[If you've been following the news about the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), of which I and the congregation I serve as pastor, are parts, you know that there have been three key votes coming up. Each vote addressed resolutions: one calling for unity in the midst of differences of opinion; another called for the blessing of homosexual unions; and the third on the ordination of practicing homosexual persons. The votes were taken today. See news item here.
[Below is an email I just sent to our congregation along with a piece written by theologian Roy Harrisville, head of an organization called Solid Rock Lutherans, which has been praying and disseminating information designed to help bring about the defeat of the second and third resolutions mentioned above. An amendment to the second resolution made it acceptable to Solid Rock (and to me).
[I am convinced that God has answered many prayers today.]
Dear Friend:
Prayers have been answered! Our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), meeting in assembly in Orlando, has voted to uphold the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions in two very important ways. Dr. Harrisville's summary of the day's actions (prefaced by a remembrance of another eminent Lutheran theologian, Gerhard Forde, an American, who was buried today) is duplicated below.
What this means is that the Lutheran Church as a denomination will remain committed to reaching out in love and receiving all in the Name of Jesus Christ. But we will not label as acceptable what God has called sin and from which we're called to repent.
We are all sinners saved by God's amazing grace in Jesus Christ. But grace must not be cheapened by watering down God's law with human additions or subtractions designed to be politically correct. Today, our denomination has declared once again that the Bible is "the authoritative source and norm of our life, faith, and practice."
Thank you for your faithful prayers, which I know many of you have been offering!
Blessings in Christ,
Mark
Better Living: Thoughts from Mark Daniels
Solid Rock News
Friday, August 12, 2005
Success and Disappointment in Orlando
This morning Prof. Gerhard Forde was laid to rest. May the Holy Spirit comfort his family in the knowledge that they will see him again on the last day. May we all treasure his memory and his life’s faithful work and give thanks to God that such servants are raised up in the body of Christ.
I think Dr. Forde would have been pleased with the day’s results at the Churchwide Assembly. The Churchwide Assembly voted to pass Recommendation #1 (on unity in disagreement). It also passed Recommendation #2, but with an important alteration in the language. Bishop Carol Hendrix of Pennsylvania offered an amendment to reinsert the original wording of the 1993 Bishop’s statement on sexuality, and that passed with a large margin. The motion, as amended, no longer makes reference to same-sex couples. Now it only reads that pastors provide faithful pastoral care to all to whom they minister.
Some could argue that such a wording leaves us in the morass of ambiguity and actually allows for the blessing of same-sex couples. Not to my way of thinking. Now that it no longer even refers to same-sex couples and the Whereas clause makes clear that no such blessing has warrant in scripture or tradition, it will be exceedingly difficult to try and read the motion as though it gives permission to bless same-sex couples. If anyone tries to read it that way, they will have little credibility. (Not to mention a serious frown from my eighth grade English teacher, Mr. Datko)
Recommendation #3, concerning exceptional ordinations of practicing gays and lesbians, was defeated by a 51 to 49% margin (my notes are in the plenary hall but I think the vote was 503-499). The Recommendation needed 2/3 to pass. 18 amendments and substitute motions were all defeated, save that one amendment to Recommendation #2. The Assembly, it seems, did not want to be pushed into voting on anything else but the Church Council motions.
This is a surprising result, since many of us did not expect to get anything close to a majority. But there it is. What happened? There was a great deal of pressure by the GoodSoil folks who stood in the visitors section holding pictures and holding a silent vigil. They also were standing in the hallways passing out gifts and a newsletter. During the final portion of the debate when all the amendments favorable to the GoodSoil view were defeated, a large number of GoodSoil supporters silently and in an orderly fashion marched in front of the podium and stood in silence for the rest of the session. They stood two people deep and stretched all across the stage right in front of the voting members. Bishop Hanson asked them twice to leave and several protests from voting members were voiced, but in the end Bishop Hanson let them stand where they were and the voting members simply concluded their business.
What does this mean for us? It means that the 2005 Churchwide Assembly made clear that it does not want to change existing policies and practices on sexuality and ordination. This Church, while wishing to be welcoming and gracious to gays and lesbians will no go so far as to bless what God does not bless. It is not a matter of loving one’s neighbor or not, but of refusing to approve certain behavior. The Church will bend over backwards but not break its back to accommodate certain things.
