Category Archives: Religious News

Bible too liberal? Then rewrite it.

Several months ago, I offered a blog post on the plan of conservative theologians to revisit and revise the New International Version of the Bible (NIV), the version published by Zondervan that is the favorite Bible for evangelicals.  Apparently, the most recent edition of the NIV, known as the Today’s New International Version (TNIV), offended many conservatives because it attempted gender neutral language.  Thus, the scholars behind the NIV are going to try again to come up with a current edition that does not offend its base of supporters.  Here is a portion of my earlier post:

What is ironic in the current debate over the revisions to the NIV is that this is a fight amongst conservatives and not a liberal/conservative split.  The NIV editors are an independent group of conservative scholars and translators formed in 1965 to create and revise the NIV, and the publisher is Zondervan, an Evangelical publishing house and a Rupert Murdoch company.

While the Zondervan/NIV revision is a serious effort by bona fide scholars, the latest news about a wiki like online project to purge the Bible of certain liberal leanings is laughable.  According to the AP,

The conservative online encyclopedia [conservapedia.com] is hosting a project of amateur conservative readers that are putting together their own interpretation of the Bible, to counter what they say is liberal bias by scholars.

The project’s authors argue that contemporary scholars have inserted liberal views and ahistorical passages into the Bible, turning Jesus into little more than a well-meaning social worker with a store of watered-down platitudes.

“Professors are the most liberal group of people in the world, and it’s professors who are doing the popular modern translations of the Bible,” said Andy Schlafly, founder of Conservapedia.com, the project’s online home.

A prime example of the cutting and pasting proposed by conservapedia is the statement attributed to Jesus on the cross, speaking about his persecutors, “Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”  Luke 23:34 (NRSV & NIV)  Apparently, such a forgiving attitude is too liberal for conservapedia.

But what of the scholarly merits of the suggestion that this passage is false, an insertion by liberal professors?  Silly, at best.

While it is true that certain ancient Greek texts do not include this passage (and so noted in the footnotes of both the NRSV and NIV), it is not modern liberal scholars who chose to include this statement of Jesus.  This verse appears in the Codex Sinaiticus, a fourth century manuscript and one of the oldest extant full versions of the Bible; it appears in the Latin Vulgate, translated by that flaming liberal, St. Jerome, circa 400 CE, which became the Roman Catholic bible for the next fifteen hundred years; and it appears in the King James version translated in 1611, the primary English version of the Bible until the twentieth century.

But don’t let honest scholarship stand in your way, Mr. Schlafly and the rest of the conservapedia know-nothings.

 

Oh, those naughty Episcopalians!

ClayOla Gitane The Episcopal diocese of Fort Worth will soon ordain its second woman as priest.  On December 5th, Deacon ClayOla Gitane, will be ordained by two bishops, including a female from Washington state where Gitane pursued her call to the priesthood.

According to the blog, Desert’s Child:

[Gitane] is one of more than fifteen women who over the years have had to leave the diocese in order to be ordained priests because all the bishops of Fort Worth prior to 2009 opposed the ordination of women. With God’s help, she will be the last.

Meanwhile, the Rt Rev M. Thomas Shaw, Bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Massachusetts, has issued a statement allowing priests of his diocese to conduct same gender marriages (which is allowed by the laws of the state, er Commonwealth, of Massachusetts).  According to the Street Prophets blog, Bishop Shaw made the following statement:

Christian marriage is a sacramental rite that has evolved in the church, and while it is not necessary for all, it must be open to all as a means of grace and sustenance to our Christian hope.

I believe this because the truth of it is in our midst, revealed again and again by the many marriages—of women and men, and of persons of the same gender—that are characterized, just as our church expects, by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, and the holy love which enables spouses to see in one another the image of God.

Finally, popular religion columnist Julia Duin of the Washington Times reports that the Episcopal diocese of Los Angeles may elect a lesbian bishop at its upcoming convention this weekend (the recent convention in the Minnesota Diocese also had a lesbian candidate for bishop, but she was not elected).

