Foundation provided $250,000 for efforts to change ELCA teaching and policy on marriage and homosexual behavior

A foundation dedicated to changing attitudes on homosexual behavior and bankrolled by a Michigan billionaire provided $250,000 for efforts to change ELCA teaching and policy on marriage and homosexual behavior.

The Arcus Foundation’s 2008 annual report lists a grant to Lutherans Concerned of “$200,000 over two years to organize and support a grassroots collaborative effort to change existing denominational policy at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America toward the full inclusion of LGBT people of faith.”

Arcus’ 2007 report lists a grant to Lutherans Concerned of “$50,000 to support the work of allied Lutherans at the 2007 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to end discrimination against gay clergy within the Lutheran Church.”

The efforts by Lutherans Concerned led to votes by the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to change ELCA teaching to affirm homosexual behavior and to allow pastors and other rostered leaders to be in same-sex relationships.

The Arcus Foundation was founded by Jon L. Stryker of Kalamazoo, Mich., who is the foundation’s president. Forbes magazine lists Striker as one of the “400 richest Americans.” He is the grandson of Homer Stryker, the surgeon who invented the mobile hospital bed and other medical products including cast cutters and specialty stretchers.

The foundation’s “Religion and Values Program” has “the goal of achieving long-term change in cultural attitudes and religious institutions that currently stigmatize same-gender sexual orientation and gender variance. The goals of this program are to engage with and advance greater understanding and acceptance of sexual orientation and gender variance by mainstream religious institutions and leaders, and to help create a positive shift in cultural attitudes and values toward sexuality in general and GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) issues in particular,” according to a 2007 press release announcing the program.

“In our Theory of Change strategic planning process for the Arcus LGBT Program, we identified several barriers that must be addressed in order to advance the cause of LGBT human rights and equality. Moral values based on religious or secular teachings are often raised as reasons why lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people should not have equal rights. The Arcus Foundation is therefore interested in supporting efforts that examine the beliefs and principles that these moral values are based on, and that explore ways to promote LGBT acceptance. In the area of ‘values,’ we envision that applicants may be focused on issues related to procreation, pleasure, sexual behavior, sexual identities, and family structure as well as other issues that involve cultural and religious norms and ‘morality.’ We welcome requests to support efforts that pose new paradigms and visions of morality and values that affirm and promote LGBT acceptance and LGBT realities,” the Arcus website states.

“The goal of the Religion & Values Program is to achieve LGBT moral equality.” The Lutherans Concerned grant was the program’s third largest grant for 2008.

The program list three funding goals:

● “Achieving policy change within religious denominations (e.g., Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran) in the United States and globally.”

● “Influencing leaders and leadership structures in denominations where the potential for significant impact exists, e.g., Catholicism, the Baptist movement and Islam.”

● “Creating an effective pro-LGBT faith-based movement.”

The Arcus Foundation’s website highlights the 2009 ELCA votes to change church teaching and policy as one of its achievements:

“A little more than a month after the Episcopal Church affirmed ordination processes inclusive of LGBT people and the blessing of same-sex unions, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed its ‘Social Statement on Human Sexuality,’ and eliminated the ban against ministers in same-gender relationships. The Arcus Foundation believes in the full inclusion of LGBT people within religious communities is a core social justice issue and applaud the actions of the Evangelical Lutheran and Episcopal Churches. This is an extraordinary moment for those who have worked tirelessly on behalf of the LGBT faithful.”

“The mission of the Arcus Foundation is to achieve social justice that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race, and to ensure conservation and respect of the great apes.” The Arcus Foundation provided $50 million in grants through its LGBT programs and $40 million through its “Great Apes Program” from 2000-2008.