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ELCA Bishop Presides Over Mass Gay Wedding Ceremony

6/28/2014

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Chicago hosted a marriage equality service June 27, 2014, where eleven gay couples exchanged vows.

“Bishop Wayne Miller of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America presided over the service. . .In Miller's words of welcome, he noted the special nature of this ceremony and said that Holy Trinity Lutheran Church has fought for greater inclusivity for the past 25 years. Miller also spoke about the bonds that bring two people together as a couple and called on the congregation to be witnesses to each couple's commitment of marriage to each other.

During Miller's sermon he spoke about the importance of this occasion and thanked everyone for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful celebration.” (see here)

So here we have ELCA leadership presiding over gay marriages, and I can not find one bishop in the ELCA, out of 66, who has taken a stand to say it is wrong, denounced the ELCA for encouraging sinful behavior or for making vows to live in relationships that are quite evidently in opposition to what God says is best for His people.

The ELCA is sinking into the abyss.

Video from some of the ceremony -

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'Real Churches Don’t Kill Babies'

6/24/2014

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From an article written in 1996:

“Forget for the moment whether the government should fund abortions. The question is whether churches should do so. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been doing that for years through its medical benefits plan. Ditto the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The editor of the independent Lutheran Forum, Pastor Leonard Klein, writes: 'The Church Council of the ELCA voted to reject the Board of Pensions’ carefully worked out restrictions on payment for abortion. The ELCA will continue, consciously and openly, to pay for a most grotesque mortal sin-using offerings gathered at its most sacred assemblies to do so. Its readiness to pay for this act far exceeds that of most states and of the federal government. (And this same Board of Pensions is very stingy about elective surgery and contraceptives and second-guesses all sorts of medical decisions of its members both under its own plan and under Aetna’s.) At the very time when Congress was recoiling in horror from the so-called partial-birth abortion, as liberal Senator Barbara Boxer was reduced to holding up pictures of families to try to counter the more relevant pictures of late-term fetuses from the other side, the ELCA voted to pay for it. The council looked squarely at an opportunity to honor the fifth commandment and yawned. Faced with a fundamental issue of faith and morals, they addressed it as a question of rules and procedures. This is all bad; and merits as severe a judgment as any the prophets ever called down on Israel and Judah.' Klein notes that the same meeting of the Church Council, in response to a torrent of protest, 'worried and fretted and took sorrowful actions over the expulsion at long last of two rogue parishes in San Francisco' that had installed actively homosexual pastors. 'But there was no such display of empathy for the faithful pastors and congregations whose consciences will be racked not because they set out to flout Christian sexual ethics but because they wish to honor the Torah, worship truly the Father of all life, and embrace the Gospel of life. Real churches don’t kill babies.'” (read here)

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Trust the Bible, Not the ELCA's 'Ask a Pastor'

6/20/2014

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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's website has a reoccurring column called “Ask a Pastor.” One recent question addressed by the denomination was this, “My kiddos go to a Lutheran preschool and we — me and my kids, ages 4 and 5 — are reading the Bible. How do you explain the very old ages of some of the people in the Bible (Old Testament)?”

These kind of questions are difficult to answer for a denomination that doesn't believe that what God tells us in Scripture is true. The ELCA casts doubt on Jesus being birthed by a virgin, that Jesus actually said what He is recorded to have said in the Bible, that hell or the devil are real or that God created everything in six days – all which is well-documented on this website. The ELCA even casts doubt or denies that Adam and Eve were actual real humans beings.

So the answer to the question, “How do you explain the very old ages of some of the people in the Bible (Old Testament)?” by ELCA pastor, Rosanne Swanson, is not a surprise. She writes,

“There are many theories about the ages recorded in the Old Testament — like years back then were not the same as years now so that there was a different counting system for years. Or, before the flood, people lived longer and after the flood they didn’t...” (read here)

How ridiculous that the ELCA even suggests that years may not have been the same as they are now.

Early church father and Christian theologian Augustine believed the genealogies written in Genesis to be literal chronologies. He believed what the Bible said, that pre-flood patriarchs lived to be around 900 years. (see Augustine, The City of God, Book 15, Chapters 11–12, pp. 436–440.)

Read just a few verses of Scripture on what God says about the age of people before the flood:

When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.

When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died.

When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died (Genesis 5:3-11).

