Posted by
Playful Walrus on Sunday, August 23, 2009 8:00:00 PM
Check out
this blog entry at Stand to Reason, including the comments. And on the move by the ELCA Lutherans. And here's Duke Helfand's
Los Angeles Times article on the move by the ELCA Lutherans.
The national church's presiding bishop, Mark S. Hanson, acknowledged that the change in church policies has caused strains on both sides of the debate and on others who remain undecided.
Even as Hanson described the deliberations over the issue as heartfelt, he appealed directly to those on the losing end. All Lutherans, he said, share a common faith.
He still wants your contributions of money and time, of course. But there is no common faith if they can't agree on whether or not the Bible is more authoritative than personal feelings.
"It would be tragic if we talked away from one another."
What's tragic is a church abdicating its role of calling sinners to repent.
I don’t maintain that it is easy for someone with homosexual feelings who wants to follow Christ. But this isn't the way to deal with the problems they face. Ultimately, this isn't the loving thing to do. When I faced a conflict between the Bible and my own sexual desires (the desire to fornicate), the solution wasn't to start a movement to get my church to lie to me and say that fornication was okay.
If the denomination is willing to abandon Biblical authority in this area, will they abandon it in other areas as well? I would think that will be more likely now.