[E]ver since the denomination voted last summer to allow more gay bishops, there’s been this informal race among dioceses to see who can be first.

Clergy in the Los Angeles diocese tell me that she’s got a decent chance because her executive experience in Baltimore assisting the bishop and mentoring clergy ranks her above the other five candidates for the two jobs.

Sounds like the slogan of Integrity USA, “All the sacraments for all the baptized” is being taken seriously by the Episcopalians.

Should gays be executed? Uganda thinks so. So does the Bible. UPDATED X 2

The equatorial African nation, the Republic of Uganda, has pending legislation that mandates execution of HIV positive gay persons.  According to San Francisco reporter and columnist Ralph Stone,

Uganda already punishes gay intimacy with life in prison. The “Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009” would penalize anyone who “attempts to commit the offence” with up to seven years in jail. Additionally, a person charged will be forced to undergo an invasive medical examination to determine their HIV status. If the detainees are found to be HIV+, they may be executed.

The religion of Uganda is reported to be 85% Christian consisting primarily of Roman Catholic (42%) and Anglican (36%) adherents.  Is execution of gays the appropriate Christian response to the HIV epidemic?

“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.”  Leviticus 20:13 (NRSV)

What say you, literal and inerrant interpreters of Holy Writ?

What say you, Rick Warren–mega-church pastor, best-selling author, and Prop 8 cheerleader–at your recent prayer breakfast sermon to the political leaders of Rwanda, the nation that shares a border with Uganda?  When asked about the proposed Ugandan legislation, Warren reportedly responded,

“The fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts endowed by God, our creator. However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations.”

What say you, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury (leader of the worldwide Anglican communion) at your speech to the Gregorian Pontifical University on November 19th?  As the Anglican leader speaking to Roman Catholic leaders, the two major religious denominations of Uganda, certainly you railed against this draconian legislation.  Not so, according to the blog, Episcopal Cafe:

What is not easy, and where the silence has been deafening, has been to find anything said about Uganda and its proposed laws singling out one group of people for harsh and repressive treatment. We also have an Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, a Ugandan himself, who doesn’t mind a bit of publicity now and again, in jumping out of aeroplanes and refusing to wear his white collar until Robert Mugabe leaves office – but when it comes to Uganda and gay people, and that Anglican Church’s intense homophobia, he suddenly has his mouth all zipped up. So it is easy [for the ABC] to talk shop, easy to talk about general situations, and yet when it comes to the minority sheep in the flock in your own back pen, silence is the order of the day.

What say you, the leaders of the ELCA?  I see nothing in your press releases at ELCA.org.  With a noteworthy history of advocacy for peace and justice issues, the Lutheran World Federation includes most international Lutheran bodies, including the ELCA, and the LWF presidency is currently filled by the ELCA’s own presiding Bishop, Mark Hanson.  Commendably, the LWF promotes a sensitive and supportive attitude toward those afflicted with HIV / AIDS, most of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa.  Would it be too much to expect a word about Uganda’s proposed legislation?   Is the ELCA still stinging from the Lutheran CORE criticisms at 2009 Churchwide assembly microphones that the pro-LGBT resolutions might offend the less enlightened sensitivities of African Lutherans?

UPDATE 1:  Another Episcopal voice, past president Susan Russell of Integrity USA, offered the following brief post on her blog, An Inch At a Time:

The Ugandan legislation, if in effect here, would have imprisoned every member in attendance at our church last Sunday for the crime of knowing of the existence of a gay or lesbian person and failing to give their names to the police within 24 hours.
Also affected would be anyone who ever watched American Idol.

UPDATE 2: Lutheran CORE is beating its chest this morning with the announcement that a group of African-American churches known as Oromo Lutherans has joined CORE.

Lutheran CORE is honored to have these faithful Christians standing with us. We are humbled by their faithful witness both during the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly and since then. These faithful Christians faced persecution in their homeland of Ethiopia. They know what it means to stand firm in faith even in the face of intense opposition. Their witness is a source of encouragement to all who bear the name of Christ and to all who stand on the witness of Scripture and thus in opposition to the ELCA sexuality decisions.