ELCA leadership: God is wiser, bigger, more powerful, more intelligent than you are. Stop telling His children that God's Word is full of myths and can not be trusted. You are pushing people away from God, and He will hold you accountable for your actions and your misleadings.

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Upcoming ELCA Youth Gathering Promotes Homosexuality to Youth

6/15/2014

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By Pastor Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. Facebook users can follow Pastor Brock by going here and twitter users here.

The ELCA's "Western States Youth Gathering" begins June 27 in Thousand Oaks California. One of the speakers is Bishop Guy Irwin, the ELCA's first practicing homosexual bishop. One of the workshops offered to the youth is the following (I know what LGBT means, but what now is LGBTQQIAA+? The list of "sexualities" just gets stranger):

TITLE: LGBTQQIAA+ in the Lutheran Community...

PRESENTER: Laura Shkouratoff and Rev. Craig Minich

DESCRIPTION: In order to create a healthy, non-judgmental environment, we aim to lead a youth focused discussion about LGBT inclusion in the ELCA Lutheran denomination. Using multimedia resources, we will get an overview of LGBTQQIAA+....

Please pray that some youth and adults have the courage to speak out against this sinful craziness.

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The Teaching At Luther Seminary

6/10/2014

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The teaching happening in ELCA seminaries is non-Biblical, dangerous and heretical. The comment below is further confirmation of this -

"why do you think that there are 'still some very good professors' at Luther Seminary? As a student at Luther I would love to see just one. According to more than two-thirds of my professors: Everyone is Saved, Jesus came back as a Ghost, and God is a woman, sadly the future pastors of ELCA agree." (Posted on a closed facebook group page here)

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ELCA Desperate for Money

6/6/2014

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The ELCA launched a five-year fundraising campaign February, 2014 called "Always Being Made New: The Campaign for the ELCA." The goal of this fundraising effort by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is to raise $198 million. (read here)

These type of campaigns, sometimes conducted by congregations, are last ditch efforts made to alleviate catastrophic financial shortfalls that often are the result of year upon year of expenses exceeding income. They are an act of desperation. A hail mary pass.

The ELCA's magazine, The Lutheran, reports that “ELCA operating income ($72.3 million) for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2014, was $2.9 million ahead of $69.4 million in expenses, but $4.1 million behind the previous year. Mission support — income from congregations through synods — stood at $48.8 million, $1.1 million below the previous year.

'We’ve come out of those years of steep decline, but we are still in a period of relative decline,' ELCA Treasurer Linda Norman said” (see here).

How interesting that a denomination that leads people away from God and His truth is hurting for money.

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Twitter Rant of an ELCA Seminary Professor

6/2/2014

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Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney, an associate professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP), is an avid twitter user. She has made over 29,000 tweets. Two days after I wrote my latest blog focusing on ELCA seminary professor Gafney's teachings and beliefs (see here) she went off on a huge twitter rant. Seems she didn't like my blog or someone confronting her about what she said. You can read what she wrote below. It includes racial accusations made by this representative of the ELCA -

Old school troll is old school. Copying me on spam email b/c I said the image of God is LGBTQ folk years ago (& still do). He can't let go.
— Wil Gafney (@WilGafney) April 29, 2014

Funny that ELCA trolls latched on to me as embodiment of everything wrong w their church & seminaries. #blackwomaninlutherland
— Wil Gafney (@WilGafney) April 29, 2014

I'm not the only progressive voice on an ELCA seminary faculty. I am particularly visible because of my embodiment as a black woman.
— Wil Gafney (@WilGafney) April 29, 2014

These trolls come back every so often. They hate that I teach a God who doesn't hate the folk they do. Rather go to a straight white hell...
— Wil Gafney (@WilGafney) April 29, 2014

If heaven is full of non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual and non-Christian folk, they'll happily go straight to hell!
— Wil Gafney (@WilGafney) April 29, 2014

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ELCA Bishop Presides Over Mass Gay Wedding Ceremony

'Real Churches Don’t Kill Babies'

Trust the Bible, Not the ELCA's 'Ask a Pastor'

Upcoming ELCA Youth Gathering Promotes Homosexuality to Youth

The Teaching At Luther Seminary

ELCA Desperate for Money

Twitter Rant of an ELCA Seminary Professor

Dan Skogen

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