Thank you to all of you who have responded to entries on this blog over recent weeks.
The Lutheran CORE staff have been very busy connecting with people around the country. Somehow moderation of comments on the blog were forgotten.
Comments have been updated as of today.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
April "CORE Connection" newsletter
CORE Connection - News from Lutheran CORE - April 2010 is now online.
Here is what you can read in this month’s newsletter:
+ Lutheran CORE Convocation to move to larger facility.
+ Ecumenical representatives to attend historic Convocation.
+ ELCA finalizes changes in standards to allow pastors to be in same-sex sexual relationships.
+ “The View from the Upper Room” by Erma Wolf.
+ ELCA threatening discipline against congregations.
+ Lutherans in Africa are “extremely disturbed” by ELCA, Swedish actions on homosexual behavior.
+ Groups shaping NALC, Lutheran CORE.
+ Tonya Rike is new Lutheran CORE staff.
+ Gravity of situation created by ELCA sexuality votes by Dr. J. Larry Yoder.
Do the ELCA sexuality decisions rise to the level of error or heresy or apostasy?
Here is what you can read in this month’s newsletter:
+ Lutheran CORE Convocation to move to larger facility.
+ Ecumenical representatives to attend historic Convocation.
+ ELCA finalizes changes in standards to allow pastors to be in same-sex sexual relationships.
+ “The View from the Upper Room” by Erma Wolf.
+ ELCA threatening discipline against congregations.
+ Lutherans in Africa are “extremely disturbed” by ELCA, Swedish actions on homosexual behavior.
+ Groups shaping NALC, Lutheran CORE.
+ Tonya Rike is new Lutheran CORE staff.
+ Gravity of situation created by ELCA sexuality votes by Dr. J. Larry Yoder.
Do the ELCA sexuality decisions rise to the level of error or heresy or apostasy?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
ELCA threatening discipline against congregations
Some ELCA synodical and churchwide leaders are taking a hard line and threatening to discipline congregations that choose to affiliate with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) or the proposed North American Lutheran Church (NALC).
The Southwest California Synod is taking steps toward disciplining two congregations that have joined LCMC while remaining in the ELCA. The synod’s actions could result in the congregations and their pastors being expelled from the ELCA.
The Southwest California Synod Council “voted to instruct Bishop Dean Nelson to call together the Synod Consultation Committee to address whether or not there is cause for disciplinary action against Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Torrance, and Christ Lutheran Church, Santa Clarita, and the clergy of both congregations,” the synod announced in a press release on Maundy Thursday (April 1).
“The Synod Council took this action upon learning that both congregations had recently voted to affiliate with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC), while retaining their membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA),” the synod’s release states.
Good Shepherd
The Rev. Bob Rognlien, pastor of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Torrence, Calif., one of the congregations under investigation by the synod, consulted with synod officials about their consideration of joining LCMC prior to their vote.
“We have always tried to work constructively with the synod to promote those aspects of the ELCA that reflect our missional values and priorities,” Pastor Rognlien explained.
“I asked Bishop Nelson to send me the references to those parts of the ELCA Constitution that prohibited dual affiliation. After conferring with the ELCA, Bishop Nelson confirmed my assertion that there are no such prohibitions,” he said. “The next communication I received from him was the letter informing me of the Synod Council’s action.”
“I know pastors in our synod whose congregations have been dual affiliated with the LCMC for years and the synod has never taken any action against them. They seem to have singled us and Christ Lutheran out to make an example of us in order to intimidate other congregations who are considering dual affiliation,” Pastor Rognlien said.
“I think it is a fear-based reaction that, sadly, is going to backfire on them and have the opposite effect,” he added.
“Although it is sad to see the ELCA moving in this direction and so many wonderful congregations torn apart, I am not worried or even upset about this action against us. We know that the life and mission of our congregation does not depend on human institutions or bureaucracies, but on the Word of God and the power of His Spirit. I want to encourage other pastors and church leaders not to be intimidated by the actions of the ELCA, but to follow your conscience as a certain German monk did 500 years ago,” Pastor Rognlien said.
