Kenneth Sauer, ex-bishop of ELCA, had this to say about how ELCA degenerated so quickly. His remarks imply that ELCA began with a lesbian preacher in 1987, the same who preached for Goodsoil after the winning vote. In other words, the fix was in from the beginning.
One of the last remaining thinkers in ELCA has written an excellent essay on ELCA going wrong from the beginning, with mandated quotas. He failed to mention the required gay quota, which paid off royally at the 2009 ELCA convention. Much of this began with Missouri's Seminex, which had its beginnings at Northwestern College, Watertown, where Professors Jungkuntz and Gehrke taught apostasy with abandon.
The president of the ELCA (formerly ALC) seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, resigned and left town rather quickly. Just as fast, the board appointed an interim president, David Tiede, who was formerly head of Luther Seminary in Minneapolis. The leadership crisis suggests something, but what? One possible cause is insolvency. Several ELCA seminaries are flat busted, in spite of their female and LGTB pastoral candidates. Perhaps some additional facts will turn up.
The seminaries will lose students from the recent vote, but they will doubtless gain a few new ones, too. The fan page for Party-in-the-MLC will grow. Phones will ring in the New Ulm dorms. "Hi. I was just in town and..."
The ELCA Council member quoted recently is probably the LCA pastor we knew in Ohio. He was against the change but abstained from voting, since that was against the will of the Church Wide Assembly. The courage! The integrity!
How does one get on these legislative boards? By being slithering compromisers. Each one wants to paddle up to the edge of Niagara Falls for the view, but they all express shock that they cannot paddle back to safety.
PS - A 550 member church in Ohio just voted to quit ELCA. The bishop complained he did not get enough time to present the case for an LGTB denomination. Later the same guy might do a Ken Sauer and complain about the ordination of cats and dogs.
