A Case Study in a Church Losing its Way
I get my daily Old Dominion fix via my online subscription to the Roanoke Times (Motto: “All the NewsThat’s Fit to Twist”). One of today’s headlines featured the latest doings of our Lutheran (ELCA) friends:
Va. Lutherans back 2 of 3 Church Council proposals on same-sex issues
Excerpting, with my comments following:
…while stating the denomination has “no legislated policy” regarding the blessing of same-sex unions, the Church Council recommended continuing under the guidance of a 1993 statement by its Conference of Bishops that rejects the idea of creating an official ceremony for such unions. On the other hand, the bishops said they “express our trust in … pastors and congregations” when it comes to providing pastoral care to same-sex couples…”It’s important to back up pastors,” said the Rev. Harold Uhl, who is retired in Roanoke. “We need to say, ‘We trust you to make wise, Spirit-led decisions.’
Respectfully, Rev. Uhl, it’s important to take the Bible seriously, and naive to simply say to pastors, “we trust you blah blah blah…” Effectively, each pastor becomes a law unto himself, under this pound-foolish scenario. We know what is going to happen…I mean, is there anyone out there in the evangelical blogosphere who has the first doubt as to what’s going to happen? If so, please let me show you some nice Florida beach-front property… We know that some “trustworthy” pastor is going to blasphemously “marry” two people of the same sex, and then the ELCA will have further division/debate amid such compromise.
An ELCA document called “Vision and Expectations” informs candidates for ordination and clergy that celibacy in singleness or fidelity in the marriage of one man to one woman is expected of them. The ELCA Church Council is recommending changing church bylaws providing an official exemption from those expectations for congregations and synods that wish to ordain homosexual candidates who are otherwise qualified but are in “lifelong, committed and faithful” same-sex relationships.
Such an unwise “exemption” will of course lead to deep division, and “can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Certainly not on something as significant as changing God’s plan for marriage.
The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, was in Salem for the assembly and responded to questions submitted to him in advance of Sunday’s closing session…Hanson said he rejects a literalistic view of the Bible “in this culture so dominated by fundamentalism.” Instead of relying on a “bibliocentric” version of Christian faith, “I believe in a triune God who reveals God’s self to me in Scripture,” Hanson said, “who is revealed in Christ, and who is revealed for us in the bread and wine” of Communion.
The Grand Poobah weighs in…where to start? One, “this culture so dominated by fundamentalism”? Uhh…hmmm? Would this be, what, the culture of, I don’t know, Zimbabwe or Upper Volta or Inner Mongolia he’s talking about? 9% of evangelical adults and 2% of evangelical teenagers have a Christian worldview…in this “culture so dominated by fundamentalism”. Two, I’m reminded of a great exchange between Caffey (Tom Cruise) and Nathan Jessup (Nicholson) in “A Few Good Men”:
Caffey: “You thought his life was in danger?”
Jessup: “Yes.”
Caffey: “Grave danger?”
Jessup: “Is there any other kind?”
When Hanson derides a “bibliocentric” faith, I want to respond, “is there any other kind?”
Three, boy, don’t his words sound so good, about how God reveals Himself? Any fundamentalist could “Amen!” those words, except that he doesn’t mean them nearly as they sound, because he puts these means of God’s self-revelation in contrast to sola Scriptura (imagine that, in a church that bears the name of Luther). What he means by this is that the Bible is not really our authority, that it can be effectively jettisoned when we determine that the “spirit of Christ” or something else real pious-sounding conflicts.
This is a good case-in-point as to why so many mainline denominations have gone past the point of no return, I fear…
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Osborne: A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God
Schlossberg: Idols For Destruction
One Response to “A Case Study in a Church Losing its Way”
Hey, google sent me your way for the first time. We have a site to fight Hanson and his social engineering “cultural elites”. You are today’s top story! Will be back to see you.
You are of course perfectly right: is there any other faith? The answer is as old as Scripture. We got worship of the One True God now known to us in Jesus Christ and then there is the worship of the golden calf.
They had to come up with a new religion to help their grand scheme of enforcing recyling on the world
Shrimp ~ Jun 9, 2005 at 7:06 am