“Remember what Jesus promised us, that nothing can prevail against a church founded on the rock of faith in Jesus Christ,” he added.
Instead of proceeding with the ELCA investigation, the congregation’s council and pastors unanimously decided April 12 that the 900-member congregation should begin the process of leaving the ELCA. They have set a vote for May 2.
“It is with sad and heavy hearts that we must write to you regarding leaving the ELCA. Our Synod recently began investigating whether our Pastors and Congregation should be disciplined for following our conscience on the teaching of God’s Word and dual affiliating with the LCMC. We believe this constitutes an attack on our integrity and a violation of the ELCA’s own stated commitments to allow congregations and pastors to follow their consciences. We are also concerned this action will result in a time-consuming distraction from our mission that will needlessly divert precious resources away from what God has called us to do. Our Pastors and Council believe that continued affiliation with the ELCA will compromise our biblical values and our missional purpose: making disciples and extending God’s Kingdom,” they wrote in an April 14 letter to the congregation.
“My biggest disappointment in all of this is that the bishop and Synod Council did not follow Jesus’ clear directive in Matthew 18 to talk directly to the person you feel has wronged you before you take public action against them. This would be so different if they had simply initiated a conversation about it with us first,” Pastor Rognlien explained.
Christ Lutheran
The story at Christ Lutheran Church in Santa Clarita, Calif., is similar.
“Our congregation voted at our annual meeting in January to join LCMC while remaining a part of the ELCA,” explained the Rev. Joe Campeau, pastor of the 1,300-member church.
“The bishop indicated at that time that David Swartling’s memo said that being a dual-member congregation was unacceptable. When asked if any congregation had ever been disci-plined for that decision, he indicated that it had never been the case.
“Our congregation voted by a 70 percent majority to join LCMC and also to withhold unrestricted benevolence to the synod while continuing to give restricted benevolence to ELCA-related ministries which we could in good conscience support,” he explained.
“The bishop expressed a desire to assist the small minority of our congregation who were dissatisfied with our vote and wished to leave. (Some people who disagreed with our annual meeting vote have opted to remain in the congregation.) He has been instrumental in helping those who wished to leave in their attempts to establish a new congregation in our area,” Pastor Campeau said.
“The leadership of our congregation is not intimidated by this action. While we do not intend to invest any significant amount of time in defending our actions, at the moment we will nominally cooperate with the process as a means of making our position clear and public, and as an encouragement to those congregations who may feel threatened by such actions. We stand confidently because we stand confident in our risen Lord and in his Word,” he said.
ELCA’s Hard Line
Since its 2009 Churchwide Assembly, the ELCA has been taking a hard line against congregations that seek to add an additional church body affiliation.
In a January memo to synod bishops and vice presidents, ELCA Secretary David Swartling announced that the ELCA will not allow congregations to be members of more than one church body. He said that bishops could choose to discipline a congregation for affiliating with another church body.
Swartling’s announcement marked a change in the ELCA’s posture toward congregations that have held dual membership in the ELCA and LCMC.
While serving as ELCA Presiding Bishop, the Rev. H. George Anderson was twice quoted by The Lutheran magazine, an ELCA publication, as stating that “dual congregations don’t pose a problem for the ELCA.”
More than 180 ELCA congregations have joined LCMC since the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The significant number of congregations joining LCMC may explain the ELCA’s tough stance against dual church body affiliations.
Some ELCA congregations have had dual affiliations with LCMC since 2001 with no conflict or threats of discipline from their synods. No congregation has yet been disciplined for having dual affiliations. But some bishops are now threatening to change that reality.
South Dakota Synod Bishop David Zellmer announced April 10 that he will seek to discipline any congregation that joins LCMC. Bishop Zellmer said that he made the decision based on conversations with other bishops at recent meetings of the ELCA Conference of Bishops.
ELCA News Service Director John Brooks downplayed the significance of the Southwest California Synod’s actions. “I think it’s important to note that this story from the Southwest California Synod is not an announcement about discipline. It’s an announcement which says the bishop was asked to convene some people to consider whether there should be some kind of discipline involving two congregations. That’s all it is,” Brooks said.
