It's been a few months since we’ve had an update on ELCA Lutherans. Patrick Condon of the Associated Press reports the latest in respect to Lutherans who accept Biblical authority splitting off from the ELCA.

Leaders of Lutheran CORE said Wednesday that a working group would immediately begin drafting a constitution and taking other steps to form the denomination, with hopes to have it off the ground by next August.

What was the tipping point? Here's a reminder...

At its annual convention in Minneapolis in August, ELCA delegates voted to lift a ban that had prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian pastors from serving as clergy. The new policy, expected to take effect in April, will allow such individuals to lead ELCA churches as long as they can show that they are in committed, lifelong relationships.

And how is that to be determined, anyway? They live together? So what?

At a September convention, Lutheran CORE members voted to spend a year considering whether to form a new Lutheran denomination. However, its leaders said Wednesday that a heavy volume of requests for an alternative from disenfranchised congregations and churchgoers prompted them to hasten the process.

They can't get away fast enough. Some people will try to portray this as homophobia, but I doubt that most of these people are afraid of homosexual people. Instead, they submit to the teachings of the Bible.

John Brooks, spokesman at the ELCA's Chicago-based headquarters, said Lutheran CORE's move was not unexpected. He expressed hope that church members would ultimately opt to stay in the denomination as it strives to be "a place for all people despite any differences we might have on any issues."

Really? Any issues? How about authority of Jesus Christ? You’re supposed to be a church, not a social club. Churches have doctrines and standards.

I've already said plenty in previous blog entries on this issue.

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.

America's largest Lutheran denomination has decided to care to a whiny minority within their ranks, no doubt alienating even more followers of Christ.  Associated Press Writer Patrick Condon has the story.

Under the new policy, individual ELCA congregations will be allowed to hire [people who openly, unrepentantly practice homosexual behavior] as clergy as long as they are in a committed relationships. Until now, gays and lesbians had to remain celibate to serve as clergy.

Why the requirement of a committed relationship?  How is that defined, anyway?

Conservative congregations will not be forced to hire gay clergy.

...Yet.

Nevertheless, opponents of the shift decried what they saw as straying from clear Scriptural direction, and warned it could lead some congregations and individual churchgoers to split off from the ELCA.

Yes, but all that matters is that homosexual behavior is celebrated and esteemed, don't you see?

"This will cause an ever greater loss in members and finances. I can't believe the church I loved and served for 40 years can condone what God condemns," said the Rev. Richard Mahan, pastor at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Charleston, W.Va. "Nowhere in Scripture does it say homosexuality and same-sex marriage is acceptable to God. Instead, it says it is immoral and perverted."

The Bible, over and over again, teaches that sex is for marriage, and that marriage unites the sexes.  The implications are inescapable.

But ELCA supporters of its change said failure to ratify it ran just as great a risk of alienating large portions of the membership, particularly those from younger generations.

And so are they going to endorse heterosexual fornication for the same reason?  The church is supposed to call people towards godly living, not conform to the ungodly world.

Tim Mumm, a gay man and an assembly delegate from Whitewater, Wis., said the Scripture that guides opponents of the more liberal policy was written by mortals, at a much earlier time, and doesn't reflect what many Christians now believe.

Why should anyone bother to show up are your church when you reject your own Scriptures?  Why not drop the pretense of being a Christian church?

"I believe for me to marry a woman would be wrong - even sinful," Mumm said.

Maybe it would be - but there aren't just two options.

Under the new policy, heterosexual clergy and professional lay workers will still have to abstain from sex outside marriage.

Why?  On what grounds???

I offer my condolences to followers of Christ in the ECLA.

Here's today's update on the Lutherans.  Duke Helfand of the Los Angeles Times has the article.

Leaders of the 4.7-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are expected to decide during their weeklong Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis whether to alter existing policy, which requires gays and lesbians in ministry to remain celibate.

This can’t be right.  Surely they allow someone who has previously identified as homosexual to enter into holy matrinony, and thus not have to remain celibate?

The new policy would permit local congregations, if they wanted, to choose ministers or lay leaders who were in "lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships."

And how is anyone supposed to know if it is a lifelong, or monogamous relationships?  Even if they are, if there is pseudosexual behavior taking place, the church should not be condoning it in leadership.

Similar efforts to change the policy have failed five times over the last 12 years, according to church analysts.

