ELCA Leader Says There is No Absolute Inside Track to God

11/20/2014

Rev. Stephen Bouman, executive director for congregational and synodical mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) recently attended a meeting designed “to maintain religious dialogue and seek action together for peace” between "Iraqi Sunni, Shiite, Christian, Turkmen and Kurdish religious leaders." The ELCA news service reports that at the gathering Rev. Stephen Bouman said “A second tenant [sic] is that no one gathered has special access to God; there is no absolute inside track to God.” (see here) Maybe Rev. Bouman has never read or doesn't believe what Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

5 Comments

Kathy S.

11/21/2014 06:08:05 am

I was very surprised to see that these religious leaders do not know the difference between "tenet" and "tenant."

Didaskalos link

11/23/2014 05:14:28 am

[Re: Dan’s post of the ELCA News Service’s press release "ELCA bishops support Obama’s immigration reform announcement,” on which site comments are, naturally, disallowed. I tried posting most of the comment below on the SW Minnesota bishop’s page, but the post was, naturally, disallowed. Only ELCA-approved, sycophantic responses are allowed on official ELCA websites, illustrating again the self-evident motto of ELCA bishops and leaders: “All your bound consciences are belong to us."]

Another recent example of ELCA leadership’s willful deafness to God’s Word:

In supporting Pres. Obama’s executive order on immigration, ELCA bishops issued a statement which reads in part: “The treatment of immigrants is a core religious value,” the [ELCA] bishops said. “To welcome the stranger is to welcome a child of God. In the New Testament, Jesus tells us to welcome the stranger, for ‘just as you did it to one of the least of these … you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:40),” the statement said. - [ELCA News Service — http://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/7707#sthash.27R07Baj.dpuf ]

And the treatment — namely, the killing — of preborn children isn’t a core religous value? Do the ELCA bishops think that quality-of-life immigration issues are important to God, but the life-or-death shedding of innocent blood by abortion is no longer an abomination to Him [Proverbs 6:16-17]?

If ELCA bishops think God is indifferent and turning a blind eye to the ELCA’s blood-money subsidies in its self-funded employee health plan for the abortion of children known and made in the womb by Him [Psalm 139:13-16], they’ve got another think coming. They’d better take a sober, repentant look at Proverbs 24:11-12 and stop funding the killing of “God’s work” with “our hands.”

As you’re doing it to “the least of these,” ELCA, you’re doing it to Jesus.

Didaskalos link

11/23/2014 05:30:29 am

". . . Third, we come to the table as interpreters of our own religious texts," said [Rev. Stephen] Bouman.

Uh, no. The ELCA gave up honest interpretation decades ago. The ELCA now comes to anyone's table as eisegete, reviser, overruler, and censor of the Bible it risibly claims as its religious text.

Borrowing G. Shane Morris's description, the ELCA is now hawking only its own bowdlerized scripture:

“Introducing the Less Intolerant Edition, a Bible that speaks to modern readers with exciting and updated theology, history, and science! It’s designed to convey a spiritual message that makes your tummy feel warm without the Ancient Near-East creation myths, the narrow-minded bigotry, or those outdated, judgmental passages about sex! You’ll find joy like never before in the pages of this highly evolved translation, and you’ll discover the true message of Jesus that’s always been obscured by other versions: ‘God approves of you, your choices, and your ideas, and wants to occupy that snuggly, non-threatening, bichon-shaped pocket in your heart.’

"To order your copy of the L.I.E. and read the Bible as it was meant to be read, call toll free . . .”

Chemnitz

11/23/2014 07:57:27 am

Apparently Bouman himself has no "inside track" to God. He himself has stated so. However, other Christians do through Jesus Christ, as scripture proclaims in many places. If Bouman chooses to denounce and reject God's blessing to him, that his right -- and his folly. He should not presume to speak for others who know and love Christ.

Radd

11/25/2014 04:52:14 am

The problem is The leaders of ELCA have perverted Martin Luther's teaching. They have decided to interpret the bible to suit their feelings.
What is happening in many churches today is just what is says in Jude 1:3-4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

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ELCA Leader Says There is No Absolute Inside Track to God

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Dan Skogen

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