Dual affiliations OK in Florida
St. Peter Lutheran Church in Fort Pierce, Fla., has dual ELCA-LCMC affiliations, but they don’t want to remain affiliated with the ELCA. The Florida-Bahamas Synod Council decided in February that it will not allow the congregation to leave the ELCA even though the congregation voted unanimously in two required votes to end their ELCA affiliation.
The Southwest California Synod is taking steps toward disciplining two congregations that have joined LCMC while remaining in the ELCA. The synod’s actions could result in the congregations and their pastors being expelled from the ELCA.
The Southwest California Synod Council “voted to instruct Bishop Dean Nelson to call together the Synod Consultation Committee to address whether or not there is cause for disciplinary action against Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Torrance, and Christ Lutheran Church, Santa Clarita, and the clergy of both congregations,” the synod announced in a press release on Maundy Thursday (April 1).
“The Synod Council took this action upon learning that both congregations had recently voted to affiliate with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC), while retaining their membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA),” the synod’s release states.
Good Shepherd
The Rev. Bob Rognlien, pastor of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Torrence, Calif., one of the congregations under investigation by the synod, consulted with synod officials about their consideration of joining LCMC prior to their vote.
“We have always tried to work constructively with the synod to promote those aspects of the ELCA that reflect our missional values and priorities,” Pastor Rognlien explained.
“I asked Bishop Nelson to send me the references to those parts of the ELCA Constitution that prohibited dual affiliation. After conferring with the ELCA, Bishop Nelson confirmed my assertion that there are no such prohibitions,” he said. “The next communication I received from him was the letter informing me of the Synod Council’s action.”
“I know pastors in our synod whose congregations have been dual affiliated with the LCMC for years and the synod has never taken any action against them. They seem to have singled us and Christ Lutheran out to make an example of us in order to intimidate other congregations who are considering dual affiliation,” Pastor Rognlien said.
“I think it is a fear-based reaction that, sadly, is going to backfire on them and have the opposite effect,” he added.
“Although it is sad to see the ELCA moving in this direction and so many wonderful congregations torn apart, I am not worried or even upset about this action against us. We know that the life and mission of our congregation does not depend on human institutions or bureaucracies, but on the Word of God and the power of His Spirit. I want to encourage other pastors and church leaders not to be intimidated by the actions of the ELCA, but to follow your conscience as a certain German monk did 500 years ago,” Pastor Rognlien said.
“Remember what Jesus promised us, that nothing can prevail against a church founded on the rock of faith in Jesus Christ,” he added.
Instead of proceeding with the ELCA investigation, the congregation’s council and pastors unanimously decided April 12 that the 900-member congregation should begin the process of leaving the ELCA. They have set a vote for May 2.
“It is with sad and heavy hearts that we must write to you regarding leaving the ELCA. Our Synod recently began investigating whether our Pastors and Congregation should be disciplined for following our conscience on the teaching of God’s Word and dual affiliating with the LCMC. We believe this constitutes an attack on our integrity and a violation of the ELCA’s own stated commitments to allow congregations and pastors to follow their consciences. We are also concerned this action will result in a time-consuming distraction from our mission that will needlessly divert precious resources away from what God has called us to do. Our Pastors and Council believe that continued affiliation with the ELCA will compromise our biblical values and our missional purpose: making disciples and extending God’s Kingdom,” they wrote in an April 14 letter to the congregation.
“My biggest disappointment in all of this is that the bishop and Synod Council did not follow Jesus’ clear directive in Matthew 18 to talk directly to the person you feel has wronged you before you take public action against them. This would be so different if they had simply initiated a conversation about it with us first,” Pastor Rognlien explained.
Christ Lutheran
The story at Christ Lutheran Church in Santa Clarita, Calif., is similar.
“Our congregation voted at our annual meeting in January to join LCMC while remaining a part of the ELCA,” explained the Rev. Joe Campeau, pastor of the 1,300-member church.
