Happy Fourth of July!

 

More Evidence - "Yes, the World’s a Ship on Its Passage Out, And Not a Voyage Complete; And the Pulpit Is Its Prow."

This video may also disappear as fast as the discussion on the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau Forum Online (the Ovaltines).

More of the same garbage is described from various denominations.

What could be more full of meaning?- for the pulpit is ever this earth’s foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God’s quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favorable winds. Yes, the world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 8

The information - 50 Plus Years of Pride - came from the links I found about the "Sparkle creed" being used at an ELCA congregation in wealthy Edina, Minnesota. The mocking blasphemous creed is nothing more than the accumulated toxins of 

1. Objective Faithless Justification (born forgiven and saved), 
2. Church Growth (rationalistic destroyers), and 
3. Ignorance about the Reformation (Luther, Melanchthon, and Chemnitz - for those who graduated from Mequon).

"I believe in the church of everyday saints, as numerous, creative, and resilient as patches on the AIDS quilt, whose feet are grounded in mud and whose eyes gaze at the stars in Wonder." Sparkle creed.

The Sparkle creed had to have decades of development to have female clergy lead it in public - with a smirk - and the videos published on YouTube. Years back, the same style of nonsense and perversion was featured, bragged about, protected, and awarded with calls - "Party in the MLC" (WELS). 

Pardon my lack of ignorance - I saw it coming in the early stages in the LCA, even as a lad at Plymouth Congregational (UCC) Church, Moline - a woman dressed in a man's suit.

50 Plus Years of Pride is not the end but just another marker on the road to perdition. If people do not make themselves aware of what it happening now, and act on it, everything will be far worse. I gave up income at one school because it was embracing DEI. However, that left me open for only teaching the Bible. I will write more about the topic, based on the corporate style of self-destruction.

 The patron saint of Fuller Seminary - Peter Drucker.

50 Plus Years of Pride - ALC/LCA/AELC/ELCA -

From LGBTQ Exhibits

Lutheranism

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) experienced a slow and steady transformation in terms of LGBTQ+ inclusion. Scholar of queer religious history R.W. Holmen refers to the activist movement within Lutheranism as being "subtle" (231), but revolutionary nonetheless. ALC Pastor Jim Siefkes was a leader of the movement toward affirmation and inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals. He demonstrated true allyship to the LGBT+ community, first by developing a ministry program called Matrix which tackled the subject of human sexuality, alongside other potentially controversial topics, forthrightly and openly. 

In June of 1970, Siefkes helped organize an experimental seminar discussing human sexuality in a theological context. The University of Minnesota medical school was enthusiastic about the programming Siefkes had designed, and began running a similar program under its own institutional auspices. As Siefkes became more heavily involved in the university's programming, he also aided in the formation of a Committee on Religion and Ethics at the university's medical school, reinforcing his original goal of tying sexuality and religion together in a meaningful fashion. Many people affiliated with religous communities at the university were appalled by the programming's sexually explicit materials and objected vehemently to church finances backing programming they considered lewd and inappropriate. However, many others found the programming illuminating, and were willing to enter into an open conversation about homosexuality and faith. 

Jim Siefkes

The foremost organization pushing for LGBT+ inclusion within the Lutheran Church, called Lutherans Concerned for Gay People, was formed on June 16, 1974, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Lutherans Concerned for Gay People's first newsletter was released a mere month after the group's formation. The organization's viewpoint was neatly encapsulated within this very first issue, as the authors wrote, 

As gay Lutherans, we affirm with joy the goodness of human sexuality which God has given us. We are to be found in the pulpits and pews, the schools and offices of Lutheran churches and organizations throughout the land. We have received the sacraments, listened to the preaching of God's word, taught in the schools, and worked in the committees and organizations of Lutheran churches.

The organization faced almost instant backlash in 1975, as indignation over the success of Pastor Siefkes' request for financing for Lutherans Concerned for Gay People spread among a conservative element within the Lutheran church. The headline "Dollars for Disobedience" was disseminated within the church, condemning the use of the church's funds for LGBT+ advocates. 

Pastor Chuck Lewis was responsible for forming a particularly active chapter of Lutherans Concerned in San Francisco, California (the organization's name evolved to Lutherans Concerned, and then Lutherans Concerned/North America, frequently abbreviated to LC/NA). 

