By Pastor Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. Please follow/like Pastor Brock on Facebook by going here and twitter users here.
In the October issue of The Lutheran, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's official magazine, the editor writes an article calling for civility. He talks about the "rudeness if not downright hostility found in commentary directed at the magazine and the ELCA...angry put-downs". I am guessing he gets a lot of letters from upset, traditional Lutherans who are tired of The Lutheran regularly pushing ...universalism, homosexuality, and the de-sexing of God language. The article which closes the October issue is written by the head bishop of the ELCA in which she states "the church can model respectful dialogue" where "disagreement doesn't devolved into discounting." Let's read what is in between these two articles, an article written by Kaethe Schwehn who teaches English at the ELCA's St. Olaf College. "In college I took a class on feminist theology but refused to go to daily chapel because they didn't use inclusive language for God." She withdrew from chapel attendance for a time so that "You don't have to deal with the idiots who still think God is a man, who still think marriage is just about men and women, who want to preach...damnation instead of grace." Whew! In the November "The Lutheran", God bless the reader who responded in Letters to the Editor: "To have a young woman insult me...is the last straw. Who does she think she is to pass judgement by calling us "idiots" for believing God is a male, marriage is between a man and a woman, etc.?" Gratefully, the editor made a note under her letter "The magazine apologizes for not editing the pejorative from the article." If you are an ELCA Lutheran and believe unapologetically in Father, Son, Holy Spirit language for God---and you're not embarrassed to call God "He"...if you believe that Jesus is who He said He is, the only way of salvation (John 14:6)...and if you believe that marriage is for a man and a woman, then I strongly encourage you to consider joining a denomination other than the the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
13 Comments
Steve Herman
11/17/2014 10:33:14 am
Amen, Brother!
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Rev. Dr. Dennis Brostrom
11/21/2014 03:16:19 am
And leave is what I did in 1999, joining the LCMS. It's not perfect. Then again, neither am I.
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Carl W Baggett Jr
11/17/2014 06:57:31 pm
Higgins Road seems to forget they are equally to blame for the rancor. First, they loaded the Task Force Committee and quashed the dissenting opinion of its one opposing member. Then, it its magazine, those who held to Biblical authority were castigated as parroting right wing talking heads in the editorial section. Let's not forget the obstacles that have been placed in the way of congregations that desired to peacefully leave.
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Rev. Christopher Byars
11/18/2014 01:40:42 pm
In all fairness, the tornado that took down the cross was not at the site of the 2009 CWA, but the church that hosted the celebration for Lutheran's Concerned. Though the storm and the time were discounted.
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Carl W Baggett Jr
11/19/2014 02:09:25 pm
Thank you for the clarification, Rev. Byars 11/21/2014 02:20:19 am
While the Ichabod Lutheran Church in America was spinning and pooh-poohing the warning from God, those with ears to hear knew what was happening.
Kathy S.
11/22/2014 02:39:50 am
Exactly. At the time, I showed the picture and articles to various friends of mine -- people of different religions or no religion. All of them -- 100% -- saw the upside-down cross as a sign from God.
Mel Wegman
11/17/2014 07:11:20 pm
You have to give the ELCA credit. It is almost statistically impossible to be 'WRONG' 100% of the time. As long as I disagree with them, then I am almost sure to be on the right side of an issue.
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James Butler
11/18/2014 01:09:46 am
I wonder what she was learning in her feminist theology course. No one believes God is a man. The letter writer was wrong when she/he states that s/he believes "God is a male." God is neither male nor female; He is Spirit. Anyone who thinks confessional Lutherans teach that God is a man/male needs to reread Scripture and the Confessions. However, the Lord has revealed Himself using male language and it should be used.
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Cameron
11/18/2014 08:50:50 am
Feminists fail to see that whenever they refer to God as "he or she," they are drawing the mind's attention to the irrelevant subject of God's sex far more than if they had simply used the masculine gender (i.e., grammatical form) traditionally assigned to him.
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Nils
11/18/2014 11:21:18 am
Maybe she was at the Chicago Seminary? They're pretty theologically liberal...it's where Sweden got their current archbishop from, and she denies a lot of basic Creedal doctrine.
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James R Jones
11/23/2014 01:23:09 pm
I was a member of the LCA until the mid 1980s when the church seem to suddenly start teaching things that contradicted what they had been teaching. Once I was told that the Bible was written a long time ago, and some of the things just don't apply anymore, I knew that the church had left me--it was no longer Lutheran.
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Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 Dan Skogen
Former ELCA seminary student and former ELCA member who is fed up with the ELCA's consistent mockery of God's Word. If you have been helped and blessed by Exposing the ELCA's ministry, please help us continue to proclaim the truth of God's Word to ELCA members who need to hear it.
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