The statement from these recent African immigrants starts with the following note of indebtedness to the ELCA:

The people and the Government of the United States have accepted us with extended hands to become part of the nation. We appreciate the hospitality we received and experienced in this country by church and people. We are also grateful to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) for standing with us in the process of organizing our Oromo congregations in several States of the United States. We are indebted to the bishops and Mission Directors of our respective synods, which have helped us in so many ways. We love our fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ with all our hearts. We have been through many things together with churches that hosted us and pastors and leaders of congregations who shared the warmth of their hearts with us.

but, their statement then offers strong criticism of the ELCA pro-LGBT policies.  It is sad that these well-meaning African Americans are critical of the ELCA, which has nurtured their congregations into existence, but it is also the case that their unenlightened view of homosexuality unfortunately reflects the rampant homophobia that exists in Africa, and the proposed legislation in Uganda is merely the most extreme example.

Spirit of a Liberal new blogroll

I’ve been working on a revised blogroll, which is not on my main page but is a separate page accessed under the pages menu.  I have reordered the categories, deleted some blogs that no longer seemed appropriate, and added many new ones.  I’m sure I missed some, so send me a comment with suggestions.

Books and Writing

ELCA (Lutheran)

GLBT friendly

Northfield, MN

Other denominations

Spirituality

Pre-holiday bits and pieces: #ELCA, #Lutheran, #Catholic, #Presbyterian

As we head into the extended Thanksgiving weekend, here are a few bits of miscellany.

Under the category, “Much ado about nothing”, The ELCA NE Iowa synod council made news this week by passing two resolutions contrary in spirit to the actions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, as if to say “don’t force gay clergy on us.”  Pastor Joelle from the synod suggests in her blog that the congregations of her synod need not worry:

I don’t see a bunch of leaders in same sex relationships chomping on the bit to come here. I don’t see a lot of pastors, period, chomping at the bit to come here.

It is a bit of a head-shaker why congregations would fear that a gay cleric would willingly go to an inhospitable environment.  Ministry is difficult enough as it is.  I think it speaks to irrational paranoia and conspiracy theory.

Blogger Susan Hogan at Pretty Good Lutherans has a post with a lively discussion about this news from Iowa.

Under the category, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”, Minnesota Public Radio is soliciting information about the ELCA / Lutheran Core issues through an online survey.  They are apparently hoping to present a major story.  As a survey participant, I received a preliminary report, to wit (emphasis added):

Over the past four days, more than 1,200 Lutherans (150+ of whom are pastors or retired pastors) from all over the U.S. and beyond have written us about why you will or will not remain in the ELCA, and how a church split would affect you, your congregations, and your communities.

We’re overwhelmed at the response. Clearly (though not surprisingly), this is an issue that matters deeply to you. Thank you for being willing to talk with us about it.
We’re now reading through responses and planning reporting around what we’re reading (and may contact you again in the upcoming weeks and months to ask you for further insight).

Of the people who wrote to us, most said they haven’t considered leaving the church over the ELCA’s stance allowing people in committed same-gender relationships to be pastors. In fact, many were concerned that we are giving too much attention to those who want to leave, rather than focusing on the story that most individuals and churches plan to stay with the ELCA. Some wrote to say that this change will bring them back to the church, or keep them from leaving.

People who have considered leaving or have already left the ELCA said they can’t be part of a church that disobeys God.

Many, many people would be deeply saddened should the church split. Some said losing congregations would impair the ELCA’s ability to do missions work overseas (though one person stated he now can evangelize gay friends here in the U.S. without feeling like a hypocrite).

Under the category, “Women who seek to be equal to men lack ambition”, comes word that a monk has been suspended for ordaining women.  What, you thought I was talking about Catholicism?  Turns out that Buddhism suffers from the same streams of misogyny as Christendom.  Regarding the Vatican’s ballyhooed survey of American nuns, considered by many as an attempt at repression, a post in National Catholic Reporter tells us that the women religious are resisting:

The vast majority of U.S. women religious are not complying with a Vatican request to answer questions in a document of inquiry that is part of a three-year study of the congregations. Leaders of congregations, instead, are leaving questions unanswered or sending in letters or copies of their communities’ constitutions.

