ELCA Vault - Room 20
The ELCA Vault is a collection of articles, blogs, and documents related to issues with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
My Disagreement with the ELCA. . .let me try to succinctly, seriously state my disagreements with the ELCA (which led, in part. to my disengagement with the denomination). . .
Montana ELCA says "Good Riddance" to Churches Leaving the ELCA. . .If you're a member of an ELCA church in Montana that has yet leave the denomination, we would ask that you compare the teachings of this organization to the Holy Scripture and find a church that will boldly side with truth.
Pro being contra: Standing against error to stand for Gospel truth (p.9,10,13,14) and Unfinished business (p.1,4)(pdf document) . . .A real danger for the Christian church today is that Lutherans will no longer champion the idea that Scripture alone is the final authority in matters of faith and life. We do not critique Scripture. Scripture critiques us. . .
‘Tatted-Up, Foul-Mouthed’ Pastor Takes a Radically Different Approach to Teaching Scripture. . .While there is a growing group of believers interested in Bolz-Weber’s message, not everyone will be so enamored. For one, her use of what The Washington Post called a “frequently profane dialect” will certainly turn off more traditional church attendees. . .
Bishop Eaton. . .The facts are that she is a Harvard Divinity graduate married to an Episcopal priest. Theologically, there is probably not a dime's worth of difference between Eaton and Hanson. . .
“There’s Something about Mary”“…I think virginity is a matter of hyperbole rather than strict necessity. In the doctrine, I mean. All the doctrine demands is the absence of human insemination. Virginity isn’t logically necessary, though it has bonus probative value over against the assertion of divine insemination of an otherwise-sexually-active woman. . .
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Positive Reinforcement
. . . So, how does one point out the danger that each and every member of the ELCA faces from all the false doctrines that permeate this defiant church without them putting up a wall to shut you out? . .
Two local ELCA churches will combine worship services
. . .Mueller said both churches have about 15 to 20 people attending Saturday worship. And about 50 to 55 parishioners attend church on Sunday morning at St. Andrew. . .
World Council of Churches Stands By As Christians Perish, Churches Wither
. . .WCC's website is loaded with schemes and resources relating to the Palestinians. The "resources" offer compilations of Palestinian propaganda, including calls for the so-called Palestinian "right of return" (that is, the transformation of Israel into an Arab-majority state).
The excuse for this absurd imbalance is that the WCC has maintained for decades, and insists on maintaining against all evidence, that the churches of the Middle East have no other real problem than the Palestinian issue. . .
The excuse for this absurd imbalance is that the WCC has maintained for decades, and insists on maintaining against all evidence, that the churches of the Middle East have no other real problem than the Palestinian issue. . .
Christianity Dying in Its Birthplace (2005)
. . .One factor that could help prevent this dismal outcome would be for mainline Protestant churches to speak out against Palestinian Muslims for tormenting and expelling Palestinian Christians. To date, unfortunately, the Episcopalian, Evangelical Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, as well as the United Church of Christ, have ignored the problem. . .
The Sacred and the Profane
. . .Of course, what Nadia is preaching is nothing new, just the same old universalism, antinomianism, and left wing politics that has been coming out of the ELCA for years. . .
Islamists Exploiting the Interfaith Racket
. . .interfaith organizations ought to, at the very least, probe the statements and associations of their constituent members or facilitate others' attempts to do so. The same admonition should be heeded by the Religious Leaders Council of Greater Philadelphia (RLCGP), another interfaith group which includes important Christian and non-Christian clergy, such as the archbishop of Philadelphia, the head of the Southeastern PA Lutheran Synod, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, and others. . .
Upward Mobility
. . .Progressive mainline Christian church leaders are driving the faithful and those searching away with their embrace of secular ideals. Seems every time a church leader tries to minimize sin or revise doctrine to gain acceptance from the world, more are confused as to the role of religion in their lives. . .
