ELCA Vault - Room 18
The ELCA Vault is a collection of articles, blogs, and documents related to issues with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Homosexual Sex & Marriage Evil Spreads From Cedar Rapids. . .your Facebook page announced Resolution 1 was passed at the Southeastern Iowa Synod General Assembly on June 1, 2013. It permits Evangelical Lutheran church pastors to marry homosexuals in an Evangelical Lutheran church. . .
Albert Mohler: Lutheran body ‘not a church’. . .“It is by this act and by many prior acts distancing itself by light years from the actual faith and conviction of Martin Luther. . .
Dr. James Nestigen discusses the ELCA’s election of its first openly gay bishop. . . is just a move to catch up with the mainstream of mainline liberal Christianity. And how its 2009 decision to allow non-celibate same-sex clergy has affected the denomination. . .
The ELCA's Newest Bishop-Elect - by Rev. Steven P. Tibbetts. . .As I read these enthusiastic reports of partnered gays and lesbians being received or ordained into the ELCA, I find myself wondering if we are already at the stage of needing to "find a way" to include those of us ELCA clergy who remain convinced this church has made a grave error. . .
Assemblies celebrate, serve & debate. . .Eastern Washington-Idaho, April 19-21, Boise, Idaho • Defeated a memorial to rescind the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly’s actions on the rostering of noncelibate gay clergy. • Asked the Churchwide Assembly to call on Congress to pass legislation to “prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity while providing for religious exemptions.”. .
Bible Study. . .Fast forward to 2013 and the ELCA. Rev. Don Carlson, Assistant to Bishop Michael Rinehart, has written about Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Rev. Carlson supports the ELCA position on homosexual clergy. . .
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The ELCA Elects its First Openly Gay Bishop by Robert Benne
. . .The major repercussion of the election of Erwin will be international. The growing African Lutheran churches will distance themselves further from the ELCA, much like the African Anglican Churches separated from their Episcopalian counterparts. . .
ELCA Has Lost Half a Million Members
. . .That event of course led to major disagreement both at home and abroad. Bailey’s article finally gives us a number on just how severe that disagreement was in the United States. Following the 2009 vote, the ELCA lost nearly half a million members in 2010 and 2011. . .
ELCA Elects Gay Bishop
. . .So the ELCA joins its partner church body the Episcopal Church in now having gay clergy represented at every level of church leadership. While this is something some would celebrate, it represents, in the eyes of this writer, a sad day for Lutheranism in the USA. . .
ELCA Presiding Bishop Dancing and Swearing? - Witness Stone Blog
. . .Listen closely at the 51 second mark, it kind of sounds like Bishop Hanson takes the Lord's name in vain. . .
Mutually Inclusive
. . .Many progressive churches, including the ELCA, agree with society as they call out those that hold fast to the authority of Scripture. . .
No Truth Without Love, No Love Without Truth: The Church’s Great Challenge
. . .Our churches must teach the basics of biblical morality to Christians who will otherwise never know that the Bible prescribes a model for sexual relationships. Young people must be told the truth about homosexuality–and taught to esteem marriage as God’s intention for human sexual relatedness. . .
Broken promises: The Augsburg Fortress Pension Fund (page 5) and ELCA asked to set aside “Time for Reflection and Self-Examination” as part of 25th Anniversary (page 7)
The ELCA-Specific Task Force of Lutheran CORE and the Lutheran CORE Steering Committee have sent an open letter to Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson and all synodical bishops requesting that the ELCA set aside one month in the year of our 25th Anniversary as a “Time for Reflection and Self-Examination. . .
Some heresies are better than others
. . .now we have “great heresies,” “real heresy" and not-so-great “so-called heresies.”
Rev. Don Carlson, ELCA, has written a post about the Trinity. . .
Rev. Don Carlson, ELCA, has written a post about the Trinity. . .
We Are Different
. . .The real question is: Are we willing to keep the Word of God, to follow His Commandments, even when it is hard? . .
This is Water
. . .Professor David Lose of Luther Seminary posted on his website a video of the address by the late David Foster Wallace: “This is Water.” The address was delivered at Kenyon College, an Episcopal school in Ohio, in 2005. . .The commencement address could be described as Buddhist in general, tending toward Nihilism. . .
Deliberate Inaction
. . .“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” We have remained silent for too long. It is time to lift up our voices for the Lord. Progressive churches like the ELCA are leading the faithful away from our Lord and Savior, using the false gospels of affirmation, bound conscience and lifting up the love of the neighbor over the love of God. . .
