I have written several times about the elements within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that are having a proverbial conniption fit since the national church adopted a policy permitting partnered gay clergy a little more than a year ago. These folks have their panties in a huge knot over the Churchwide Assembly vote which they claim ignored the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality. They demand strict adherence to Biblical provisions - except for all the times when they don't. Times like when they give a wink and a nod to Gospel condemnations of divorce; ignore Gospel condemnations of Pharisee like behavior; close their eyes to Gospel admonitions of treating one's neighbors with love and forgiveness. And that's not even getting into the Old Testament provisions that are ignored wholesale. Indeed, it seems that the only time these break away Lutherans apply the Bible literally is when they seize on provisions that purportedly condemn same sex relationships. Now, these modern day Pharisee elements once affiliated with the ECLA are poised to form a new Lutheran denomination in the USA. I'm sorry, but the motivation for this development is not follow the Scriptures more faithfully. It's about following anti-gay scripture more faithfully and ignoring all those inconvenient Bible passages that interfere with doing whatever else these hypocrites want. Some will call me "mean" or "intolerant,"but when people are homophobic bigots, I believe in calling them out . The Mercury News has details on this development. Here are highlights:*
MINNEAPOLIS—Richard Mahan and Anita Hill are both Lutheran pastors who were inside a Minneapolis convention hall last summer when delegates for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to allow non-celibate gay and lesbian pastors.
Afterward, each cried for different reasons.
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Mahan, lead pastor at St. Timothy in Charleston, W.Va., said he cried because he realized he would likely leave the denomination in which he had invested 42 years of ministry. For Hill, the openly gay lead pastor at St. Paul-Reformation in St. Paul, they were tears of "joy and relief."
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A year later . . . . Mahan and other critics of the decision plan to gather this week in Columbus, Ohio, for another Lutheran convention. Leaders of 18 former ELCA churches are expected to vote Friday to create a brand new Lutheran denomination that they claim will follow the Scriptures more faithfully: the North American Lutheran Church.
"The issue is departure from the word of God," Mahan said. His church has already voted twice to end its longtime identity as a ELCA church, also ending an annual *$36,000 in tithing to the denomination.
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As of early August, 199 congregations had cleared the hurdles to leave the ELCA for good, while another 136 awaited the second vote needed to make it official. In all there are 10,239 ELCA churches with about 4.5 million members, making it still by far the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S.
And the breakaway members gathering in Ohio will face their own challenges if they vote to start another denomination at a time when attendance at mainline Protestant churches is falling and denominational distinctions appear irrelevant to a growing number of churchgoers.
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Hill, who in her early days at the church helped found a ministry for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, said she was disheartened by the departing churches. "There are some who feel they must leave the ELCA over that," she said. "I feel sad about that, it's unfortunate. But to feel you have to leave over the inclusion of your brothers and sisters—that diminishes who we are as the body of Christ."
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Unlike Hill, I am not disheartened - I am disgusted and sickened by the hate and hypocrisy that are, in my view, the only reason parishes are leaving the ELCA. If they truly cared about adhering to scripture, they'd jettison divorce and a host of other things that they readily accept. One can only hope that come Judgment Day, these bigots will find that God is a black lesbian.
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