“The bishop indicated at that time that David Swartling’s memo said that being a dual-member congregation was unacceptable. When asked if any congregation had ever been disci-plined for that decision, he indicated that it had never been the case.
“Our congregation voted by a 70 percent majority to join LCMC and also to withhold unrestricted benevolence to the synod while continuing to give restricted benevolence to ELCA-related ministries which we could in good conscience support,” he explained.
“The bishop expressed a desire to assist the small minority of our congregation who were dissatisfied with our vote and wished to leave. (Some people who disagreed with our annual meeting vote have opted to remain in the congregation.) He has been instrumental in helping those who wished to leave in their attempts to establish a new congregation in our area,” Pastor Campeau said.
“The leadership of our congregation is not intimidated by this action. While we do not intend to invest any significant amount of time in defending our actions, at the moment we will nominally cooperate with the process as a means of making our position clear and public, and as an encouragement to those congregations who may feel threatened by such actions. We stand confidently because we stand confident in our risen Lord and in his Word,” he said.
ELCA’s Hard Line
Since its 2009 Churchwide Assembly, the ELCA has been taking a hard line against congregations that seek to add an additional church body affiliation.
In a January memo to synod bishops and vice presidents, ELCA Secretary David Swartling announced that the ELCA will not allow congregations to be members of more than one church body. He said that bishops could choose to discipline a congregation for affiliating with another church body.
Swartling’s announcement marked a change in the ELCA’s posture toward congregations that have held dual membership in the ELCA and LCMC.
While serving as ELCA Presiding Bishop, the Rev. H. George Anderson was twice quoted by The Lutheran magazine, an ELCA publication, as stating that “dual congregations don’t pose a problem for the ELCA.”
More than 180 ELCA congregations have joined LCMC since the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The significant number of congregations joining LCMC may explain the ELCA’s tough stance against dual church body affiliations.
Some ELCA congregations have had dual affiliations with LCMC since 2001 with no conflict or threats of discipline from their synods. No congregation has yet been disciplined for having dual affiliations. But some bishops are now threatening to change that reality.
South Dakota Synod Bishop David Zellmer announced April 10 that he will seek to discipline any congregation that joins LCMC. Bishop Zellmer said that he made the decision based on conversations with other bishops at recent meetings of the ELCA Conference of Bishops.
ELCA News Service Director John Brooks downplayed the significance of the Southwest California Synod’s actions. “I think it’s important to note that this story from the Southwest California Synod is not an announcement about discipline. It’s an announcement which says the bishop was asked to convene some people to consider whether there should be some kind of discipline involving two congregations. That’s all it is,” Brooks said.
Dual affiliations OK in Florida
St. Peter Lutheran Church in Fort Pierce, Fla., has dual ELCA-LCMC affiliations, but they don’t want to remain affiliated with the ELCA. The Florida-Bahamas Synod Council decided in February that it will not allow the congregation to leave the ELCA even though the congregation voted unanimously in two required votes to end their ELCA affiliation.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Gravity of situation created by ELCA sexuality votes
Do the ELCA sexuality decisions rise to the level of error or heresy or apostasy?
Following are excerpts from a paper reflecting on the significance of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly votes changing ELCA teaching and practice on same-sex sexual behavior. It was prepared by the Rev. Dr. J. Larry Yoder of Lenoir-Rhyne University for the WordAlone Network’s Theological Advisory Board. The entire paper is available online here.
By J. Larry Yoder
Lenoir-Rhyne University
The content of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly votes has been measured in different levels of gravity by various quarters in the church, from celebration in Goodsoil to affirmation and embrace at Higgins Road (ELCA churchwide offices).
Among those who reject the hegemony of autonomous man the yield is reckoned from “error” as least severe to “apostasy” as the most severe.
Error
To judge the yield of the votes as “error” is to argue that the recognition of committed, long-term public gay or lesbian unions, though contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures and the Church is, at that least level of severity, a circumstance that can be endured in other persons or parishes even if one does not embrace it locally, as person or congregation.
On this reading, the ELCA is at that point in error, in its embrace of heterodox teaching and practice. A congregation, or a pastor, or a layperson can continue in fellowship and roster, and simply agree to disagree.