ELCA Bishop Chilstrom Just Says “No” in New Minnesota Marriage Ad
. . .The canard that Christians must not be accepting of gay people because they ask them to repent is really growing tiresome. I suppose we don’t love alcoholics either because we ask them to stop drinking. . .
Episcopal Bishop: Reflect “Divine Glory in Fully Alive-ness” on Climate Activism
. . .The event featured panel discussions on international and local church responses to climate change, as well as a morning of lobbying Congressional and Administration officials on climate policy. . .
Just Sayin'
. . .For those who choose to remain in this apostate denomination, hear this. While Jesus sat with sinners, those sinners were led to repentance. The ELCA is scrambling to maintain their power and refuses to repent of their sinful actions. Sit in the pew of an ELCA church and turn over the gifts God has blessed you with is the equivalent of funding the evil one’s mischief in the world. . .
ELCA partnership with United Methodism: “Full Communion” or Denominational Suicide Pact?
. . .As Bishop Hanson portrayed it, the meat of the value of the UMC-ELCA full-communion partnership is for the two shrinking oldline denominations to form a united front to oppose and counter the voices of more orthodox, biblically faithful American Christians. While lamenting that others have “the dominant Christian voice in this culture,” Hanson uncharitably denounced the current mainstream of American Christianity for being “divisive” and “partisan.”. .
We don’t know why Jesus died…
. . .the ELCA website, Living Lutheran, has a post by David Lose, a well-known professor at Luther Seminary. Prof. Lose says we don’t know why Jesus died. Now, I am sure that almost everyone reading my post knows John 3:16 by memory: “That whosoever believes in Him… may have eternal life.” Prof. Lose writes. . .
"How to Become a Progressive Christian"
We have leaders in the ELCA ands ELCIC who believe that the future of the church lies in adopting the theology of Progressive Christianity. . .
In the War Over Christianity, Orthodoxy is Winning
. . .traditionalist Anglicans now have more in common with traditionalist Lutherans or even Roman Catholics, say, than with the reformers in their own denominations. . .
Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?
. . .Practically every denomination — Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian — that has tried to adapt itself to contemporary liberal values has seen an Episcopal-style plunge in church attendance. . .
Column on the mark
. . .Abortion, radical feminist theologies, pagan practices (visit: herchurch.org for information on Ebenezer ELCA in San Francisco), ecumenical agreements with other dying denominations and a general rejection of John 14:6 are among the various reasons more than a million have left the ELCA in 20 years. . .
Pulling Out All the Stops
. . .We all were once lost. We all are a fallen humanity. We all fall into disobedience. We all need a Savior and Redeemer. Jesus calls on us to teach the Gospel and to make disciples of the world. That final crescendo is waiting to be played. Will you pull out all the stops, listen to our Lord and work to bring the lost to Him?
(ELCA's Wittenberg Univ) to cut 29 faculty spots...$7 million deficit
. . .Wittenberg University leaders will soon decide which 29 of the current 141 faculty positions should be cut to help address the university’s $7 million budget shortfall. . .
Synod Council: Grace leaders no longer eligible to serve
. . ."Because the LCMC-affiliated persons at 202 W. Grand (Ave.), who acted as the congregational council are immediately associate members, they no longer hold elected positions of leadership; only full voting members are constitutionally eligible to hold elected leadership positions in an ELCA congregation,". . .
Discovering the Hidden Agenda
. . .Do you see what Prof. Lose is saying ever-so-subtly? — The Bible may not be true or worthy of trust. It is full of errors and discrepancies — not the logical explanation that the Gospel writers often describe different aspects of the same event. . .
A lost opportunity (page 3)
(about Grace Lutheran Church in Eau Claire, WI). . .Bishop Pederson had an opportunity to be magnanimous in victory and to work for reconciliation in an obviously divided congregation, but instead chose to pursue his legal advantage. . .
Years Later, Secular Student Group Recognized On A Religious Campus: Here's How It Happened
. . .Moorhead, Minn.-based Concordia College. . . gave official recognition to the "Secular Student Community". . .
Lutheran bishop arrested for alleged homicide by intoxicated driving after woman dies in crash
. . .Bruce H. Burnside, 59, of Madison, was arrested after he allegedly hit a female pedestrian at the northbound off-ramp of Highway 151 at Windsor Street in Sun Prairie. . .
Finger Pointing
. . .As a member of that apparently despicable religious right, I do, indeed, want the church to go back:
Back to the preaching of the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, more and more come to believe. . .
Back to the preaching of the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, more and more come to believe. . .