American Christianity's slide into the abyss of compromise and sin
continues. How sad. Following is an article from the New York Times
regarding one branch of the Lutheran Church which will now accept gay and
lesbian clergy members.


Lutheran Group Eases Limits on Gay Clergy

By MICHAEL LUO and CHRISTINA CAPECCHI - NYT

August 21, 2009


After an emotional debate over the authority of Scripture and the limits of
biblical inclusiveness, leaders of the country's largest Lutheran
denomination voted Friday to allow gay men and lesbians in committed
relationships to serve as members of the clergy.

The vote made the denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
the latest mainline Protestant church to permit such ordinations,
contributing to a halting sense of momentum on the issue within liberal
Protestantism.

By a vote of 559 to 451, delegates to the denomination's national assembly
in Minneapolis approved a resolution declaring that the church would find a
way for people in "publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender
relationships" to serve as official ministers. (The church already allows
celibate gay men and lesbians to become members of the clergy.)

Just before the vote, the Rev. Mark Hanson, the church's presiding bishop,
led the packed convention center in prayer. When the two bar graphs
signaling the vote's outcome popped up on the hall's big screens seconds
later, there were only a few quiet gasps, as delegates had been asked to
avoid making an audible scene. But around the convention hall, clusters of
men and women hugged one other and wept.

"To be able to be a full member of the church is really a lifelong dream,"
said the Rev. Megan Rohrer of San Francisco, who is in a committed same-sex
relationship and serves in three Lutheran congregations but is not
officially on the church's roster of clergy members. "I don't have to have
an asterisk next to my name anymore."

But the passage of the resolution now raises questions about the future of
the denomination, which has 4.6 million members but has seen its ranks
steadily dwindle, and whether it will see an exodus of its more conservative
followers or experience some sort of schism.

"I think we have stepped beyond what the word of God allows," said the Rev.
Rebecca M. M. Heber of Heathrow, Fla., who said she was going to reconsider
her membership.

Conservative dissenters said they saw various options, including leaving for
another Lutheran denomination or creating their own unified body.

A contingent of 400 conservative congregations that make up a group that
calls itself Lutheran Core is to meet in September. Leaders of the group
said their plans were not to split from the Evangelical Lutheran Church but
to try to protect its "true tenets" from within.

Among so-called "mainline" Protestant denominations, distinguishable
theologically from their more conservative, evangelical Protestant
counterparts, both the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ
already allow gay clergy members.

The Episcopal Church has endured the most visible public flashpoints over
homosexuality, grappling in particular in the last few years with the
consecration of gay bishops. It affirmed last month, however, that "any
ordained ministry" was open to gay men and lesbians.

Earlier this year the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) rejected a measure that
would have opened the door for gay ordination, but the margin was narrower
than in a similar vote in 2001. The United Methodist Church voted not to
change its stance barring noncelibate homosexuals from ministry last year,
after an emotional debate at its general conference.

But the Evangelical Lutheran Church's heavily Midwestern membership and the
fact that it is generally seen as falling squarely in the middle of the
theological milieu of mainline Protestantism imbued Friday's vote with added
significance, religion scholars said.

Wendy Cadge, a sociology professor at Brandeis University who has studied
Evangelical Lutheran churches grappling with the issue, said, "It does show,
to the extent that any mainline denominations are moving, I think they're
moving slowly toward a more progressive direction."

Describing the context of Friday's vote, several religion experts likened it
to the court decision last year in Iowa legalizing same-sex marriage.

"In the same sense that the Iowa court decision might have opened people's
eyes, causing them to say, 'Iowa? What? Where?'" said Laura Olson, a
professor of political science at Clemson University who has studied
mainline Protestantism. "The E.L.C.A. isn't necessarily quite as surprising
in the religious sense, but the message it's sending is, yes, not only are
more Americans from a religious perspective getting behind gay rights, but
these folks are not just quote unquote coastal liberals."

The denomination has struggled with the issue almost since its founding in
the late 1980s with the merger of three other Lutheran denominations.

In 2001, the church convened a committee to study the issue. It eventually
recommended guidelines for a denominational vote. In 2005, however,
delegates voted not to change its policies.

On Friday, delegates juggled raw emotion, fatigue and opposing
interpretations of Scripture.

Before the vote but sensing its outcome, the Rev. Timothy Housholder of
Cottage Grove, Minn., introduced himself as a rostered pastor in the church,
"at least for a few more hours," implying that he would leave the
denomination and eliciting a gasp from some audience members.

"Here I stand, broken and mournful, because of this assembly and her
actions," Mr. Housholder said.

The Rev. Mark Lepper of Belle Plaine, Minn., called for the inclusion of gay
clergy members, saying, "Let's stop leaving people behind and let's be the
family God is calling us to be."


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