Will WELS-LCMS-ELS Break Fellowship with ELCA?

Outrage as US Lutherans Ease Rules on Pastors in Gay Relationships
Christian Today | 11 August AD 2007 | Daniel Blake

Lavender Mafia, Multi-Cultural


Outrage as US Lutherans Ease Rules on Pastors in Gay Relationships

The largest Lutheran body in the US has caused outrage in the wider Christian community as it controversially decided not to punish homosexual clergy who are in sexual relationships, according to an announcement made on Saturday.

by Daniel Blake Posted: Saturday, August 11, 2007, 19:50 (BST)

The largest Lutheran body in the US has caused outrage in the wider Christian community as it controversially decided not to punish homosexual clergy who are in sexual relationships, according to an announcement made on Saturday.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in “faithful committed same-gender relationships”.

The resolution was passed by a vote of 538-431.

A day earlier, attendees voted down a measure that would have ended a ban on non-celibate gay clergy. But Saturday’s vote means those who violate that policy can no longer be tried or punished.

Phil Soucy, spokesman for Lutherans Concerned, a gay-lesbian rights group within the Church said: “The Church ... has just said 'Do not do punishments'. That is huge.”

The 4.8-million member ELCA had previously allowed gays to serve as pastors, but only under the condition that they abstained from any sexual relations.

The conference also instructed a committee that is developing a social statement on sexuality to further investigate the issue. The committee is scheduled to release its report in 2009.

Since the ELCA was founded in 1988, the body has ordered three pastors in gay relationships to be removed from their ministries.

The announcement has greatly outraged conservatives within the Christian community who follow the historic Christian teachings, which declares homosexuality a sin according to Scripture.

Rev. Mark Chavez, leader of Lutheran CORE, a group that says non-celibate gays should not serve as pastors, called the decision “tragic”.

“This decision will be an excuse for bishops to disobey ELCA policy,” he said. “This decision does not reflect the will of the people, but of bishops and clergy who disregard God’s word.”

The gay clergy issue has become an increasingly volatile subject amongst Christian denominations – in particular the 77-million member strong worldwide Anglican Communion is on the verge of schism as it debates the controversial issue.

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GJ - Merger in 1987 started with 5.3 million ELCA members. Now they boast 4.8 million, after following Church Growth methods almost as faithfully as WELS and Missouri.

One Named

BMEYER has left a new comment on your post "Paul McCain, Compassion Incarnate":

