What ELCA Leaders Are Saying

8/2/2013

The minutes of the ELCA - Southeastern Synod Council had this comment from Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson:

“We must start talking to our ecumenical partners about shared oversight. For example, we might have more bishops but fewer synods. A specific example might be to have three bishops in the same synod.” (read here on page 18)

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Bishop Jessica Crist, current head of the ELCA Conference of Bishops is quoted in the Aug. 2013 The Lutheran commenting on the aftermath of the 2009 homosexuality votes: "Some congregations had been angry for years; and some were still angry about mergers prior to 1988...We are healthier and happy now."

“In some ways, Crist said, the losses were 'analogous to cleaning the rolls' of a congregation. 'We do not have the anger and hostility at synod assemblies that we had before...'”

The Lutheran writes that former Presiding Bishop Chilstrom claimed that bishops are telling him that “'it's a new day, with a more positive, upbeat spirit' as the dissent over the 2009 decision waned with the departure of the congregations opposing the decision.” (see here)

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The loudest mouthpiece of the ELCA, The Lutheran magazine, had 5 pieces (articles or news stories) in which homosexuality was a prominent feature. The cover story, which contained the quotes above was one and another was the “My View” article. That was written by Amalia Vagts, executive director of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM). ELM describes its mission saying it “expands ministry opportunities for publicly-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people called to leadership in the Lutheran church as ordained pastors and rostered lay leaders.” (quote from here)

You can read her article here.

As evidenced in this last piece, the indoctrination of laypeople continues. For all congregations and people still in the ELCA, is it wise to continue in a denomination which seeks to lead you to affirm what God has called sin? Look at how many members have already succumbed to the ELCA's talking heads and the brainwashing put forth in all their entities.

11 Comments

Didaskalos

8/2/2013 06:11:18 am

Obsess much, ELCA? Sex (homosexual, that is), the environment, sex, Palestine, and sex are the overriding "mission" priorities of the Church Formerly Known as Lutheran. Here in Minnesota, Twin Cities ELCA churches are positively giddy at the prospect of "marrying" Steve to Bruce and Isabel to Joanne.

Is Mark Hanson paving the way for the Bishop Full Employment Program in a disastrous ELCA economy? He appears to be admitting, "In tanking denominations like ours, we'll keep trimming our overhead and synods, but we'll sure try to keep those bishops off the unemployment line."

And spare us the bogus bonhomie, clerics. The ELCA's pastors and administrators may be feeling all warm and fuzzy over the church-wide avenues of apostasy they've recently opened, but there are still a lot of rumblings in the hinterlands over a putatively Lutheran church that is obeisant to Sophia, refers to Christ as "our mother," and continually runs "News from the Same-Sex Bedroom" as the lead story in its publications.

8/3/2013 03:40:58 pm

The elca seems to want to address every single social issue, but when a theological issue pops up (Sophia) the hierarchy does its best to disappear.

Kathy S

8/4/2013 07:36:36 am

I have been following the ups and downs of the Lutheran Church since the 1950s. (I am probably the oldest person commenting on this blog -- I'm 68.) I think the ELCA is doomed for many reasons: All of the reasons in the comments above... and the ELCA has dropped below $50 million per year in Mission Support, the formerly lively comments on Living Lutheran have dried up, and now the membership seems to be dwindling down to a small core of "true believers" -- that is, people who believe in the Democratic Party platform, but like to go to church once in a while and think of themselves as spiritual.

Dave from Minnesota

8/5/2013 06:59:56 am

A Catholic friend of mine said that being a true Catholic isn't for wimps. Meaning you have to be dedicated to follow all of the Catholic teachings.

I see a version of that with Protestant churches, but with money. It takes a lot of generous givers to support a smaller church. The people I know who do that are the most dedicated Christians. Family first, church second, then everything else comes after that. So they will sacrifice having a fancy car, or taking a long vacation if that means they have to give less to the church.

