​Celebrating Queerness, Transforming White Privilege, Combating Climate Change, Expanding God Language, and GLAAD at Upcoming ELCA Pastors Gathering

(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.)

​The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is inviting all of its pastors to a gathering in Phoenix this July. Many “caucuses” and workshops will be offered by the ELCA to its pastors, and much of it reads like a wish list of liberal theology.

One workshop will be led by Jamie Bruesehoff, an LGBTQ+ advocate and pastor’s wife and the mother of a boy who identifies as a girl. Two summers ago, when the boy was 12 years old, he spoke to 31,000 ELCA teenagers at the ELCA Teen Gathering to promote transgenderism.

Here is another workshop at the upcoming ELCA pastors gathering:

“LGBTQIA+ Identities in Ministry Caucus
...Rostered ministers who identify as LGBTQIA+ are invited to a caucus and share a time of celebration, sharing, and solidarity. We will take time for...a ritual of celebration of queerness. This caucus is for those who identify as a gender and sexual minority and not allies”.

Even the secular pro-gay group GLAAD will show up with the below workshop which seeks to teach pastors how to leverage the media in hopes of getting the “moveable middle” to become pro-gay:

“Calling for Justice in our Modern Media Landscape
Deacon Ross Murray, Senior Director, GLAAD Media Institute...Participants will learn how to leverage the media and articulate a message of God's justice. Equipped with research and best practices gleaned from 30 years of LGBTQ advocacy, the GLAAD Media Institute will work with participants to communicate their message with the movable middle while combating the often-polarizing narrative surrounding faith and social justice.”

Mary Streufert, Director for ELCA Justice for Women, will offer a workshop on expanding God language, which usually means moving beyond God the Father language and using feminine language for God. 

Such are among the offerings at the upcoming ELCA pastors gathering. And such is the reason liberal, mainline denominations like the ELCA, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church in America, the Disciples of Christ, and the PCUSA Presbyterians continue to shrink and shrink.

In Jesus our Savior,

Pastor Tom Brock

(See ELCA workshops here)