But they'll keep trying.  Let’s face it - most of us get married at some point in life, and most of us have children.  These things take a lot of time, money, and energy.  We can't devote as much time to getting churches to endorse our sins.

The governing body's 1,045 voting members also will consider a long-anticipated social statement on human sexuality that, among various things, identifies marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Such statements are intended to guide church policy. Heterosexual clergy are allowed to have sex only within marriage.

Interesting.  What would that all mean, exactly?  That a man and woman couldn't claim to be in "lifelong, monogamous" relationships and thus get these positions, without being married?

Advocates of change in the Lutheran denomination argue that their church has a responsibility to accept all its members equally.

Since when does accepting all members equally mean condoning open, ongoing sin?  My church accepts all people equally - and calls all of us to repent of our sins, whatever they may be.  If a leader messes around with someone other than his wife, church leadership doesn't say, "Hey, it is time to get with it and accept that people have these feelings."  It boots him until he repents and is restored.

"We fully believe the church will be a better place and a better student for its mission if it is fully inclusive," said Phil Soucy, a spokesman for Goodsoil, a coalition of gay rights groups in the church. "Christ did not discriminate."

Christ certainly discriminated, rightly and justly.  He still does.

But those who favor traditional Lutheran positions on marriage believe the proposed policy reflects cultural norms rather than the word of God.

Exactly.  What is the point of having a church that mirrors the culture? You can join clubs and charities instead.  The church is there to worship God, make disciples, and serve the needy, thus transforming culture as He transforms the believer.

Related is my analysis of today's news on Obama's take on DOMA, over at The Opine Editorials.

What should determine a church’s stance?  The Bible, or a whiny minority of malcontents who want their sin celebrated by the church?  Associated Press writer Patrick Condon reports.

Leaders of the country's largest Lutheran denomination began discussing Monday whether or not to allow people in same-sex relationships to serve as clergy.

Let’s be clear here. I have plenty of same-sex relationships.  They are called... friendships.  What we're really talking about here is homosexual sodomy – psuedosexual activity with someone other than your spouse, as recognized by the Bible and church tradition.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is meeting this week in Minneapolis, plans to decide whether to approve a proposal that would allow individual congregations to let gay and lesbian people in committed relationships serve as clergy.

What constitutes "commitment", and why is that a criterion?

In other news, those brilliant military strategists at the Los Angeles Times had an editorial complaining again about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

Nearly 13,000 servicemen and servicewomen have been discharged under the policy -- 287 since President Obama took office.

And how many were discharged for homosexual behavior (or not even allowed to enlist) in similar time frames before this policy was adopted?

Finally, check out my analysis of the latest California Marriage Amendment coverage over at The Opine Editorials.

Homosexuality advocates are causing schisms in churches.  But, hey, every person and organization must bow down at the altar of homosexual esteem, right?  Duke Helfand of the Los Angeles Times has another story about this issue.

One of the most visible denominational skirmishes will occur in July, when leaders of the 2.2-million-member Episcopal Church consider proposals at their national convention in Anaheim to sanction a religious rite for blessing same-sex unions and ease restrictions on the ordination of gay and lesbian bishops.

Where is the basis for this, either in the Bible or tradition?

Even as they acknowledge deep divisions over homosexuality, members of the 4.7-million member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will decide at their meeting in Minneapolis whether they should enable local congregations to recognize same-sex unions and allow "practicing homosexuals" in committed relationships to serve in the ministry.

What about fornicating heterosexuals?

Other Protestant groups are embroiled in similar struggles, including the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Methodist Church. Another, the American Baptist Churches USA, is scheduled to hold its biennial convention in Pasadena in June but is not expected to consider any action related to same-sex marriage, a spokeswoman said.

The Church is supposed to transform individuals and the culture, not be transformed by the culture.

"What has been emerging for the last several years is becoming even clearer now: We're on a trajectory toward the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people," said the Rev. Jay Johnson, a professor of theology at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley and director of academic research at its Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry.

Really?  You expect people to sit in the pews and listen to someone talk about what we ought to be doing when that person is being shot up full of hormones and having healthy body parts lobbed off in an attempt to appear to be the opposite sex?

It's not enough for the homosexuality advocates to have the schools, the courts, the media, the workplace, professional associations, and their own churches – they want your church, too.

Churches are supposed to make disciples by being spiritual hospitals for sinners, not be mutual admiration societies where sinners get together and pretend God supports their sin.  That goes for heterosexual fornicators, too.