No Room for Biblical Lutherans in ELCA

A recent letter from the notoriously liberal ELCA bishop Michael Rinehart (Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod) has made its rounds within ELCA circles. Bishop Rinehart declared to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, “You are welcome in congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). We are a church that believes it is wrong to discriminate against anyone based on sexual orientation. All are welcome. We celebrate diversity.” (read here)

Lutheran CORE, a “community of Lutheran Christians seeking to mobilize confessing Lutherans for evangelical renewal,” responded with their own letter saying, “on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we encourage you to reconsider same-sex orientations and behaviors and to be forgiven along with the rest of us. We also apologize, on behalf of the Church, for any false hope that Bishop Rinehart’s letter may have given you.” (read here)

Boy did that ruffle some ELCA feathers. Here are some of the most interesting comments Lutheran CORE's letter received -

“Thin-skinned, bitter, deliberately ignorant–a terrible way to go through life...As for the ignorant, hateful people that left the ELCA over this–good riddance. We need them like we need a bunch of racists, slaveholders, and misogynists.” (from the comment section of Lutheran CORE letter)

Comments from an ELCA Clergy group -

• “Oh my. I'm going to follow along with Taylor Swift: Haters gone hate hate hate. Shake it off.”

• “I'm horrified and ill”

• “Lutherans work hard at putting the best construction on situations. With that in mind, CORE feels like the crazy uncle at the family reunion. It also feels like they were talking to the ELCA more than anything. The LGBTQ community was just a pretext. For that, I apologize on behalf of crazy Uncle CORE y'all.”

• “I'm not sure this should be ignored. How about calling people out for their propaganda? The written word of hate is what leads to hate crimes. This is not okay. The trouble is, I don't know who to call out for this, or whom to engage in conversation. There's no signature, but still I'm tempted to write a letter 'on behalf' of Christians who are sick of LGBT bullying.”

• “I rarely hate anything... I now HATE CORE...”

• “Isn't it time for the church to be at least as liberal as the Supreme Court?”

• “The problem with 'can't we all live together with different views' is that one side wants to call another side sinners in need of repentance and then whine about intolerance when people tell them THEY are wrong and in need of repentance. I'm over it. CORE is wrong and needs to repent” (from ELCA Clergy facebook page here)

Comments from the ELCA facebook group -

• “Don't know where he is getting this bs from. Maybe because ELCA officially views sex outside of marriage as sinful? (I'm not even sure if that is true)”

• “This letter makes me feel physically sick! Hatred and intolerance thinly veiled in religious language does not change the message!”

• “Dear Lutheran CORE: Please leave my partner, my family, my friends and me alone.”

• “. . .church wide assembly spoke you listen that's the breaks baby.”

• “. . .If part of bound conscience is about judging who I am, and I mean this in all Christian charity, you can take your judgmental bound conscience and shove it up your intrinsically disordered papist ***.” (see ELCA facebook group here)