ELCA Pastors Prayed For the Decision of 'Full Inclusion' in the United Methodist Church: Bishop Eaton+ Respond to the Decision

ELCA Pastors Prayed for the Decision of 'Full Inclusion' In The United Methodist Church: Bishop Eaton+ Respond to the Decision

2/28/2019

The United Methodist Church (UMC) met this week in what is called their General Conference. On the docket for this week was a vote to allow practicing homosexual pastors and gay marriage. Below are some social media posts by Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastors posting their support for homosexual Methodists and for the same-sex marriage.

The vote failed. Methodists from many countries voted overwhelmingly to stand with God's Word, which calls homosexuality a sin and something of which one should repent.

In response to the UMC vote, ELCA Presiding Bishop Eaton issued a statement where she talked about the ELCA's 2009 vote to "opened the way" for same-sex marriage and practicing homosexual pastors saying, "though a controversial decision at the time, our 2009 action has brought strength and blessings for our life and mission beyond what we could have imagined a decade ago. This church treasures the faithful ministries of those rostered leaders who help us witness to God's love and invitation for all people. Their ministries are integral to who we are as this church." (See here)

Before the Vote

Praying for all gathered this weekend at #UMCGC. God of love, give them patience and love for one another and for your whole Church. Open hearts and minds to new possibilities so all may hear the good news of Jesus’ love for the whole world and for all people. Amen.#GC2019 #ELCA
— Pastor Daniel Flucke (@danielflucke) February 24, 2019

I’ve been contemplating watching and I’m not even Methodist - I’m ELCA! This queer Lutheran pastor is praying for y’all (and so is my church) and sending SO MUCH love. #churchnerd #churchnerdsunite #FaithfullyLGBT □️‍□❤️□️‍□
— Megan Elliott (@megnadoodle1982) February 25, 2019

Hey, @rmnetwork @umchurch, we prayed for your General Conference at @SOJ_Seguin today. I’m instagramming our most rainbow □ part of worship for you. ❤️#foreveryoneborn #umcgc #gc2019 #umc… https://t.co/dyucgZ3bRz
— Megan Elliott (@megnadoodle1982) February 24, 2019

@BishopOliveto praying for our UMC Sisters and Brothers in General Conference. Your ELCA Full Communion Partners are praying with you and standing for full inclusion. God bless you.
— John Ericson (@jericson1963) February 25, 2019

The people of my @ELCA congregation lifted the @UMCGC in our prayers this morning. May God’s wide-reaching love and persistent justice prevail in your midst.
— Collette Broady Grund (@Collettebro) February 25, 2019

I'm definitive re-living 2009 (ELCA "decision" year) anxieties... And I'm cishet.

I cannot begin to imagine what my LGBTQIA+ Siblings are going through.
— John Sipf - He/Him/His □□□□□□□□□□□□□ (@Pr_JT_Sipf) February 25, 2019

After the Vote

An ELCA seminary:

An ELCA church:

Prayers are requested for ELCA seminarians awaiting assignment to first call areas today, and those in the United Methodist Church who are LGTBQUIA in the wake of decisions made yesterday that exclude their full participation in church and ministry.
— Bethesda New Haven (@bethesdaNH) February 27, 2019

Savanna Sullivan, an ELCA employee and the Director of @ELCAYoungAdults -

What shall we say in response to these things? | Romans 8:31

Our LGBTQ+ siblings are aching. ELCA leaders, what will we say in response from our pulpits? What will we say about our own churches excluding these folx? How will we see this as a call to VERBALIZED AFFIRMATION?
— Savanna Sullivan (@sav_sull) February 27, 2019

ELCA Pastor Melissa Bills -

My profile pic is one I took a few years ago to stand in solidarity and love with my UMC siblings. The sentiment still stands. This ELCA pastor loves you and prays with you and weeps with you, dear ones.
— Melissa Bills (@melissaannbills) February 27, 2019

Dan Glamann, Retired Assistant to the Bishop, Central States Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) -

My heart aches for the UMC. We in the ELCA went through this years ago and have survived the decision. Members/leaders/pastors are certainly welcome with us.