This view of the ELCA assembly’s vote as “in error” does not require a radically “congregational” ecclesiology — at least no more radically congregational than the ELCA rubric that allows congre-gations to declare their willingness or unwillingness to accept the sort of clergy couple referenced in the vote.
In fact, at that level, one can argue that the ELCA vote has empowered congregations vis-à-vis synods, if not vis-à-vis Higgins Road.
That is, Higgins Road holds the policy cards, and will see to it that the “implementing resolutions” permeate the entire church structure. And congregations have the power to reject the vote locally, as to the clergy they will accept — as well as to the degree they remain tied to the ELCA in terms of offerings, curricula, bulletins, programs, beneficiaries . . . the option to accept or reject gay or lesbian clergy at the congregational level has empowered congregations, in principle, in multiples of other dimensions. And, to that degree, synods (and bishops) become much less relevant.
Heresy
There is about the vote and the policy a reckoning more severe: that the ELCA is, at that point, in heresy, though some disagree. Witness this view, from Pastor Richard Johnson, editor of Forum Letter: “Some (have gone) so far as to accuse the ELCA of heresy — a bit over the top, seems to me. Heresy generally involves a specific and overt repudiation of some key doctrine of Christian faith. What the ELCA has done is serious error, to be sure, but I don’t think it rises to the status of heresy.”
But what has occurred is an overt challenge to — and alteration of — the content of the Sixth Commandment.
Presupposed in the sixth is that “marriage is an holy estate, ordained of God and to be held in honor by those who enter therein.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife. And they twain shall become one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.’ What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”
Both the “ordained of God” and the “male and female” are normative as to marriage.
Adultery consists in sundry violations — actions, thoughts, imaginings, arrangements — of the normative conditions for the exercise of human sexuality: Violations apart from marriage (i.e., by those not married). Against marriage (overt adultery). Other than marriage (something not male and female).
God made us male and female, and ordained marriage for the purpose of bringing forth and nurturing children, for love and companionship, and for lifelong fidelity.
Thus what precisely occurred in the Minneapolis vote is a direct challenge to both the content and authority of the Sixth Commandment.
Apostasy
But more than that, the vote, in challenging the content and authority of the Sixth Commandment, challenges also, and more significantly, the First Commandment. That is, it challenges the authority of God to make any commandments whatsoever. I argue that such a challenge is an “overt repudiation of … (a) key doctrine of the Christian faith.” To challenge the authority of God gets at the source of the matter.
There is more. The Minneapolis vote regarding gay and lesbian clergy assaults all three articles of the Apostles Creed.
It challenges what constitutes — and belongs in — God’s good creation. At no point do the Holy Scriptures acknowledge (much less assert) that homosexual relations reside in Genesis chapters 1 & 2. The debate is precisely that fundamental: that homosexual behavior or relations are part and parcel of Genesis 3 and beyond. In the Minneapolis vote, the first article of the creed is challenged by expansion . . . as to what constitutes God’s good creation.
And likewise the second article vis-à-vis the redemption resident in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. If homosexual relationships are part and parcel of life in Christ, then no repentance is needed for the relationship, per se . . . only for sins otherwise committed in it, or during it, or before it, or after it.
What the church has previously taught, based on the teaching of the Holy Scripture, is that the church does not bless, or accept, that kind of relationship. One does not need to repent of marriage . . . only for sins he or she commits within the marriage, or apart from the marriage. For marriage is an holy estate, ordained of God.
The Minneapolis move incorporates into the “God blessed” category a relationship not acceptable to Holy Scripture — and introduces a relationship that does not immediately, in itself, require repentance and amendment of life.
And again the third article, like unto the second: how one lives his or her life in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church is now expanded to include a category of intimate human relationship universally scorned by Holy Scripture in all its manifestations.
So on this read, the Minneapolis vote challenges specifically the content of the Sixth Commandment and, moreover, the First Commandment — the authority of God to command in such fashion whatsoever . . . as well as all three articles of the creed as to creation, redemption, and sanctification.