Mr. McCain, you state, "Name even one single Lutheran pastor who supports you Greg(g)." Truth is if you have an issue with Pastor Jackson's doctrine, name the doctrine and state the Scripture and Lutheran Confessions and show where you believe he violates it. Everyone is required to contend for Scriptural truth. When you see a problem it is in the interest of doctrinal purity to point it out and correct it. No one benefits from accepting false doctrine, knowingly or not. The fact that you may be hated (alienated) because the Holy Spirit has led you to contend for pure doctrine and worked in you the willingness to endure persecution it is a good thing. We then share in the persecution suffered by our Lord and Savior. It is those pastors who do not support Pastor Jackson and his attempt to warn Christ's universal church of these false doctrines who have neglected their duty to protect the sheep. They have exchanged the clarity and efficacy of the Scriptures for temporal, human relationships. Many become indignant at the charge that Church Growth doctrines have taken hold in the WELS and ELS. Allow me to relate my experience in the WELS to support the charge.
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (HTLC) in Des Moines, Washington owned their church facility and property. They were holding multiple services on Sundays and during the week to accommodate the congregation which was larger than the building could hold at one service. They operated a CDS in the basement. Working with the WELS Synod officials they decided to raze their current building and build larger church with increased facilities for the school. The CEF assisted with obtaining part of the roughly 2.4 million dollars required. Part of the money came from getting congregation members to take second mortgages on their homes. Part of the money came from donations using Thrivent matching funds. Thrivent is also the organization who had recently given 2 million dollars to ELCA to support their Christ denying outreach and finance abortions. When this issue was raised to the voters the response from a retired pastor was, "But if we don't use the money somebody else will." So they built the church under the theme, "Let the Children Come". (Apparently directed toward those children not aborted by Thrivent money) Once built there was intense pressure to ensure consistent offerings to support the new facility. Because there was now roughly 1.3 million owed in outstanding debt, doctrines on Christian stewardship moved from a function and motivation of the Gospel, with the Holy Spirit working faith in a person to give of what they've been given by God, to a function of the law where you have to give. That the amount each family gave, or said they would give, was more and more important. When the comment was made, "that had God wanted HTLC to build a larger church He would have provided the means to do so "prior" to building it" was met with silence. The comment, "that making a dicision on your own that God wants the church to do this even though there wasn't the money available" was met with silence. So the money required to handle such a large debt was not coming in. The families who mortgaged their homes were being asked by the banks to pay the debt and the church did not have the money to repay them. So the harshest twist came when money from the "Let the Children Come" restricted school funds was used to pay monthly expenses. And more money drives were dreamed up in an attempt to repay the debt. A comment by the CDS principal during a voters meeting exposed what apparently private conversations opinioned prior to the building, "If we had just gotten the 15% increase in membership that building the facility was supposed to have brought we wouldn't be in this position." When a comment was made that, "In contrast to that statement, the Holy Spirit alone is the one who provides any increase." the principal walked out.
And during this the Synod decided to send a call to the fairly conservative pastor for an open lead pastorship in Arizona. He accepted the call and we received a call list. The new pastor immediately began the church growth process. The first being a Bible class on "What is a Church?" where he made the statement, "We come to church to bring our praises to God." When I made the contrasting statement, "No, we come to church to be served by God through Word and Sacrament" a discussion ensued which included the pastor's statement, "well, ok but I can't say which is more important." and ended with his, "Ok, let's say their both important" and "let's just agree to disagree." Various issues followed that initial Bible class. Mostly surrounding his attempts to grow the church by Church Growth means instead of through God's Word and Sacraments. He was adament that he wasn't, "Church Growth" while declaring that his favorite seminary professor was David Vallesky. One Sunday the pastor decided to begin the liturgical reading and during the reading he handed it off to all the women to read the liturgy to the congregation, and after a few verses had all the men read and then around it went. A long discussion ensued which lasted a few months concerning the role of women in the church and the applicability of 1 Tim. 2:12 and 1 Cor. 14:34. It ended with the following statement from the Pastor and Elders, "After prayerful consideration and study of the Word in this matter we believe that antiphonal worship is a proclamation or reading of God's inspired word and is not considered to be teaching the congregation." And from another WELS pastor, "However there is quite a stretch between women teaching (ie expounding, explaining, clarifying and elucidating Scripture) and reading Scripture antiphonally and collectively without giving instruction."
Take this for what you are capable of getting out of it. Truth is that what Pastor Jackson points out in quoting false teachers and exposing their actions is actually happening. Sad, sick and unChristian as those quotes and actions are. And while so many pastors in the ELS and WELS scramble around to excuse one another there remains in the pew thousands of individuals who need to hear God's pure Word and need to learn to discern between God's Truth and the faith killing lies fed to them by false teachers. May each of you reject temporal, human relationships in favor of the everlasting grace found in God's Word and Sacraments alone, purely taught and rightly distributed. What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

By the grace of God, forever in Christ,
Brett Meyer

Not for Immediate Release in the Lutheran Press

Lutherans (even in ELCA) will be gasping and gulping air when they read the news about the current convention in Chicago. The Lavender Mafia will have won another victory, one way or another.

Why the shock? I spent a chapter on this in Out of the Depths of ELCA, 1987, Christian News.