Why We Call God 'Father'
. . .The term Trinity is simply shorthand for the Christian story of God the Father, who sent his Son Jesus Christ and gave us his Holy Spirit. Who is the God that Christians encounter at worship? He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To quote Lutheran theologian Robert Jenson, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the proper name of God. Relating to the triune God is what makes Christian experience truly Christian. Simply using the name God, even with many qualifiers (compassionate, gracious, loving, almighty, and so on), does not sufficiently distinguish the God of Christian revelation from other monotheistic faiths. If we leave out God's nature as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we risk turning the Christian story into another story. . .
Reclaiming the Church for the Bible
Many of us here think the ELCA has a problem with the Bible. Many of us also agree with the obverse: the Bible has a problem with the ELCA. . .
Inviting CAIR to Church
. . .The Faith Action Network, created by the Lutheran Public Policy Office and Washington Association of Churches, awarded CAIR’s Washington state chapter with its “Connecting Communities” award in 2011. . .
Megan Rohrer…bless her heart…(Language and Content Warning)
. . .This interview probably hasn’t been read by much of anyone other than regular readers of that zine and Rohrer’s fans. It is on an obscure corner of the internet. But it contains some…interesting “information” for ELCA stakeholders. . .
ELCA Ecumenical Efforts – Part 2 Interfaith Partners A Lesson for All
The main reason to study the evolution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s (ECLA) ecumenical efforts is because it is replicated in almost every interfaith effort across America. The players and the techniques do not vary much from the blueprint. It may start with an overture from a main line denomination to the Muslim Community or visa-versa. However the outreach program starts, you will most likely find the Muslim community representative is directly or indirectly linked to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). . .
More Desired than Our Owne Salvation
. . .Smith berates American Christian Zionist leaders whom he portrays as lunatics, heralding God's judgments with an apocalyptic literalism. He alludes to Hagee as a "veteran bigot" trying to advance "God's foreign policy," which warns against Islamism and its agenda for the destruction of Israel and death to Jews and Christians. . .
Liberal Equality - Witness Stone Blog
This applies to the ELCA "equality" supporters also. . .
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Ecumenical Efforts – Part 1
. . .It seems the interfaith definition of ecumenicism means partnering with those outside the Christian faith, specifically partnering with Muslims. It is safe to say Muslims DO NOT embrace the “plan of salvation through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” So how can there ever be unity? . .
As For Me and My House....
. . .Why is it so difficult for those who have allegedly dedicated their lives to serving the Lord, to preach the Truth? Why is it so easy for them to fall in love with the world? When the leaders of the ELCA promote their tolerance and welcoming to the world, who are they looking to please, the world or God? . .
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) EXPOSED
When the Church neglects Christ and the truth He represents for our world, secular humanity will fill the void by attempting to find their own “truth” – and applying it to relationships, business, family, and Government. . .
Eboo Patel and Problematic Pluralism
. . .He frequently writes articles on religion for the Huffington Post, and in 2011 on a warm fall night, he filled the on-campus chapel of an ELCA college for the first time since the 1940’s. . .
ELCA Church Does What Jesus Would Not Do
Jesus was nice. But there is no way He would let worshipers of a false god into the God's temple to worship their deity. The story linked below highlights ELCA people who think they are being nice. But they are sinning and walking in complete opposition to what Christ would want or do. . .
Can Evangelical Chaplains Serve God and Country?—The Crisis Arrives
. . .Furthermore, Southern Baptists will take their instruction from their own churches, not from those churches and denominations who are wearing out their knees bowing to Baal. . .
Left Wing Evangelicals Invoke Gospel to Denounce All Amnesty Opponents
. . ."It's not clear why an ultra liberal Lutheran clergy should claim to speak for evangelicals in any sense," Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy told Breitbart News. . .
The Big Church that never grew up or grew!
. . .The ELCA has never grown but has significantly aged, and is dying, It will not be a swift death, but an inevitable one without seeking converts.
CORE Connection (pdf file)
August-September 2013 newsletter of Lutheran CORE
Kinder and Gentler
. . .The 2013 ELCA churchwide assembly simply issues another social statement, passed overwhelmingly by the way, decrying the large number of those incarcerated and especially the disparity in the racial proportion of the prison population. Does the leadership of the ELCA truly believe that those incarcerated did not truly commit the crimes for which they are being punished and that society is not safer with criminals off the street? . .