That’s not simply heresy (specific and overt repudiation of some key doctrine).
The cumulative rejection of Creed and Commandments amounts to apostasy . . . an overt repudiation of the faith, while still claiming allegiance to the faith, believing that the innovation is itself consistent with the received faith. Such is the gravitas of the situation.
The Rev. Dr. J. Larry Yoder is Professor of Religion and chair of the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C., and director of its Center for Theology.
He serves as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Newton, N.C., a member congregation of Lutheran CORE.
He also serves on the Theological Advisory Board of the WordAlone Network, one of the renewal movements that comprise Lutheran CORE.
Following are excerpts from a paper reflecting on the significance of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly votes changing ELCA teaching and practice on same-sex sexual behavior. It was prepared by the Rev. Dr. J. Larry Yoder of Lenoir-Rhyne University for the WordAlone Network’s Theological Advisory Board. The entire paper is available online here.
By J. Larry Yoder
Lenoir-Rhyne University
The content of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly votes has been measured in different levels of gravity by various quarters in the church, from celebration in Goodsoil to affirmation and embrace at Higgins Road (ELCA churchwide offices).
Among those who reject the hegemony of autonomous man the yield is reckoned from “error” as least severe to “apostasy” as the most severe.
Error
To judge the yield of the votes as “error” is to argue that the recognition of committed, long-term public gay or lesbian unions, though contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures and the Church is, at that least level of severity, a circumstance that can be endured in other persons or parishes even if one does not embrace it locally, as person or congregation.
On this reading, the ELCA is at that point in error, in its embrace of heterodox teaching and practice. A congregation, or a pastor, or a layperson can continue in fellowship and roster, and simply agree to disagree.
This view of the ELCA assembly’s vote as “in error” does not require a radically “congregational” ecclesiology — at least no more radically congregational than the ELCA rubric that allows congre-gations to declare their willingness or unwillingness to accept the sort of clergy couple referenced in the vote.
In fact, at that level, one can argue that the ELCA vote has empowered congregations vis-à-vis synods, if not vis-à-vis Higgins Road.
That is, Higgins Road holds the policy cards, and will see to it that the “implementing resolutions” permeate the entire church structure. And congregations have the power to reject the vote locally, as to the clergy they will accept — as well as to the degree they remain tied to the ELCA in terms of offerings, curricula, bulletins, programs, beneficiaries . . . the option to accept or reject gay or lesbian clergy at the congregational level has empowered congregations, in principle, in multiples of other dimensions. And, to that degree, synods (and bishops) become much less relevant.
Heresy
There is about the vote and the policy a reckoning more severe: that the ELCA is, at that point, in heresy, though some disagree. Witness this view, from Pastor Richard Johnson, editor of Forum Letter: “Some (have gone) so far as to accuse the ELCA of heresy — a bit over the top, seems to me. Heresy generally involves a specific and overt repudiation of some key doctrine of Christian faith. What the ELCA has done is serious error, to be sure, but I don’t think it rises to the status of heresy.”
But what has occurred is an overt challenge to — and alteration of — the content of the Sixth Commandment.
Presupposed in the sixth is that “marriage is an holy estate, ordained of God and to be held in honor by those who enter therein.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife. And they twain shall become one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.’ What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”
Both the “ordained of God” and the “male and female” are normative as to marriage.
Adultery consists in sundry violations — actions, thoughts, imaginings, arrangements — of the normative conditions for the exercise of human sexuality: Violations apart from marriage (i.e., by those not married). Against marriage (overt adultery). Other than marriage (something not male and female).
God made us male and female, and ordained marriage for the purpose of bringing forth and nurturing children, for love and companionship, and for lifelong fidelity.
Thus what precisely occurred in the Minneapolis vote is a direct challenge to both the content and authority of the Sixth Commandment.
Apostasy
But more than that, the vote, in challenging the content and authority of the Sixth Commandment, challenges also, and more significantly, the First Commandment. That is, it challenges the authority of God to make any commandments whatsoever. I argue that such a challenge is an “overt repudiation of … (a) key doctrine of the Christian faith.” To challenge the authority of God gets at the source of the matter.