“There’s been almost universal resistance,” said one women religious familiar with the responses compiled by the congregation leaders. “We are saying ‘enough!’ In my 40 years in religious life I have never seen such unanimity.”

It turns out that the present controversy in the ELCA is the fruit of ordaining women a generation or two ago … at least that is what some within the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) or Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) believe.  In comments following a Lutheran Core blog post, CORE spokesperson Steven King acknowledged that the “justice” and “equal rights” analogies to women’s ordination can be problematic for LGBT ordination issues.  But, he assures the anti-women’s-ordination commenter that “there are many Christians who base their understanding of the ordination of women on theological and biblical grounds.”  He failed to mention that Biblical passages condemning women leadership are clearer than any supposed anti-gay passages.  Hmmm.  CORE appears to be Biblical literalists regarding LGBT issues but contextualists regarding women’s ordination.  At least the LCMS and WELS are consistent.

Finally, I close with a wedding announcement. The Rev Laurie McNeill of Central Presbyterian Church of Newark has been ordained since 1989 and a former moderator of the PCAUSA Presbytery of Newark.  At the conclusion of the Nov 14th Presbytery business meeting, Rev McNeill announced she had been married to Lisa Gollihue on Cape Cod on October 17th.   The Presbytery unanimously voted to support her marriage despite official Presbyterian church policy against gay marriage or gay clergy.   Stay tuned.

Shuck and Jive blog, The Presbyterian Outlook, and Religion Dispatches blog have excellent posts about the newlyweds.

Roman #Catholic Women Priests

Although I was registered with press credentials for the recent Call to Action (CTA) Conference in Milwaukee, I was not able to attend due to a family emergency.  However, my registration has opened my inbox to a wide array of items from the progressive branch of Catholicism.

For instance, I have learned of Roman Catholic Women Priests—not recognized by the Vatican, of course, but they are out there nevertheless, pushing against the patriarchal hierarchy that many find oppressive.

Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) is an international initiative within the Roman Catholic Church. The mission of Roman Catholic Womenpriests North America is to spiritually prepare, ordain, and support women and men from all states of life, who are theologically qualified, who are committed to an inclusive model of Church, and who are called by the Holy Spirit and their communities to minister within the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement is an initiative within the Church that began with the ordination of seven women on the Danube River in 2002.  Reclaiming our ancient spiritual heritage, womenpriests are shaping a more inclusive, Christ-centered Church of equals in the twenty-first century.  Women bishops ordained in full apostolic succession continue to carry on the work of ordaining others in the Roman Catholic Church.  We advocate a new model of priestly ministry united with the people with whom we serve.  We are rooted in a response to Jesus who called women and men to be disciples and equals living the Gospel.

Bridget Mary was ordained into this communion in 2006, and she blogs.  Her post of November 10 reports on the CTA Conference where Womenpriests maintained a well received booth and exhibit.

The Roman Catholic Womenpriest Movement was well- represented at Call to Action Conference ( approximately 2000 attendees) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Nov. 5-7, 2009. RCWP had a booth in the exhibit hall. Here our members gave out our prayer for vocations and shared information about our growing movement. The response was heart-warming! Many Catholic leaders in the reform movement expressed support for our vision of a renewed priestly ministry.

Here’s Looking at you, kid. #Lutheran Core and #ELCA

Casablanca poster Please indulge me with some more Casablanca analogies.  Last week, I sarcastically used iconic Casablanca movie lines to criticize the Lutheran Core announcement that they are taking their football and leaving.  Well, that’s not exactly what they said.  In a rhetorical slight of hand, they claimed that the rest of us ELCA types remaining on the field of play are the ones who have left them.  Whatever.

So how are we to respond?

