An ELCA church in Minneapolis has recently installed their new pastor.  That doesn’t sound like anything out of the ordinary.  Churches install pastors all the time.  However, the new pastor at Calvary Lutheran Church is not your ordinary pastor; he is a gay pastor.  Present at his installation was his male partner of the last 5 1/2 years.

The ELCA has formed a task force to discuss whether or not homosexual clergy who are in committed, monogomous relationships, should be allowed to remain rostered clergy.  A task force has recommended a policy that would let congregations decide whether to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as their clergy.  The resolution has been criticized from both directions, with liberals saying it doesn’t go far enough and conservatives saying it conflicts with Scripture. This topic will be brought forward for major discussion at the ELCA’s next convention this August in Minneapolis.

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Calvary Lutheran Church

ELCA

From the Associated Press:

VALPARAISO, Ind. — Valparaiso University says its next pastor will be a woman — the first in the Lutheran school’s 83-year history.

 

University chapel dean Rev. Joseph Cunningham says the new pastor will be hired from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. That is a more liberal denomination than the Missouri Synod from which the school and each of its pastors have sprung. The university is not affiliated with either denomination.

 

School officials hope to have a candidate to present to university President Alan Harre by late May.

 

Cunningham says they’ve discussed the need for a woman pastor since 2001. Her position will be funded by a $3 million gift from a group of anonymous donors.

All I can say is: Come Lord Jesus quickly!

Yesterday when I arrived at church, I was going about my normal Sunday morning business of getting things ready for services.  One of the early service ushers told me about an article that appeared in Sunday’s paper.  He told me that Lutherans had said that it’s ok to be clergy and to be homosexual.  Not having read the paper yet, he told me that it just refers to “Lutherans” and doesn’t make any distinctions between the major Lutheran denominations.

Once I got home, I had to read that article, of course.  Fortunately, it was an AP story and not a News-Record story.  Otherwise, I would have been writing an editorial about getting their facts straight.  As it is, here is the story in its entirety:

Lutherans to release a draft statement on human sexuality next month

CHICAGO – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will soon release a draft of its social statement on human sexuality, including proposed teaching on gay relationships.

The document “Free in Christ to Serve the Neighbor: Lutherans Talk about Human Sexuality” is scheduled to be made public on March 13 by the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality.

Like many other Protestant groups, the ELCA has been struggling for decades to reconcile different views of what the Bible says about same-gender relationships.

Current church standards require clergy to “abstain from homosexual sexual relationships.”  But last year the Churchwide Assembly adopted a resolution that “urges and encourages” bishops to refrain from disciplining clergy in “faithful, committed” same-sex relationships.

Now here’s my question: what are the “different views of what the Bible says about same-gender relationships?”  God clearly speaks against homosexual relationships.  Ever heard of Sodom and Gomorrah?  This is clearly a violation of the Sixth Commandment.  This shows, yet again, the importance of holding the viewpoint that Scripture IS the Word of God and simply does not CONTAIN the Word of God.