There is more. The Minneapolis vote regarding gay and lesbian clergy assaults all three articles of the Apostles Creed.
It challenges what constitutes — and belongs in — God’s good creation. At no point do the Holy Scriptures acknowledge (much less assert) that homosexual relations reside in Genesis chapters 1 & 2. The debate is precisely that fundamental: that homosexual behavior or relations are part and parcel of Genesis 3 and beyond. In the Minneapolis vote, the first article of the creed is challenged by expansion . . . as to what constitutes God’s good creation.
And likewise the second article vis-à-vis the redemption resident in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. If homosexual relationships are part and parcel of life in Christ, then no repentance is needed for the relationship, per se . . . only for sins otherwise committed in it, or during it, or before it, or after it.
What the church has previously taught, based on the teaching of the Holy Scripture, is that the church does not bless, or accept, that kind of relationship. One does not need to repent of marriage . . . only for sins he or she commits within the marriage, or apart from the marriage. For marriage is an holy estate, ordained of God.
The Minneapolis move incorporates into the “God blessed” category a relationship not acceptable to Holy Scripture — and introduces a relationship that does not immediately, in itself, require repentance and amendment of life.
And again the third article, like unto the second: how one lives his or her life in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church is now expanded to include a category of intimate human relationship universally scorned by Holy Scripture in all its manifestations.
So on this read, the Minneapolis vote challenges specifically the content of the Sixth Commandment and, moreover, the First Commandment — the authority of God to command in such fashion whatsoever . . . as well as all three articles of the creed as to creation, redemption, and sanctification.
That’s not simply heresy (specific and overt repudiation of some key doctrine).
The cumulative rejection of Creed and Commandments amounts to apostasy . . . an overt repudiation of the faith, while still claiming allegiance to the faith, believing that the innovation is itself consistent with the received faith. Such is the gravitas of the situation.
The Rev. Dr. J. Larry Yoder is Professor of Religion and chair of the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C., and director of its Center for Theology.
He serves as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Newton, N.C., a member congregation of Lutheran CORE.
He also serves on the Theological Advisory Board of the WordAlone Network, one of the renewal movements that comprise Lutheran CORE.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
African Lutherans are ‘extremely disturbed’ by ELCA, Swedish actions on homosexual behavior
Leaders of Lutheran churches in Africa are expressing opposition to the actions of the ELCA in affirming homosexual behavior. They note that the decisions by the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly and by the Lutheran Church of Sweden have damaged the relationship between churches in the Lutheran World Federation.
In a message prepared for the 2010 gathering of the Lutheran World Federation, the African church leaders said: “We are extremely disturbed and deeply regret the recent developments taking place in some member churches of the communion who have taken unilateral decision on same sex marriages, disregarding the strong sentiments expressed by other members of the communion. This unilateral action has negatively impacted our life together as a communion, something which could have been avoided.”
The leaders of the 18.5 million Lutherans in Africa met March 24-28 in Abuja, Nigeria, to prepare the statement.
“We strongly affirm our decision taken in Lund in 2007 that ‘marriage is holy, ordained by God and is a relationship between a man and woman.’ Therefore, the majority of African member churches say ‘NO’ to homosexual acts and regard it to be sinful,” the message says.
“We pray for the Spirit of discernment and for the grace of God to abound as we seek to resolve these issues.”
The presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) noted his church’s opposition to the actions of the ELCA in his Easter sermon.
“ELCT has refused to recognize the decision to allow same-sex marriages because it is against the Holy Bible. It is in direct contravention of God’s Word, which has not changed,” Bishop Alex G. Malasusa told worshipers at the Azania Front Church in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He said that the ELCA and the Church of Sweden have strayed from the Scriptures, and it was up to Africa to bring them back into line.
The bishop’s comments were reported by The Citizen, a Tanzanian newspaper. The newspaper reported that Bishop Malasusa said that Tanzania and Africa had taken a common stand on the issue and would not waver.