One approach is to wring our hands and cry in our beer.  This is the anxiety laden, sky is falling, response.  A fellow named Jim Smith offered a comment on Pretty Good Lutherans blog that exemplifies this attitude:

This is a very difficult time in the ELCA, and it is far worse across this nation in terms of congregations in conflict and pain than many imagine. I have many friends across the ELCA and served on some national efforts and what I am hearing is frightening in terms of congregations laying off staff, closing, having to merge, or just imploding. Not a few, not just one or two in a Synod, but hundreds, and yes, probably thousands.

I don’t know Mr. Smith, and his comment is all I know about his views.  His concern for the ELCA appears legitimate. and he doesn’t appear to be a CORE rabble rouser.  But, I take issue with his blame game and priorities.

I was a CWA voting member. At the assembly, I met over 10 voting members who were for the changes, but voted no because they knew it would destroy the church.

I applaud them. We need to move beyond what we want to what is best for the whole church.

The implication is that the majority of voting members who supported the various resolutions were selfish (how demeaning is it to dismiss the LGBT fairness claims as merely “what we want”).  Should church unity be the paramount concern rather than righting a wrong and seeking justice?  Is the most important thing to stick together even at the expense of perpetuating bias, prejudice, and inequality?  Don’t blame the CORE and WordAlone types for leaving, blame the rest of us for forcing their hand.  CORE had threatened to leave, we should have listened to them and knuckled under to their threats.

Emily Eastwood, the Executive Director of Lutherans Concerned North America (an LGBT advocacy group), offers a cogent rebuttal to this view in a Nov 19 press release.

It seems with yesterday’s [CORE] announcement that some ELCA Lutherans cannot even tolerate being in the same church family with congregations who accept us.  Anger and fear have overtaken the great commandments from Jesus himself: to love God, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

For 35 years LC/NA has never isolated itself from those who disagree with us. Nor have we threatened to lead an exodus from the denomination by those congregations who found the wait too long or the social statement well short of the advocacy needed for LGBT people in church and society.  We have never called for congregations to withhold giving to the ELCA; in fact, we encourage additional stewardship, especially in times like these.

Mr. Smith is correct: there is lots of worry in the ELCA these days over defecting members, defecting congregations, and especially withheld funds that have impacted the mission and ministry work of the ELCA. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: CORE knows how to inflict pain, but do they know how to heal?

So, how do we move forward?  Where do we go from here?  Minneapolis is history.

ELCA presiding Bishop Mark Hanson issued a statement and a video last week:

The presiding bishop quoted Romans 5: 1-2a in his open letter: “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.”

Hanson wrote: “We stand together in God’s grace, but we are not standing still. We proclaim Jesus Christ and are fully engaged in this mission by actively caring for the world that God loves.”  He added that in serving God’s mission, members bring their diversity, tradition and disagreements.

“We go forward in this mission trusting that ‘God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Romans 5:5b),'” he wrote.

Blogger Doug Kings criticized the statement as mere public relations, lacking in substance but heavy in fluff:

Obviously the release of the letter and video is an attempt to balance the “negative energy” surrounding last week’s mass layoffs at the ELCA churchwide office, stories of withheld mission support and departing congregations, and the CORE announcement that it would be forming a new Lutheran denomination. All of that, however, is barely acknowledged in the letter itself.

As so often happens with institutions in trouble, the assumption is made that the real problem is public perception. All we have to do is manage the news cycle. We’ll drown out the bad news by shouting good news even louder.

Bishop Hanson’s letter then listed some positives to suggest business as usual. “Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake.”  But it’s not business as usual.  The characters of Bogart and Bergman aren’t in Paris anymore, they’re in Casablanca.

Bogie’s first response was to cry in his beer, but by movie’s end he had embraced the new reality, and his character rose to new heights of social consciousness.  We must do the same.  Instead of ignoring the momentous changes of Minneapolis, we should embrace them.  Instead of apologizing for our new policies, we should shout from the rooftops.  Let’s stop being embarrassed about what was accomplished, and let’s be proud of what was done.  There is a whole generation of youngsters out there that has been turned off by the hypocrisy of the church.  Tell them what we have done

Consider this.  A week ago, at the semi-annual meeting of the ELCA Church Council:

the Church Council by voice vote overwhelmingly approved the waiver of the prohibition forbidding application for reinstatement until 5 years had passed since the removal or resignation.  The five-year waiting period is a general policy applying to anyone who had been removed for any disciplinary cause or who resigned voluntarily. The waiver granted by today’s action only applies to those removed and those who resigned solely for the reason of their being in a same-gender, committed relationship.   Applications to begin the reinstatement process can now be submitted immediately.  The process is individual and can vary in the length of time for completion.

