New ELCA Presiding Bishop, Same Old Disregard for What God Says

There is a new bishop in town, a new leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The old bishop, Mark S. Hanson, has been sent packing and none too soon. Under Bishop Hanson's watch, the ELCA has:

- decided God was wrong, so they “unsinned” homosexuality

- taken no step to protect the lives of the unborn

- continued to gender neutralize God and also invented female names for Him

- taken no steps to end goddess worship happening in their churches

- continually called on government leaders to take actions that would harm Israel and seek to turn the Christian community against the Jews

- placed social justice over Jesus' great commission

- raised up leaders who do not believe much of what is said in the Bible

Will that change with newly-elected Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton? It doesn't look that way.

During an interview this week Bishop Eaton said this about the ELCA's positions on homosexuality, “We took a difficult decision in 2009 and it did have an impact on our attendance because we decided that when God said 'everybody' God meant 'everybody' could serve.”

A few minutes later she said, “We are not doing any of this to catch a wave in populate culture or to get more people to come in. We are doing this because we felt motivated by our understanding of Scripture and of our own confessional tradition that maybe this was something that God was doing that was new and it would be important for us to allow this kind of inclusion.” (see here)

So the ELCA decided to contradict Scripture because “maybe” God was doing something new? WOW! I'd think a Christian denomination should know “without a doubt” 100% that God wanted them to go against His written Word before they would do it.

Yet on March 10, 2010 -

“The Reverend Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Northeastern Ohio Synod presided over Trinity's celebration of the gay and lesbian-inclusive legislation passed at last summer's Churchwide Assembly. She preached for members of several local Lutheran, Unitarian Universalist, and United Church of Christ congregations as well as guests from Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, Lutheran Chaplaincy, and Dennis Kucinich’s office... Bishop Eaton thanked the GLBT people and their friends and families who had patiently endured their second-class status within the church for so long. She also expressed a hope that the rocky reception of this vote across the country will resolve into positive innovation in the church.” (see here)

An interesting fact being reported is that Bishop Eaton's husband, Rev. Conrad Selnick, is an Episcopal priest. The Episcopalian church is even more non-orthodox doctrinally than the ELCA.

I was reading a forum that was discussing the new Presiding Bishop and came across this from a pastor who knows her. Rev. Norman E. Dew writes:

“Having served in the Northeastern Ohio Synod while Eaton served as bishop, not much will change.  She talks about making sure that the ELCA doesn't slide into just another liberal Protestant denomination but she's not tolerant of Lutheran orthodoxy in matters of sexuality.  As an interim pastor, I was told that she was the pastor of the congregation I served.  I served in her stead.  She did not like the fact that I allowed the congregation and leadership of the church to investigate the happenings that were occurring in the church as a result of the 2009 CWA.  She came close to accusing me of leading the congregation out of the ELCA.  I did no such thing despite some disapproval of those in the congregation who thought I should be outspoken.  When I finally determined that my future as a pastor in the ELCA was over I moved to the NALC and resigned as interim pastor. 

She has been very forthright to say that there were clergy in the synod that were not preaching the gospel and was very disapproving of pastors who were welcoming the unbaptized to communion.  She was extremely critical at conference meetings with clergy about the pastoral office, but it went no further.  Some might say, 'What else is a bishop to do?' I could think of a few things.

She famously said at a conference meeting after the 2009 vote when a question was raised by a congregational member about scripture passages which he believed spoke against homosexuality: 'I don't believe in the Bible.' I'm not sure she's done anything great for the Northeastern Ohio Synod in years as bishop...but she also hasn't wrecked it.  She's probably not the best and certainly not the worst.  In all things, I do continue to pray for her in her service to the Church.” (see here)

So the ELCA, under Presiding Bishop Eaton, will remain the same. They will continue to cruise down the road of secularism and heresy. They will continue to distance themselves from the God of the Bible. They will continue to lead people down the path of destruction.