“It’s time Africa preached to the rest of the world and remind them of God’s Word because it seems they have forgotten what the Bible says,” Malasusa said. The newspaper reported that the worshipers responded to the bishop’s words with cheers.
“To avoid undue influence from the U.S. and Sweden, Bishop Malasusa urged the church in Tanzania and across Africa to strive for financial and economic independence,” the news report said.
“We should be independent so that they don’t use their money and wealth to threaten us . . . we should leave them with their money and stick to the Word of God,” he said.
With 5.3 million members, the ELCT is the second largest Lutheran Church in the Lutheran World Federation and the largest Lutheran church in Africa. The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus in Ethiopia is the third largest Lutheran Church in the world with more than 5.27 million.
The national Church of Sweden is the largest church body in the LWF with 6.75 million members. The ELCA is the fourth largest with 4.6 million members.
According to an April 7 news release, ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson said the ELCA does “not use financial resources to coerce global companions.”
In a message prepared for the 2010 gathering of the Lutheran World Federation, the African church leaders said: “We are extremely disturbed and deeply regret the recent developments taking place in some member churches of the communion who have taken unilateral decision on same sex marriages, disregarding the strong sentiments expressed by other members of the communion. This unilateral action has negatively impacted our life together as a communion, something which could have been avoided.”
The leaders of the 18.5 million Lutherans in Africa met March 24-28 in Abuja, Nigeria, to prepare the statement.
“We strongly affirm our decision taken in Lund in 2007 that ‘marriage is holy, ordained by God and is a relationship between a man and woman.’ Therefore, the majority of African member churches say ‘NO’ to homosexual acts and regard it to be sinful,” the message says.
“We pray for the Spirit of discernment and for the grace of God to abound as we seek to resolve these issues.”
The presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) noted his church’s opposition to the actions of the ELCA in his Easter sermon.
“ELCT has refused to recognize the decision to allow same-sex marriages because it is against the Holy Bible. It is in direct contravention of God’s Word, which has not changed,” Bishop Alex G. Malasusa told worshipers at the Azania Front Church in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He said that the ELCA and the Church of Sweden have strayed from the Scriptures, and it was up to Africa to bring them back into line.
The bishop’s comments were reported by The Citizen, a Tanzanian newspaper. The newspaper reported that Bishop Malasusa said that Tanzania and Africa had taken a common stand on the issue and would not waver.
“It’s time Africa preached to the rest of the world and remind them of God’s Word because it seems they have forgotten what the Bible says,” Malasusa said. The newspaper reported that the worshipers responded to the bishop’s words with cheers.
“To avoid undue influence from the U.S. and Sweden, Bishop Malasusa urged the church in Tanzania and across Africa to strive for financial and economic independence,” the news report said.
“We should be independent so that they don’t use their money and wealth to threaten us . . . we should leave them with their money and stick to the Word of God,” he said.
With 5.3 million members, the ELCT is the second largest Lutheran Church in the Lutheran World Federation and the largest Lutheran church in Africa. The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus in Ethiopia is the third largest Lutheran Church in the world with more than 5.27 million.
The national Church of Sweden is the largest church body in the LWF with 6.75 million members. The ELCA is the fourth largest with 4.6 million members.
According to an April 7 news release, ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson said the ELCA does “not use financial resources to coerce global companions.”
Thursday, April 01, 2010
New Bible Study from Sola Publishing
Looking for a resource to help discuss the biblical and theological issues at stake in the Church today?Sola Publishing has produced a seven session Bible Study titled “We Still Believe” to examine key issues of faith and doctrine. Based around the seven articles of the Common Confession (the shared faith statement of Lutheran Core and the WordAlone Network), the study would serve as an excellent tool to be used by pastors, lay-leaders, and congregations in discussing the theological issues that are at stake within Lutheran denominations in our present day.
The study represents the historical Christian position on these issues, and focuses on the biblical basis for what Lutherans have believed and taught for centuries. An accompanying Leader’s Guide is available as well, featuring essays by members of the Lutheran Core Steering Committee.
Click www.solapublishing.org to go to the Sola Publishing website for more information, and for a downloadable sample of the study.
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