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

8/16/2013

11 Comments

 
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.

11 Comments
Didaskalos link
8/16/2013 01:13:52 am

[from a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story] ". . . Bishop Eaton, 58, is considered a centrist, while other finalists were viewed as more theologically liberal. During a brief address before the third ballot, she was the only one of four remaining nominees to directly address concerns of theological conservatives who had remained in the denomination. She said she supported the decision to allow partnered gay clergy but that being an inclusive church meant respecting those with a different understanding of scripture and doctrine. 'Those people also have a voice in this church. We need to make room for those who do not agree with us but agree with our claim upon the cross,' she said."

ELCAspeak translated: She's a warm, caring, genuinely nice person who's asking, "Can't we all get along? All you dissenters have to do -- and do it for the sake of inclusivity, the consummate good -- is agree to disregard the fact that the ELCA still puts its denominational blessing on a sin that the Bible says will cause the unrepentant sinner to forfeit the kingdom of God [ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%206:%209-11&version=ESV ]. Oh, and please also disregard our previous presiding bishop's preaching of universalism [ http://www2.elca.org/bishop/messages/m_060809letter.html ] and our self-funded health care plan's coverage of abortion for any reason -- sex selection included -- up to 20 weeks, all subsidized by your offering dollars [ http://www.exposingtheelca.com/on-abortion.html ]. We in the ELCA majority won't change our abrogations of the Bible, of course; we'll never pass any of your Bible-honoring resolutions at our national convention. In fact, we'll vote them all down at the regional synod conventions. But you're still welcome to be minority stockholders and shore up our rapidly shrinking numbers and our alarmingly flagging revenues."

The bottom line: the ELCA tragically and unconscionably continues to lead people toward damnation instead of salvation. As former ELCA pastor Tom Brock wrote, "An objective reading of Leviticus 18:22, 20:13, Deuteronomy 22:5, Romans 1:26-27, I Corinthians 6:9-11, I Timothy 1:8-10, Jude 6,7 makes clear that the Bible's condemnation of homosexual behavior is a blanket one. There is never the added caveat: But it is okay if you love each other. . . . Some liberal Lutheran bishops I know believe they are being loving by affirming homosexual behavior. The truth is they are hurting people. As one old Lutheran pastor said, 'They are nicing people right into hell.' " [ http://pastorsstudy.org/news/my-struggle-with-same-sex-attraction.html ]

"Let us pray that the Lord of the Church will enable His Church to maintain the truth of the Bible in our confused age." { http://pastorsstudy.org/news/what-does-the-bible-teach-about-homosexuality.html ]

Reply
Marica link
8/16/2013 06:22:59 am

I was disappointed that Eaton (who is my area's bishop) won the vote. She's visited my church a few times and I'm not a fan of her at all.

I've been so disappointed in the ELCA these last few years. I can't wait to get out of my church and move elsewhere.

Reply
Dakota
8/16/2013 02:54:32 pm

My wife and I left the ELCA in 1992. It was a tough decision because of our family ties to our "home church" which was originally an ALC church. We left many good people, but we have gained a stronger personal relationship with Jesus, which is more than we could of ever imagined. It all started out with reading articles in the old Lutheran Standard which seemed to promote and tolerate the homosexual agenda.

It finally came to a head when President H. George Anderson when asked about the role of homosexuals in the church he stated he needed to wait on the study that was in the works before he made any comments on the subject. I wanted to scream at the radio and say, "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY THE ELCA NEEDS TO LOOK TO SCRIPTURE FOR THE TRUE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION REGARDING HOMOSEXUALS AND HOMOSEXUAL LIFESTYLE WITH REGARDS TO THE CHURCH?!"

I am thankful the Lord rescued my wife and kids from the ELCA. I still pray for my family who remained, but praise God for leading us out of a truely apostate church.

Reply
L W Smith
8/27/2014 07:43:55 am

Sorry to see you go (leave). But go with God, I am still skure he is still in the EWLCA church! Good-by

Reply
Chemnitz
8/16/2013 04:17:58 pm

Perhaps The Who said it best, "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." Sadly, though, we did get fooled again.

Reply
Sasha Bill Kwapinski
8/18/2013 12:44:01 pm

I graduated from California Lutheran College (now CLU) in 1969. I am not Lutheran myself, and so I am viewing this situation as something of an "outsider." It was interesting, though, to see the beginnings of the leftward, "politically correct" shift during that time period. Now, over 40 years later, it is saddening to see the results: -- Politically correct, morally bankrupt, theologically irrelevant, and numerically shrinking. Incidentally I was active in the Unitarian church for a while, so I saw what an "ecclesiastical flophouse" looks like from the inside. It looks like the ELCA is headed in that same direction.

Reply
Chuck Braun
8/22/2013 02:06:47 am

I wonder if the ELCA and the Episcopal "Church" will now finally consummate their union into the "Episcopal Lutheran Church". Having watched the liturgy at Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church (where Jewish former mayor Ed Koch was buried in their cemetery), it was nearly identical to the ELCA gender-neutered liturgy, word for word. During the sermon the pastor mentioned licentiousness and there were chuckles from the congregation! (When are mortal sins ever funny?) Episcopals have apologized to Hindus for having evangelized them in the past, and even used Hindu texts for Scripture readings and given the Body and Blood of Christ to Hindus. Katherine Jefferts Schiorri, the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop, criticized the Apostle Paul for casting a demon out of the girl who was being paid for sorcery. The Church of England has priests who are also Druids and Wiccans.