In twenty years, the only things changing have been:
1. More joint activities among ELCA-WELS-LCMS. Even the the Little Sect on the Prairie copied the LBW (Liberal Book of Weirdness) to produce their new hymnal. WELS' Charismatic Worship looks identical, almost a copyright infringement.
2. More gay activism among the synods, hidden under the term multi-culturalism. That was actually a project among the four-letter synods. The project started at the Snowbird leadership conference, all publicly documented in the insurance magazines and The Lutheran.
3. More shock expressed about the Church of Rome's troubles.

Just as I suspected, when the LA Archdiocese of the Catholic Church had a huge settlement due to priestly homosexual abuse ($600 million or so), the Lutherans said naughty, naughty instead of admitting their own problems.

Now WELS and LCMS pastors will give sermons tomorrow or next Sunday on that naughty, naughty ELCA, without ever revealing that both synods are in bed with ELCA - have been for decades. Without ever admitting all the felonious cover-ups in their own synods.

Better Arguments Needed

If you want to prove me wrong, you will need better arguments than what you have attempted so far. The arguments, briefly summarized are:
1. You are a bad person, so our synod is perfect.
2. We made real whipped cream at our Starbucks, so WELS is perfect.
3. You are a horrible person, so that proves you are wrong.

The best one is from Paul (Do you know who I used to be?) McCain. According to the man who secretly worked with Otten and turned on him, I do not have anyone in the entire Lutheran church who agrees with me, laity or pastor. And that includes the mini-micro synods, too.

It is not hard to find Paul McCain demanding an apology from someone on the Internet. He will pardon us if a wry smile crosses our faces the next time we see him ordering one up.

People doubt whether McCain knows many people outside the political cell groups that always flutter around without doing anything. If they spent the same time and energy committing their deep thoughts to books, we would have something to treasure for the next generation.

The fact remains, they will leave nothing behind, just like the Spartans. The synod politicians have shown no scholarship, shirked the responsibility of teaching orthodox Lutheran doctrine, and devoted themselves to having cushy jobs. They are clever as foxes and as easily turned as weather-vanes.

You Guys Are All in Fellowship with the Moravians Now

"Lie down with dawgs, get up with Moravians," my grandpappy used to say.

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 9, 2007

ELCA Assembly Extends Full Communion Relationship with Moravian Church
07-CWA-025-LL*


CHICAGO (ELCA) - The 2007 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) extended the ELCA's full communion partnership with the Moravian Church in America to the East Western Indies and the Alaska Provinces of the Moravian Church in America during the 7th plenary session Aug. 9.
The assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 6-11 at Navy Pier's Festival Hall. About 2,000 people are participating, including 1,068 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Living in God's Amazing Grace: Thanks be to God!"

The 1999 Churchwide Assembly voted to accept a proposal for full communion for the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in America. The first worship service of full communion was held between the ELCA and the Moravian Church in America in 2000.

The 2007 assembly resolution recognized "that these two [the Northern and Southern] provinces of the Moravian Church in America do not cover all the geographical territory encompassed by the church."

The resolution was passed without amendment with a vote of 999 to 23. The Rev. Gary L. Harke, executive director, Pennsylvania Council of Churches, addressed the assembly after the resolution was adopted. "These actions speak to your commitment to ecumenical work and to full communion," he said.
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Information about the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found at http://www.ELCA.org/assembly/ on the Web.

* Lauren A. Lamb is a senior public relations and speech communication major at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. This summer she is an intern with the ELCA News Service.


For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog

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GJ - Yes, the "conservative" Lutheran synods are already in fellowship with ELCA, so now they can add the Moravians to their list. I like Moravians. Our next-doorski at Yale was Moravian. He played the Mozart clarinet quintet all year, over and over. I loved it. He apologized for playing it so much, but I thanked him.

The Moravians are Pietists, so they fit well with the American Lutheran experience. "Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest," is a Moravian prayer. "Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness" is a Moravian hymn.

The Pentecostal influence is far more dangerous to Lutheran doctrine (all things considered), so I will write more about that later.