Lutherans delay split from church
Gay clergy worries conservatives

By The Associated Press Comments 3
Published: September 27, 2009

FISHERS, Ind. — Conservative members of the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination voted Saturday to spend the next 12 months deciding whether to split from the church after it liberalized its stance on gay clergy.

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About 1,200 people meeting in suburban Indianapolis approved a constitution for the conservative umbrella group Lutheran CORE and a resolution directing its steering committee to report back in a year on whether to stay within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, form their own denomination or join another.

Some members urged the assembly to more quickly sever ties with the 4.7-million member ELCA after the vote last month to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, dropping a requirement that gay clergy remain celibate.

"Some congregations already have voted to leave ELCA,” CORE’s chairman, the Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Pa., said at a news conference afterward. "Others have not voted or do not intend to leave ELCA.”

Spring and other CORE leaders said their decision a year from now could lead to a reconfiguration of Lutheranism in the United States and Canada.

CORE’s meeting this year drew much more interest than the one in 2008. The group cut off registration at 1,200.

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Related Topics: Culture and Lifestyle, Special Interest Groups, Religion, Christianity, Protestantism, Lutheran Church, LGBT Issues

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You know, if church-going folks would spend half the amount of energy trying to actually help people who are disadvantaged as they do getting upset over what other people do in their private lives, perhaps we could end a lot of the misery that afflicts humanity.

Mike, Norman - Sep 28, 2009 at 1:51 pm

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Are those sins forgivable? Yes. Is it acceptable for a practicing homosexual to be a clergy. Clearly not. Should the church love the homosexual and welcome them into the church. Certainly. All sinners are welcomed.

John, Brockway - Sep 28, 2009 at 7:42 am

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It really does present a quandary for churches who strive to be open and acceptive of one's own choice of lifestyle. Jesus did reach out to everybody under the premise that everybody should love the person but hate their sins. But then comes the definition of sin. Every day people debate Leviticus 18:22. It is translated different ways by different versions and since it was written in Hebrew Lexicon it had direct meanings. It literally means that a man shall not lay down in another man's wife's bed. For Jews it means it is wrong for a man to lay in the place of a woman. But then we have the city of Sodom in Genesis. God burned it to the ground because of sexual debauchery. Much like other stories proven as likely to have happened, it has been found that a dig site near the believed site of Sodom shows burn evidence in several layers of rock and stone. Of course hundreds of years later the destruction of Sodom is chronicled in 2 Peter 2:6. Since much of the Old Testament was replaced by The New Covenant by Jesus, people often argue that Jesus changed it because he was accepting of thieves and tax collectors (worse than thieves). Romans 1:26-27 brings up men leaving wives for other men as being sinful. Of course we have 1 Cor. 6:9-11 that says a whole list of sins will doom someone. But those sins listed are forgivable.
So, it comes down to the definition of sin and personal choices affecting other people. So my personal choices do not affect other people because I live a very private life and do not push my choices on other people. I strive for purity of heart and it really does physically hurt me when I break those rules.
As for my own pastor, I want them to have similar ideas as mine in regards to Biblical principles. Someone else is free to pursue a pastor with their particular ideas. Nothing wrong with that.

John, Stigler - Sep 27, 2009 at 8:55 pm

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