The GoodSoil folks were sad at the end of the day. Before the votes I tracked down Jeff Johnson, my counter-part at GoodSoil, and gave him my blessings no matter how things would go. Afterwards I also tracked him down and tried to offer some consolation in the fact that he did have a great many people who supported him. I ask for your prayers on behalf of the GoodSoil folks who are quite disappointed. Pray that they remain in the Church and that one day we will be firmly united under God’s Word. Truly, there were no “winners” today and we are very much a divided Church.
We pay that today’s result give hope to those of you who have so graciously sustained us in prayer this whole week. There is hope that when the orthodox voice is heard, people listen. When those faithful to scripture band together, the Word multiplies and goes farther. We did not get everything we were looking for, but we did manage to halt the ELCA from sliding into the irrelevance of just another liberal protestant denomination. Who knows what will happen in the future?
As for Solid Rock Lutherans, we must decrease and others must increase. Our work is done. In a future newsletter we will tell you about the one remaining task of our organization. For now, please receive our heartfelt gratitude for your support both financially and in prayer. And thank God that his Spirit was brooding over this assembly. Next time, may he be even closer!
Rev. Roy A. Harrisville III
Executive Director
5 comments:
How should secular / tolerant/ civil society treat gays, especially men sodomizing other men?
How should Christian churches treat gays?
Is sodomy a sin?
These are tough questions; but I'm comfy with a civil society that eliminates all state punishment for sodomy or gay behavior (though I'm leery of making private insurance companies NOT include sexual behavior as an insurance component.)
I'm comfy with a church that tries to love the sinner.
I think gay sex is sinful -- and socially detrimental. Not enough to use gov't punishment, but enough to deny any blessing of it.
"Not to bless what God does not bless." That's the right church position.
Tom:
I think that's interestingly-put.
I draw a distinction between the state-based institution of marriage, which is primarily an economic and child-care relationship, and marriage as a covenant instituted by God. In fact, I wish that we had two different names for them, making the distinction clearer.
As a pastor, I am far more interested in the latter than in the former, although I do provide the extra service to those over whose weddings I preside of being authorized to "solemnize marriages" under the provisions of our state's law.
Because people enter into all sorts of relationships, the states have a clear interest in refereeing financial and custody issues that may arise in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. That's why I don't have the objections that some Christians seem to have to the establishment of state laws that would recognize gay unions. It seems to me that doing so would disentangle a lot of messy battles when and if such relationships break up.
But as a pastor, I could not in good conscience preside over such unions or see them as marriages from the perspective of God or the Bible.
As a Christian, I feel no need to impose my moral standards on society and the ELCA decisions on these matters have nothing to do with questions regarding what state governments should do; they only related to what we in the Church proclaim and what relationships we recognize, from the standard of Scripture, as constituting marriage as a covenant established by God.
Mark-...Welcome home from a short vacation!
I have been pondering your letter to your congregation about the ELCA decisions regarding the ordintion of gays and proposed church blessing of gay unions.
First, please know that I agree 100% with your previous comment on this post, and I also agree that the ELCA decisions was correct and God-honoring.
What gives me pause is the congratulatory and celebratory tone of it all....the decision, the letter, all the letters and happiness over the decision.
It just seems to me that Jesus was far, far more concerned about loving one's neighbor than He was about dividing people over sexuality or anything, for that matter. It just doesn't seem to me like a matter of celebration that a large population of people will necessarily feel cut-off from the Holy Trinity bcause of this decision. It seems sad to me...it's a loss, and I think perhaps it breaks God's heart.
Deborah:
If I seemed to be self-celebratory, I apologize. This was not, in my estimation, a political contest.
Rather, my prevailing mood is one of relief that the Church wasn't going to be torn apart. This is something that has been in my prayers every day for several years now. I didn't do any lobbying, but put it in the hands of God. I did tell God my preferences, but I also prayed, "If I'm wrong, show me in what ways and give me the character to admit it. And in all ways, Your will be done."
If I seem ungracious, I do sincerely apologize. That would be wrong and would not in any way match my mood. (By the way, you'll be interested in knowing that I didn't even mention this matter in worship this past Sunday. As far as I can remember, I have only discussed this topic twice from the pulpit and then only in tangential ways.)
Thanks, Deborah!
Mark
I feel saddened that so many will not feel the love and grace of Jesus Christ because of the reactions to gays themselves by Christian churches....not official rulings, but personal reactions.
Yes, homosexuality is not biblical, but neither are hundreds of other practices by Christians, from lying, infidelity and greed to arrogance and judging others.
Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Almost all churches do a poor job in truly loving their gay neighbors. That just doesn't seem right...
Anyway, thanks for your response. I can't imagine any pastor celebrating the exclusion of a population of people from church participation....and certainly not you.
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