This action by the Church Council is the first official enactment of the church council pursuant to actions at the August 2009 Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis that ordered the elimination of the policy that precluded service in the church by ministers in committed, same-gender relationships.   Also today, the church council soundly defeated a proposed amendment to policy that would have required an additional step of approval for candidates in same-gender relationships by 2/3 of the synod council’s executive committee in order to be reinstated.

Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid BergmanAnd how do we hear this news?  Does the ELCA boldly proclaim its actions?  No, it comes in a press release and blog entry from Lutherans Concerned North America.  Why should the ELCA be embarrassed when it does a good thing?

Perhaps it’s too soon, and we’re still grieving the loss of members.  Bogie and Bergman can’t be together, but Bogie sees that it’s for the good, and he promises Bergman that she’ll come to that realization also, “maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”

News Flash: Galileo arrested! #Catholic #LGBT

Copernicus expressed the view that the earth circled around the sun and not vice versa.  The 17th century astronomer Galileo Galilei agreed:

Galileo’s championing of Copernicanism was controversial within his lifetime, when a large majority Galileo by Giusto Sustermansof philosophers and astronomers still subscribed (at least outwardly) to the geocentric view that the Earth is at the centre of the universe. After 1610, when he began publicly supporting the heliocentric view, which placed the Sun at the centre of the universe, he met with bitter opposition from some philosophers and clerics, and two of the latter eventually denounced him to the Roman Inquisition early in 1615. Although he was cleared of any offence at that time, the Catholic Church nevertheless condemned heliocentrism as “false and contrary to Scripture” in February 1616, and Galileo was warned to abandon his support for it—which he promised to do. When he later defended his views in his most famous work, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in 1632, he was tried by the Inquisition, found “vehemently suspect of heresy,” forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

When the Catholic Church of the twentieth century experienced a crisis of priest sexual predation, homosexuals were scapegoated.  According to Thomas C Fox, editor of National Catholic Reporter:

It has been so unfair. Elements in our Catholic community have repeatedly placed the blame of the sex abuse scandal that has rocked our church at the feet of a gay clergy.

It has been a case of guilty until proven innocent.

But wait, a new scientific study commissioned by US Catholic Bishops and conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice researchers reports a contrary view:

The study, which is due to be completed next year, was commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops after the scandal overtook the U.S. church in 2002.

In a presentation to the bishops on Tuesday, Margaret Smith of John Jay said: “What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse. At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now.”

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the gay Catholic group DignityUSA, called the report “very welcome news for gay people, gay priests, and our families and friends.”

She said the John Jay report confirms other studies in concluding that sexual orientation is not connected to pedophilia or other sex crimes. “We hope that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church will finally accept this finding, since it has been borne out through their own study,” Duddy-Burke said.

Surely, the bishops will accept this scientific finding.  Surely, the church will promptly and expeditiously exonerate Galileo.  Or not, as progressive Catholic blogger Terence Weldon suggests:

The fact that this report confirms what the rest of the world knows [i.e., that homosexuality is not a factor in the cases of abusive priests], is welcome, but not earth-shattering. Don’t hold your breath for the bishops to announce that they accept the report, or will act on this finding, or even for them to release the full report when it has been concluded.

The real causes of the problem lie within the church’s own structures, as numerous observers have noted: the appalling monopoly and abuse of power, compulsory clerical celibacy, and a deeply flawed, seminary based training system that is a hangover from the Middle Ages, leaving priests with minimal understanding of human sexuality, their own or anyone else’s.(Reports elsewhere state that this same interim John Jay report concludes that priests with the better training in human sexuality were the least likely to offend).

