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ELCA Pastor-to-be Strips Down to Her “Skivvies” For a Photoshoot

11/9/2017

6 Comments

 
(Warning: Sexuality explicit language)

Elle Dowd is an ELCA seminarian at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) and is also part of the leadership of Decolonize Lutheranism (read about this group here). She recently wrote a blog called “Jesus and Black Lace Lingerie” where we are told:

 
“…I was at a casting call, auditioning for the chance to model a body-positive line of bras and underwear. The church has a reputation for prudishness about anything having to do with things like desire, bodies, or sex. And so me, a seminarian, a pastor-in-training, showing up ready to strip down to my skivvies for a photoshoot seems to a lot of people like a glaring (or at least interesting) contradiction.”
 
She then goes into a strange discourse about God having a body, experiences He had with his body (using intentionally provocative words and descriptions of Christ’s birth), and experience she has had with her body. Then she writes:
 
“Learning about a shockingly embodied God empowered me to reconnect to my own body in a variety of ways through therapy, yoga, running, dancing, sex...Talk about the ways in which sex has been a powerful way not only to reclaim my body and reconnect to my sexuality, but to heal from spiritual abuse perpetuated by the church? It seems unheard of.”
 
After reading Elle Dowd's blog I believe a main message she is trying to communicate is that we should celebrate our bodies. Unfortunately, that seems to mean “in whatever fashion you want, sinful or not.” And that leads us back to her lingerie photo shoot. The ELCA seminarian writes:
 
“I felt my black lacy, cheeky shorts rub against my skin underneath my jeans as I sat on that futon and talked with the designer and the photographer about being a faith leader. Then I took off my t-shirt and took some photos in my bra, feeling free and brave, knowing that if anyone found this scandalous, at least I was in good company with my Scandalous, Incarnate God.” (read here)
 
Elle's blog has been the subject of some conversations with a number of ELCA leaders on Twitter recently. Here are some of the more shocking answers to questions posted by ELCA Deacon Tara L Ulrich, that were inspired by Elle Dowd's blog (notice that Elle retweeted each one):

Picture
ELCA Rev. Dr. Joelle Colville-Hanson, Director for Evangelical Mission for the Northeastern Iowa Synod.
Picture
ELCA Rev. Jason P. Chesnut
Picture
ELCA Rev. Priscilla N. Paris-Austin
6 Comments
Didaskalos
11/9/2017 03:52:59 pm

Look at the bright side:

1. The ever-shrinking ELCA has dropped all pretenses of being a church with even the remotest connection to the Lord of the Church and to Martin Luther. Anyone who's spiritually sentient can't escape realizing the ELCA is Seared Consciences 'R' Us, from which millions have gratefully fled to find real churches.

2. When the biblically bankrupt ELCA hits financial insolvency, Dowd and other unemployed ELCA feminists can probably get jobs at Cosmo and not have to go on the government dole.

Reply
Nick Johansen
11/9/2017 04:05:22 pm

ON MODESTY/HUMILITY/DECORUM BEFORE GOD

"Make tunics, sashes and headbands for Aaron's sons, to give them dignity and honor.... Make linen undergarments as a covering for the body, reaching from the waist to the thigh. Aaron and his sons must wear them whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they will not incur guilt and die." (Exodus 28:40, 42-43)

"I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet." (Isaiah 6:1-2)

"When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless." (Matthew 22:11-12)

ON SEPARATING THE HOLY AND THE COMMON

"Then the Lord said to Moses, ...make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. DO NOT MAKE ANY INCENSE WITH THIS FORMULA FOR YOURSELVES; consider it holy to the Lord. Whoever makes any like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from his people." (Exodus 30:34-38)

"Son of man, say to the land, 'You are a land that has had no rain or showers in the day of wrath." ...Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common." (Ezekiel 22:24, 26)

Reply
Nick Johansen
11/9/2017 07:17:38 pm

"And the Lord said to Moses. 'Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.' ....After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people, 'Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations.'" (Exodus 19:10-15)

"When we are to attend upon God in solemn ordinances it concerns us to sanctify ourselves, and to get ready beforehand. Wandering thoughts must be gathered in, impure affections abandoned, disquieting passions suppressed, nay, and all cares about secular business, for the present, dismissed and laid by, that our hearts may be engaged to approach unto God. Two things particularly prescribed as signs and instances of their preparation:--(1.) In token of their cleansing of themselves from all sinful pollutions, that they might be holy to God, they must wash their clothes (v. 10), and they did so (v. 14); not that God regards our clothes; but while they were washing their clothes he would have them think of washing their souls by repentance from the sins they had contracted in Egypt and since their deliverance. It becomes us to appear in clean clothes when we wait upon great men; so clean hearts are required in our attendance on the great God, who sees them as plainly as men see our clothes. This is absolutely necessary to our acceptably worshipping God. See Ps. 26:6; Isa. 1:16-18; Heb. 10:22). (2.) In token of their devoting themselves entirely to religious exercises, upon this occasion, they must abstain even from lawful enjoyments during these three days, and not come at their wives, v. 15. See 1 Cor. 7:5."
(Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible)
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/exodus/19.html

Reply
Tom Everet
11/9/2017 06:34:25 pm

Sadly it reads like a victim of repeated sexual abuse who has not come to terms with it. In a way, her abuser is still abusing her. :(
I genuine feel sorry for her.

Reply
Gordon
11/12/2017 04:41:16 pm

She was formerly a sex object to her abuser. Now she seems to want to make herself into a sex object for the general public to ogle. And her "friends" and colleagues in the ELCA clergy are egging her on.

Reply
Ted Wilson
11/10/2017 05:05:18 pm

The minister's duty is to lead the people in worship and to expound the word of God. Flaunting one's body is incompatible with both those endeavors.

Reply

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    Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.  
    ​1 Thessalonians 5:21

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    Former ELCA seminary student and former ELCA member who is fed up with the ELCA's consistent mockery of God's Word.


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  • Home
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