The LCMS, which my wife, son and I have joined after leaving the ELCA, has been meeting with the Anglican Church of North America, as well as the LCMC and NALC, to discover ways in which we may work together in externals, even though we share neither altar nor pulpit fellowship with these bodies. But the presidents of the LCMS and the NALC marched side-by-side against abortion. I'm surprised TEC and ELCA haven't made abortion a sacrament yet...

Lutherans and Anglicans have much in common. While it is encouraging that more theologically orthodox Lutherans and Anglicans can work together, the shocking apostasy of the ELCA and TECUSA can only be consider anti-Christ. We don't believe that the Church's Rapture will occur until after the Great Tribulation, as do many Evangelicals. But the current heresies running rampant through the mainline churches, the Roman Catholic Church and even the Evangelical churches in this day and age certainly do look like the Great Apostasy which was spoken of in the NT.

When church leaders deny Christ's Virgin Birth, Atonement and Resurrection, why don't they just leave the church, because they have left the faith, and stop getting paid to lead people to hell? And how will they answer to God when He asks them why they had same-sex sin to be blessed as resolved as "good", rather than confessed and absolved as sin? Jesus Christ paid the price for the sins of those afflicted with homosexual desire. That why He came, to save these precious souls. But their church leaders would have been better off being cast into the seas with millsiones around their necks.

Sadly, the new ELCA presiding bishop was considered one of the least heterodox candidates...

Reply
Didaskalos
8/22/2013 06:29:45 am

Behold the woeful intellectual and spiritual nadir of ELCA theology and practice (read, capitulation to the world):


When asked by an AOL News reporter about the ELCA's dramatic decline in attendance after its 2009 convention vote to ordain practicing homosexuals, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton responded, " 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." In response to the reporter's question about the ELCA's election of its first homosexual bishop, Eaton replied, "We are not doing any of this to catch a wave in popular culture or to get more people to come in. We're 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." [ http://on.aol.com/video/rev--elizabeth-eaton-speaks-about-being-first-female-lutheran-bishop-517899277 ]

"Everybody"? Really?

Loud cheers just erupted from some formerly excluded sinners who are now included in Bishop Eaton's ELCA Recategorized-Sinner Pastoral Employment Act of 2013. For four long years, some unrepentant sinners mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 have been chafing at the ELCA's refusal to bestow a denominational blessing on their sins and ordain them as pastors after it had voted to recategorize homosexual sin and to ordain homosexuals as pastors.

What's fair is fair. Inclusion rules. "Everybody" means everybody. The ELCA has just proclaimed it's an equal-sinner-opportunity employer. No repentance required.

Herewith, a new ELCA pastoral-candidate list:

Candidate A: "Yes, I'm a practicing fornicator, but God made me that way. You just ordained my homosexual cousin Bruce a year ago, so I'm requesting a position as a youth pastor in the ELCA."

Candidate B: "Yes, I'm a serial, unrepentant adulterer who's happy to see the ELCA announce a long-overdue egalitarian acceptance of adulterers as pastors. After all, I'm certainly an integral part of 'everybody.' "

Candidate C: "As soon as I finish my prison sentence for swindling a few dozen elderly people out of their life savings, I'd like to become an ELCA pastor. If you don't mind, I'd like to pastor a wealthy suburban ELCA congregation. I'm sure you can work out the details with my parole officer."

The official ELCA response to these pastoral candidates: "We decided that when God said 'everybody,' God meant 'everybody' could serve. Candidates A and B, you will, of course, have to agree to 'publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous' relationships with, respectively, a live-in girlfriend and another man's wife. No more playing the field. Candidate C, after a few years as an ELCA pastor, you might want to consider moving up to a position in the ELCA development office."

Reply
Sasha Bill Kwapinski
8/22/2013 08:27:13 am

Sounds like salt which has lost its savor. (Speaking of "inclusiveness," when will the ELCA's concept of "inclusiveness" include the unborn?)

Reply
Didaskalos
8/22/2013 11:12:46 am


The thoroughly modern ELCA has worked very hard to curry favor with the world. With the ELCA, the Bible's rules and proscriptions and commandments are deemed to be ephemeral and democratically malleable: "When the Bible reproaches us for one of our favorite sins (especially that trendy sin of homosexual sex that's now heartily endorsed by everybody who's anybody in elite secular circles), we just vote to amend the Bible. How easy is that?"

There's a price to pay for those who follow the Biblical injunction to "rescue those who are being taken away to death." The ELCA isn't willing to pay the price to defend the unborn or to stop subsidizing abortion in its self-funded health care plan. Doing so would alienate the world to which the ELCA has bowed its knee. So what if 1.2 million babies created in God's image are sacrificed on the altar of choice every year?



Scott
10/4/2013 06:01:23 am

If Elizabeth Eaton disapproves of communing the unbaptized, that's one thing to her credit.

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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.


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