95 Lutheran Pastors Stand Defiantly During ELCA Vote

Picture 4

In a defiant act of protest, 95 Lutheran pastors have “come out” as openly gay or lesbian in a document being released this week. The release coincides with the ELCA churchwide assembly that is meeting this week to vote on whether or not to ordain gay and lesbian pastors in committed, same-sex relationships. The document can be found here, entitled “One Table, Many Blessings” released by the group GoodSoil.org.

In an article from The Minnesota Independent, a same-gender couple is interviewed and reveals their stance on the ELCA vote:

Among the stories told in the booklet includes a lesbian couple from Minnesota, Rev. Phyllis Zillhart and Rev. Ruth Frost, whose church in California was expelled from the ELCA because the two pastors are married.

“We could not and will not wait for the ELCA to approve our ministries,” the couple wrote in the booklet. “January marks the 20th anniversary of our extraordinary ordinations together with our gay colleague, Jeff Johnson. Yet there are people who do not recognize our marriage, our shared parenthood, or our ministry as legitimate.”

The couple said that young people like their daughter are leaving the church over these issues. “She has marched in Pride parades every year of her life. She is clear about who her parents and her village are to her,” they wrote. “She is not clear what the Lutheran Church as a whole is to her. Her generation will decide what place the Church will have in their lives based on the justice and hospitality they see extended to or withheld from LGBT people.”

Make no mistake, this is a defining issue for this generation. Particularly telling was the portion where the couple’s daughter was highlighted. Her mothers write, “Her generation will decide what place the Church will have in their lives based on the justice and hospitality they see extended to or withheld from LGBT people.“

So, what do you think? How would you answer that?

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

Have you enjoyed today's post? Would you kindly consider subscribing to our feed through RSS or email? That way, you're never out of the loop! BeDeviant.com comes to you, how brilliant.

Contributor: Justin Wise

I am a religious deviant who enjoys coffee, collared shirts, spending time with my wife and son, learning about quantum physics and creatively exploring the riches of the Spirit of Christ. Find more here: JustinWise.me
  • Insulted
    As a life long Lutheran, I believe that the 95 "so called pastors" who stood "defiant" should apologize to the thousands of Lutheran's have believed in Martin Luther's 95 Theses. Their using "95" as a statement is insulting if not blasphemous.
  • Not Luther
    For the same reason I do not want a tax cheat as head of the U.S. Treasury, I do not want a self avowed, practicing homosexual as a leader in my church. If I condone such homosexual behavior in the leadership of the ELCA then the condemnation is attributable to me for having allowed fellow brothers and sister to be led astray. If one were to look at natural law, taking religion completely out of the picture, homosexuality is completely at odds with nature, and reproduction of the species. It is by definition a deviant act. I do not believe I nor my family can receive the best counsel from a sexual deviant nor am I being morally honest to allow others to receive such counsel. Should the church welcome gays, yes. Should the church establish them in positions of leadership, power and authority? Hell, no.
  • I am with you on this and if our church doesn't condemn this then I will have to take my family to a church that believes in the scriptures and is willing to stand by our values that we were all raised up by.
  • Laura
    I concern myself with this line of thinking as the truth is I don't know anyone who isn't a sinner - including my pastors (present and past). Still, I have faith that they were called to shepherd me into a relationship with God, and I listen to my heart to guide me (in terms of practicing my faith under the leadership of my church). Also, I think the bigger question to ponder is why do we stand firm on this notion of "Natural law" that requires people to reproduce? The ability to reproduce doesn't trump the internal workings of a human. If someone is attracted to another of the same sex, and commits a life-time of love toward that person, and raises children, can't they still come to know God? I think it would be unnatural to force homosexual people into a lonely life without a mate. It seems to me that to live alone in this world is against natural law. I'm not overly comfortable with homosexuality, but I think that I need to reevaluate why I'm not comfortable. I don't believe it's the Bible that leads to my discomfort as much as it is the society in which I have been raised.
  • sara vanscoy
    Craig -

    why particularly are you afraid for your son to be around gay clergy?

    i suspect it is because you hold to the age-old prejudice that all fags are pedophiles... (harshly said, i know - but you get the point)... the scientific truth is that the vast majority of pedophiles identify themselves as heterosexual, meaning that you should be more afraid of your sons being with their female teachers or clergy...
  • Craig
    I do not agree with the decision made by the ELCA. Gays have the legal right to do as they please with their own lives, sure. A gay pastor sufficiently relate to man and wife marriage situations, children, or normal family issues. I certainly wouldn't let a son of mine go near a gay pastor.
  • Sol
    The "defining" legacy this generation will leave the future Church is whether we decide to believe in the absoluteness of scripture or not.
  • Angleman
    The ELCA should embrace gay everything. For more than a generation, the Word of God, the Sacred Scriptures, has meant next to nothing to this organization. They should stop pretending, and go with the gods of this world.

    On the other hand, those who don't agree with any church that stands under the authority of Sacred Scripture, can always form their own church.
  • yes, a defining issue, and noteworthy... Too bad few people in any camp will notice what COULD BE defining issues of this generation IF WE WANTED THEM TO BE, that the ELCA is also considering, like fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS in Africa.

    We would be close to HEAVEN if we tried so vigorously to hold each other Biblically accountable for matters such as poverty, clean water for Africa, feeding the hungry, creating and building economies in the two-thirds world that the first world has shamelessly pimped into poverty.

    I might give a $h!t about sexual orientation, when Christians would get serious about the poor. MT 25:31f.
  • I've got about a year to go in sem before i (maybe) start to look into ordination and its issues like this that really make me feel that the whole process is ridiculous. So, there are 15,000+ protestant denominations, the eastern church, and many more "orthodox" groups out there and each of them have different denominational vows/creeds/stances. The sheer number of them--for me anyway-- render the meaning of ordination in a particular denomination meaningless.

    Maybe I'll do what I think is faithful and pleasing to God and leave it at that. It seems to be what we're all doing anyway.

    ::frustrated::
blog comments powered by Disqus