Do you think the urban liberal will say "we were going to go to Vegas for a week, but that would require giving less to the church, so we stayed home"? The people left in the church....it’s a social club, not a church in the traditional sense.

8/5/2013 06:50:48 am

Former ELCA Bishop Chilstrom had a column in the Minneapolis paper this weekend. I just skimmed through it, but the point is that he feels the Catholic church needs to follow the ELCA path and accept and endorse homosexual marriage. I don't think Chilstrom understands the Catholic catechism. Perhaps the Pope needs to lecture the ELCA to mind its own business.

8/5/2013 10:49:26 am

I just wrote a post on my blog about Bishop Chilstrom's article: http://lutherancatholicblog.com/the-blind-leading-the-blind/

Janet Muldoon

8/11/2013 05:56:24 am

We need to consider that Dr. Chilstrom suffered a great loss in his own family that has deeply affected his thinking. The whole subject of homosexuality and same sex attraction is so poorly understood by either medical science and by psychology and social scientists. I believe that the environment of a child during growth and development is a major factor, especially the first 5 years. There are not enough good studies that have been done to explore what the environmental factors are that affect the physical and psychological development of children through adolescence. It is known for fact that children's growth and development is very individual according to God's plan for each person. We live in a culture that glorifies and idolizes a man made stereotype of maleness and femaleness. This is very unfortunate and the church has to take active participation to dispel the myth. Jesus is our model. He was a chaste man from birth to death. He was age 30 when God considered him old enough, mature enough and knowledgeable enough to begin his ministry, which lasted 3 years. In Jesus day, being single and sexually pure was the standard. So is that not what the church should be teaching? Of course it is not politically correct, but what is the church there for? It used to be to teach that which will save souls and insure eternal life. The Church regardless of theology has NOTHING better to do.

Kathy Suarez

8/11/2013 06:27:04 am

What was the great loss? I could not find any information on-line. Of course, of course, we are to treat persons who think they are gay or have gay tendencies or gay attractions, with great love and charity. My dear brother-in-law "came out" in 1978. I do not love him less for that. This does not mean that I do not think homosexual acts are a disorder. So is drinking too much.

Didaskalos link

8/11/2013 10:46:15 pm

Rev. Chilstrom and other erring ELCA leaders would do well to heed the biblical counsel of S. M. Hutchens, whose First Things article "JUST CHRISTIANS: On Homosexuality & Christian Identity" concludes powerfully:

". . .Christian authorities need to stop thinking and writing as though the categories of homosexual and Christian can be joined—as though the Church could tolerate or accommodate, or speak gently of, much less bless or sanctify, anything peculiar to the garment stained by the flesh that those who come to Christ throw off in their baptism.

"In that baptism we become penitents, and as such divided from our sins. St. Paul tells us here that no penitent is to be named by, identified by, what he has abjured. Those injured people who have put on Christ have put on, in him, life, hope, healing of their diseases, and resurrection of their bodies in the image and likeness of the one who has saved them.

"The Church never can and never will give satisfaction—and the homosexualist knows it, for he knows the words against him are ineradicable—to the declared and impenitent homosexual, the person who, through an act of the vermiculate will, has identified his person with a sin, whether he demands acceptance of his sin through "love," or vindication through identification of his perceived enemies as bigots. Whether he presents himself as an object of love or indignation, what he demands in either case is acceptance not of the person, but of the sin-bound and sin-defined person. He demands the declaration of spiritual authority that there is nothing objectively disordered about this binding of man to sin, and assurance that this monstrous amalgam can indeed enter the kingdom of heaven. This can never happen among Christians until they abandon Christianity, which is at war with every sin, and whose indelible constitution places all perversions of the perfect man at the muzzle of its canons."

8/14/2013 02:20:33 am

Perhaps we need fewer preachers and more healers in the church.

Timothy

8/5/2013 01:48:48 pm

The ELCA is doomed to insignificance. Thank God.

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What ELCA Leaders Are Saying

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