The Great Tradition—the Essential Guidance System for the Church
. . .Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Once the church departs from that affirmation it will soon lose its special mission to convey the Gospel. The decline of the missionary impulse in the mainline denominations is a case in point. Their over-involvement in political agitation is another. . .
Memorials address immigration, communion, violence & more
. . .Voting 787-41, the assembly approved en bloc memorials related to hydraulic fracturing (fracking), fossil fuels, gender identity discrimination, immigration detention and the Uniting American Families Act (a bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to permit permanent partners of U.S. citizens and of lawful permanent residents to obtain permanent resident status). . .
Minn. churches try to copy success of Basilica Block Party
. . .“It actually brought younger people in,” Krueger said. “I was a little bit concerned about [beer]. But I mean, as of last year, it went really good. I didn’t have anybody get excessively drunk. . .
LIRS Welcomes Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly Resolutions, Actions for Immigration Reform
. . ."I am especially thankful to Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson for his forceful declaration that 'Now is the time to pass comprehensive immigration reform. . .
Christianity and Contemporary Culture: A Conversation in Pittsburgh
. . .One particularly despairing example noted by Shipman is Ebenezer Lutheran Church in San Francisco, where pagan practices such as Asherah worship have appeared without any ELCA disciplinary response. Lamb calls this “telling.”. .
Lutherans Gone Wild: God, Gays, and Gender in the ELCA, Part III
. . .These Lutheran heretics reject standards of family formation within the natural institution of marriage and sexual propriety, once again irrespective of consequences. RW’s baleful influence in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) calls into question whether any committed Christian can in good conscience remain in the ELCA. . .
‘A Servant is not Greater than his Master’ A Response to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly (see pages 28-30)
. . .We call upon the new Presiding Bishop to lead the ELCA in repentance, return to the truth and authority of God’s Word, and subsequent renewal of the ELCA as a Biblical and Confessional Lutheran body. . .
Lutherans Gone Wild: God, Gays, and Gender in the ELCA, Part II
. . .As previous references to health issues indicate and Vanderbilt University Medical Center confirms, moreover, transgenderism entails multiple health risks. Johns Hopkins University psychiatric professor Paul McHugh in particular found that “transitioning” had no effect upon the numerous psychological problems of transgendered men. “We have wasted scientific and technical resources and damaged our professional credibility,” McHugh concluded with respect to sex change operations, “by collaborating with madness rather than trying to study, cure, and ultimately prevent it. . .
Lutherans Gone Wild: God, Gays, and Gender in the ELCA, Part I
A vain desire to eliminate all distinctions among genders and their various homosexual and heterosexual acts featured prominently at pro-homosexual events during the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) 2013 Churchwide Assembly. . .
Former Church Council Chief (of NCC) Urges Christianity to Abandon “Exclusivity” (ELCA is a member the NCC)
. . .Former National Council of Churches chief Joan Brown Campbell, in her sermon at Chautauqua today, urged that Christians reject the “exclusivity” of their own faith. And in today’s published interview with the Chautauqua, NY newspaper, Campbell reiterated Christians should not aspire to win other people to Christianity. . .
Same-Sex Pair Uses Orthodox Wedding Service
. . .Daniel Kostakis (né Storrs and referred to by that name throughout this article, just to keep things clear) writes on HuffPo about a ceremony in June, conducted by ELCA cleric Phil Trzynka (himself in a same-sex union and strangely referred to as the “priest” throughout the HuffPo article, although Trzynka’s own site doesn’t use the term) which joined him and Andrew Kostakis legally in a same-sex union conducted in Manhattan. . .
Shades of Gray
. . .those of you in the Southwest California Synod who disagree are given no choice but to accept Bishop Erwin as their pastor. So much for bound conscience and allowing those who disagree to not call or roster people in committed same-gender relationships. . .