in fidelity to their spouses, giving expression to sexual intimacy within a marriage relationship that is mutual, chaste, and faithful. Ordained ministers who are homosexual in their self-understanding are expected to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships.”