Chuck Lewis

In 1980, the LCA and ALC both released statements dealing with human sexuality. Both statements condemned homosexuality as contrary to God's plan. The church still had a long way to go towards full inclusion. 

However, in 1987, it was reported in the Los Angeles Times that three out gay Lutheran seminarians were certified for call and ordination. These seminarians were Joel Workin, James Lancaster, and Jeff Johnson. Yet, the case was not at all open and shut, as the Times seemed to imply. The candidates for ministry were asked if they would vow to remain celibate for the rest of their lives. Jeff Johnson answered that, while he was currently celibate, he couldn't promise that he wouldn't fall in love with a man one day. His fellow ordinands answered similarly. As R.W. Holmen wrote, "The courage of the candidates stood in stark contrast to the timidity of the church. The integrity of the candidates embarrassed the church that reneged on its agreement" (253). Sadly, these three men were denied ordination.

Jeff R. Johnson

The church has since made tremendous strides, as Dr. Guy Barron, a Native American and gay man, was elected as a bishop within the Lutheran church in 2013. [Guy Erwin is the correct name.]

Richard Jungkuntz, WELS, was a pioneer. He was fired for being a historical-critical professor, taught at Springfield's (future Ft. Wayne) seminary, served as the head of the doctrinal board in the LCMS, became chairman of the board of the breakaway Seminex seminary, which sponsored the Metropolitan Community Church (gay) Seminary at their location.

Guy Erwin was a professor in ELCA, then a part-time pastor, then a bishop, and now the President of United Lutheran Seminary, Philadelphia.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 6 - "Just As Also These Three - To Judge, To Avenge And To Glory, Have Been Taken From Us, And No Person Should Share in Them..."

Click for -> Complete Sermon for Trinity 6 - Anger and Its Signs, Third Sermon

6. Hence you must in this instance so tune the organ as to have the pipes sound in harmony, and so as to prevent two from clashing. For what kind of justice would you call it when one offends you by a mere word, or pilfers a penny’s worth, and you go and cut off his arm or burn down his house, crying angrily the while: Well, he did me wrong, and I have good reasons, etc.! In such a case your murderous wrath, that does tenfold more violence and injustice to me, is not to be called a sin, but righteousness and holiness, while I am to be considered unrighteous aria suffer wrong.

7. This now I am not saying for the benefit of strangers, who are without, except merely for an illustration to show how this vice rules in the world; but concerning us, both teachers and scholars, who pride ourselves on being evangelical and still want the liberty of becoming angry and to rage when we please; and not permit ourselves to be punished nor reproved, but rather than that everything may go to pieces, if only we be considered to be in the right, and pious, despite the fact that such a despicable farce of right causes a hundredfold more wrong.

8. Therefore Christ here takes energetic action, and abolishes anger wholly and completely in the entire world, draws it to himself and says: I do not merely say, Thou shalt not kill, nor say Raca to thy brother, but thou shalt in no case be angry; the one is as solemnly and earnestly prohibited as the other.

For you are not told to judge or avenge yourself, and even though you are right and have a just cause, still your wrath is of the devil; as St. James in his James 1:20, says: “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." Hence all anger is to be abolished entirely from us and the wrath of God alone is to work; otherwise it will turn out to be the devil’s wrath and it certainly does not cool down without sin. Just as also these three: to judge, to avenge and to glory, have been taken from us, and no person should share in them, though they have ever so good a cause and ever so great holiness. But to God alone belong honor, judgment and vengeance, hence also wrath.

9. Now, I fear, this will not be done by us as long as we are here in this life, and yet it would be grace, if we only became so pious as to make a beginning; for as soon as we suffer an injury, flesh and blood at once act as flesh and blood; they begin to rage and rave in anger and impatience. It is natural for us to feel hurt when suffering injustice and violence, hence it is necessary to check and restrain the feelings of anger and resist them. The feeling that you are injured will pass away; but that you in addition desire to avenge yourself in this or that way, is prohibited. Therefore see to it that one fits well into the other, that one claim does not conflict with the other nor cancel it, but let the two harmonize, so that both may continue. If you cannot secure your rights without doing greater harm, let it go. For it is not good to check or punish one wrong with another, nor is God willing to have universal justice perish because of your petty claims.