Three pastors with historic ties to the struggle for inclusiveness in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will be welcomed for the first time to the church's clergy roster when they participate in the church's "Rite of Reception" Sept. 18.You can read more here of the ELCA's reception of these heroes of the faith.
Okay, ELCA News' John Brooks doesn't actually call them "heroes of the faith." But we can't help but be struck by the triumphant tone in today's release by the usually more sober ELCA News Service. For a milder report of the reception of Hill, Zillhart, and Frost, you might check out the blog of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries.
The ELM blog playing the news straighter than the ELCA News Service? Now that's extraordinary!
Shrimp out.
2 comments:
If "bound conscience" means anything in the ELCA, one would hope to see equal, positive press-release time for the heroic congregations and pastors who are staying in the churchbody as biblically-bound conscientious objectors.
I listened online to the 2009 Assembly comments by various ELCA speakers supporting the Human Sexuality Stmts. One of them was Anita Hill. I saw each of her statements on the teleprompter online she spoke. This woman is not to be admired by anyone. She made several false comments, telling others nothing would change in the ELCA as the result of passing the Sexuality statement. When she did this I goggled her and found her to be a member of the GLBT. I found several postings she had made online where she even made the statement that to lie to make this happen was okay. The end result was what mattered. At that moment I knew this woman was not a woman of God. A woman of God would not make such declarations. She further made statements at the assembly that this was just affirmation of current policies and assured those who disagreed nothing would change. Immediately upon passage of the Sexuality statement she stated now we can change the Educational materials, everything, and incorporate all the Assembly resolution into action immediately. At that moment I knew I would not go back to my ELCA church. I gave up my teaching of confirmation students because the lessons we read each week in our weekly bible readings the new ELCA disagreed with, such as God being pro life, Israel being God's chosen people, and God's design for family and marriage being between a man and woman. That Sunday our Pastor decided the youth would no longer read and study the Bible during their first year of confirmation. Instead he insisted the classes for the next year now be "What it Means to be Lutheran." I pulled my family out of the ELCA church we had faithfully been tithing and attending. We joined the Lutheran Missouri Synod Church as the churches in our hometown saw nothing wrong with the ELCA's decisions.
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