ELCA Vault - Room 15
The ELCA Vault is a collection of articles, blogs, and documents related to issues surrounding the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Vacation Sunday (2009). . .Knowing that most ELCA churches would, as they were instructed to, read (Bishop) Mark Hanson's letter heralding the new ELCA doctrine on human sexuality (which I consider heretical) I knew I could not worship at an ELCA congregation today and be at peace. Wow! What does that say when an ELCA pastor no longer feels at home in his own denomination! I wanted to worship somewhere where I knew God would be honored and His Word rightly proclaimed...
Ethics without Political Science. . .If we consider the ELCA resolution in this manner, we notice immediately the most striking characteristic of its recommendations: they are markedly one-sided, focused entirely on pro-immigration and pro-immigrant policies. . .
Minnesota Marriage Debate: Moorhead. . .Julius wants her "Sin is Sin" shirts to give a voice to students who disagree with the prevailing view on campus that it's okay to be gay.
"I don't identify with homosexuality being acceptable.". . . Love is love vs. sin is sin in Moorhead marriage amendment debateOn the tight-knit Concordia campus of 2,700 students, where gays and lesbians are widely accepted, Julius' view stood out.
"I don't identify with all these people that say homosexuality is a perfectly acceptable way to live; that's not me," she said. "So the reason I wanted to do this T-shirt was one, to stand up for God's word because I feel like it's getting completely trampled in this place that's supposed to be Christian and two, to just separate myself from it and not give anybody the impression that this what I believe. " |
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Lutheran Lectures Catholic on Marriage
. . .Which may be why the ELCA is a declining, spiritually impoverished, intellectually bankrupt organization that takes its responsibility to lobby for Democratic Party policy positions more seriously than it takes spreading or teaching the gospel—because it thinks that truth is up for democratic vote. . .
Lutherans guide efforts for and against marriage amendment
. . .In that context, it is not surprising that five of the six ELCA synods in Minnesota passed resolutions at their assemblies this year opposing the “Marriage Amendment.” (Only the Southwestern Minnesota Synod voted to table plans to address the question. . .
The Bully Sin-Drome
. . .The leaders of the ELCA wish to advocate that humankind place their desires before God’s will and somehow this shows the world our love, tolerance and acceptance. . .
Despite the vocal few, many Lutherans support the marriage amendment
. . .Within the ELCA, the marriage debate represents merely the latest chapter in a long story of departure from biblical teaching. For over a decade, WordAlone Ministries has been guiding troubled ELCA congregations through the process of trying to restore the church body to historic Lutheran theology or, insofar as that has failed, exiting and affiliating with other Lutherans who hold to the sanctity of natural marriage. . .
The mathematics of the post-Christian Church
. . .The question of what the ELCA will look like a decade from now also fascinates me. I seriously doubt that the ELCA will one day go completely out of business, so the question is: will it be absorbed into another denomination (such as the Episcopal Church USA) or become a small rump of what it once was? . .
Minnesota Lutherans Divided Over Proposed Marriage Amendment
. . .(Whenever I listen to the news on my radio, I seem to hear that yet another Lutheran Synod in Minnesota has come out against this Amendment.) The opposition from these ELCA Synods comes as no surprise. . .
Inappropriately Partisan
. . .No progressive essay would be complete without reference to the 99% and the evil 1%. Citing an unidentified study, he bemoans the inequities in incomes between the top 1 percent and the rest of the country. Economic inequity on both a national and international level with the predictable rant about changing consumer habits on a global scale. Then it is back at one of his pet peeves, the unfair immigration policies that the US imposes upon those seeking to enter this country against the law. . .
Updates October 3, 2012
. . .As of September 25, the NALC has 334 congregations. The LCMC has 797 congregations. . .
Christians With Same-Sex Attractions Weigh in on Homosexuality-Bible Debate
. . ."Is it not arrogant to think that we are somehow more enlightened than all the Christians who came before us?" I believe it is safest to interpret Scripture the way Christians have understood it for 2,000 years and the solid testimony of church history is against homosexual behavior. . .
Maybe OK to be Unrepentantly Gay in the ELCA (from 2005)
. . .It bespeaks a fundamental lack of integrity on the part of those who definitely embrace teachings contrary to a church's public confession, but know they can't get away with being open and very public about it, so they cloak their real convictions and instead work to move the agenda forward in small steps, using lots of pious-sounding talk about "discerning the will of God" and talking about how differences should not divide and distract from the church's mission, etc. etc. etc. . .
Gustavus Adolphus Faculty votes, opposes controversial amendments to state constitution
. . .faculty members voted on a resolution to publicly oppose a Minnesota constitutional amendment defining the nature of marriage as being between one man and one woman. . .the faculty also voted at the same meeting to pass a resolution in opposition of the Voter Identification Amendment. . .
St. Olaf Faculty Opposes Minnesota Marriage Amendment
. . .St. Olaf College faculty members on Thursday took a symbolic vote to oppose the proposed Minnesota marriage amendment. . .
Institutionalized Hypocrisy — A Failure of Courage (2007)
. . .This process does not start with issues of sexuality, of course. Long before these churches faced controversies over sexuality, they had already allowed the doctrinal foundations of their churches to be eroded and compromised. . .
Administration Drags Its Feet to Recognize Pro-Life Group (2010)
. . .it does not normally take this long for a group to be approved at Concordia. What I found to be a general hostility to anything other than a left-wing point of view prolonged the process. Even now, I still do not completely understand how the Student Involvement Council expected a Pro-Life group to be anything but pro-life or one-sided. A pro-abortion group would have never faced such stone-walling. . .
Concordia Student Government Association's Decision
. . .After some discussion concerning the effect an official position would have on alumni donations, SGA members were ensured that the effect on donations would be negligible, but only time will tell the true effect on donations. . .
"On the Struggle Between Church and Culture"
. . .Scripture is from God and we are to receive it, not judge it. When we stand as judge over Scripture, we are in fact acting as judge of God, not because the Bible is a god, but because it is from God for us so that we know about God's loving purposes for humanity. . .
Martin Luther Weeps
. . .As for so-called Christian colleges, like Concordia, it truly exposes how use of the word, “Christian,” has become so bastardized. The word “Christian” is not only used to dupe unsuspecting Christian parents of High School seniors into submitting their children to Pagan indoctrination, it’s used to help in the field of donations, where both the donor and the school collaborate in the mutual delusion that the gift is for some higher purpose.
Boxing God
. . .Listen to Nadia Bolz-Weber in her rant against the Christianity that has boundaries that she happens to personally disagree with. I don’t want to judge a book by its cover, but there she is, addressing the national youth gathering of the ELCA, in jeans and a tank top, showing off all of her tattoos that were etched upon her skin by a fellow drug addict. She proudly displays those signs from a former life that almost cost her life on this earth, but fails to use them to teach the young and impressionable a lesson. Yes, she extols the fact that it was by God’s grace that He lifted her out of a life of drugs and despair, but she offers nothing about faith in the Risen Christ and why God so loves His children. The story of her finding an appropriate church had nothing to do with God’s love or repentance, but all to do with feeling welcome in a “tolerant and enlightened” church replete with the appropriate diverse membership that was acceptable to her expectations. Her ideal church is not one that welcomes all sinners, but one that recognizes no sin, has no need for repentance, and has a god that meets her expectations, made in her own image. . . .