United Methodist Church (@UMChurch) leaders vote against #LGBTQ inclusion. https://t.co/LZsXA06ntY via @HRC
— Dan Glamann (@GlamannD) February 27, 2019

An ELCA church:

We stand with our @UMChurch #LGBTQIA siblings in Christ who are unsure of their places in the church and, worse, of their status as children of God. We love you and affirm that you are beloved and chosen by God—as you are! #FaithfullyLGBT
— Calvary ELCA (@calvary_elca) February 27, 2019

ELCA pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber -

There is God. And then there is the church. The less we conflate the two, the better. The church may reject God’s children, but God never does. To my queer siblings, I’m so sorry. You are glorious. #GC2019
— Nadia Bolz-Weber (SHAMELESS af) (@Sarcasticluther) February 25, 2019

ELCA Pastor Norma Cook Everist, "Distinguished Professor of Church and Ministry emerita," Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. -

I stand with those who lament the decision of the United Methodist Church to continue to officially forbid same-sex marriages and ordination of LGBT people. It has been 10 years since the ELCA voted for inclusivity.
— Norma Cook Everist (@NEverist) February 27, 2019

7 Comments

Duane Nelson link

2/28/2019 09:13:31 am

There is a rather lively discussion on the ELCA facebook page in response to Bishop Eaton's letter!

John

2/28/2019 10:21:45 pm

This week Christians around the world rejoiced that our brothers and sisters in the UMC remained faithful to the Lord Jesus and His gospel, in spite of pressure from misguided bishops and laity alike. They not only rejected the apostasy of the One Church Plan, they strengthened their faithful witness by strengthening discipline, and by offering convenient exit for those who will not repent.

Amid all the weeping and teeth-gnashing from the swingers' caucus, even the leftist media had to report the faithful "Here I stand" from our Liberian brother R. Merab, who summed up the decision with “It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error.” Or as St. Paul warned the Corinthians (2 Cor 6:14-18), and us as well:

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Didaskalos link

3/1/2019 12:03:52 pm

From the ELCA's marquee ear-tickler, Nadia Bolz-Weber:
"There is God. And then there is the church. The less we conflate the two, the better. The church may reject God’s children, but God never does. To my queer siblings, I’m so sorry. You are glorious."

ELCAspeak translation: There is God. And then there are the pretend-Christian Mainline churches. The less confessional Lutherans and Christians conflate the two, the better. The Church never rejects God's children. On the contrary, it seeks to fulfill Jesus' Great Commission and faithfully deliver His command to all who would be God's children: "Repent and believe the Gospel." To Nadia's queer siblings, the Church says:

". . .In 1 Corinthians 6, St. Paul gives vital clarification on a subject where there is much foggy thinking among those who ask questions like, "What should the Church's approach to homosexual Christians be?" The apostolic answer is that there is no such thing as a homosexual Christian. There are brethren who struggle with various temptations, to be sure, and may on occasion fall to them before rising again. But believers who resist homosexual lust are not "homosexuals." They are just Christians, as are the rest of us with our own besetting sins.

"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? [Then comes a list of sinners, including "sexual perverts."] And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of
our God.

"Such WERE some of you. The apostle is writing to the baptized saints in the church of Corinth who are no longer these things. He does not say they are no longer susceptible to their old sins, nor that these old sins mustn't be dealt with: addressing the problems old sins create is a large part of the epistle's burden. Given this apostolic definition, however, we cannot—we dare not—say there is any such thing as a "gay (or lesbian, etc.) Christian," for the Christian by definition has been cleansed of his homosexuality. He cannot regard himself as a homosexual—or idolater, or thief, or drunkard—nor can the Church affirm him, or the various acts associated with the old vice, as such.

"There is no "homosexual voice within the Church," for the homosexual's conversion entails a choice—This, or That—the sin, or the Faith. He cannot have both, nor can the Church in any way accommodate the sin from which he has been cleansed. It is wholly and actively and vehemently against it as a destroyer of the souls it has been called to save. It labors among the saints only in the accomplishment of what has already been done in Christ: cleansing, sanctification, and justification in the Name of the Lord."

'Just Christians' -- http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=26-04-003-e

Dave from Minnesota

3/1/2019 01:59:38 pm

A quote by an African Methodist leader this past week:

".....we Africans are not children in need of western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics. We do not need to hear a progressive U.S. bishop lecture us about our need to “grow up.”

Let me assure you, we Africans, whether we have liked it or not, have had to engage in this debate for many years now. We stand with the global church, not a culturally liberal, church elite, in the U.S."

Jerry

3/5/2019 01:37:15 pm

Well said, I agree wholeheartedly.

MN Reader

3/5/2019 06:23:56 am

The UMC will likely get out the same playbook the ELCA used for the 2009 vote when they meet again for their General Conference to bring up the same issue. Just screen & stack the deck with the correct delegates that will vote to approve! Then the UMC can watch the "bleeding of membership" increase & blame those haters who will look for other places to attend while the income also decreases..

Johnny Mitchell

3/18/2019 10:58:23 am

Not my words, but the everlasting Word of God.

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity
Romans 1:18-32
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

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