The naysayers within the hierarchy were quick to dismiss the scientific report, according to Beliefnet News:

“I wouldn’t put a lot of credence in it,” said Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

After the abuse crisis rocked the church in 2002, Nienstedt helped lead a Vatican investigation of U.S. seminaries aimed at rooting out homosexuality, and served on a committee that drew up new sex abuse prevention policies for U.S. dioceses. He has also written that homosexual orientation is the result of childhood trauma.

And blogger Mark Silk adds:

[Nienstedt promoted] the idea being that if you got rid of the gays, the abuse would stop. Not that Nienstedt doesn’t have a fall-back position; to wit: “a priest has to be accessible to all his people, and someone with a strong same-sex attraction would not be good to have in the pastoral care of people.” As opposed to a priest with a strong opposite-sex attraction?

The bishops’ problem with the John Jay study goes beyond Nienstedt’s species of homophobia, however. If, as the study suggests, sexual abuse by priests is the result of not homosexual orientation but the availability of certain types of people (i.e. altar boys), then someone might be led to the conclusion that clerical celibacy is a big part of the problem. The horror, the horror!

I’m shocked, just shocked! #Lutheran Core to exit #ELCA

In the classic movie, Casablanca, the Claude Rains character speaks the immortal line, “I’m shocked … SHOCKED to see that there’s gambling going on in this establishment … Round up the usual suspects.”  Of course, the humor lies in the fact that the character was not surprised at all, a point made when the croupier handed him his winnings.

For those who have been listening to the incendiary rhetoric of Lutheran Core, it comes as no surprise that they have announced the formation of a new Lutheran denomination.

Leaders of Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Renewal) have voted to begin work on a proposal for a new Lutheran church body for those who choose to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, they announced Wednesday, Nov. 18.

The proposed new church body is intended to provide a place for congregations that desire a more traditional denominational structure.

And, the announcement comes with CORE’s typical judgmental, self-righteous, self-congratulatory tone of voice:

We are not leaving the ELCA. The ELCA has left us. Lutheran CORE is continuing in the Christian faith as it has been passed down to us by generations of Christians. The ELCA is the one that has departed from the teaching of the Bible as understood by Christians for 2,000 years.

And, with big elephant tears that barely mask their glee:

We grieve that it has become necessary for so many to leave the ELCA.

If they are truly saddened by ELCA defections, why has CORE been the rabble-rousing cheerleader?

Nor is it surprising that the announcement should come from the offices of the WordAlone Network, the conservative group that has been an ELCA irritant for over a decade, formed initially to resist the ELCA’s ecumenical agreement with the Episcopal Church.  For many, the decisions at the 2009 ELCA assembly are merely the occasion to press long-standing anti-ELCA resentments.

CORE’s press release favorably mentions Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC), a loose affiliation of congregations that is something less than a denomination.  “Lutheran CORE has been in conversation with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ …and will continue to work closely with LCMC,” states the CORE press release.  LCMC’s website includes a list of seminaries from which their congregations may seek Pastors, but they are mostly Baptist or non-denominational!  So much for maintaining a purer stream of Lutheranism.

Pretty Good Lutherans blog has a post with links to numerous newspaper articles about the CORE press release.  One of the comments to the post offered the following insight:

Lutheran CORE said that it would wait a year to make any decision about leaving the ELCA (see their Sept 26 press release). Clearly they’ve been moving in this direction, but accelerating their formal plans for creating a new denomination, and abandoning their own calls for a deliberative, slow, cautious move, is a rather swift change in policy. Though surely a lot of trust was already broken between Lutheran CORE and those of us committed to staying in the ELCA, this breach of their own self-imposed commitment to wait one year surely doesn’t give any reason for those who are suspicious of Lutheran CORE to believe a word that they say.

  Round up the usual suspects.

National Council of Churches (NCC) new leadership team #Episcopal #ELCA

Peg Chemberlin The incoming President and President-elect of the National Council of Churches (NCC) both have Minnesota ties.  Episcopal priest, Rev. Peg Chamberlin, will serve a three year term as President beginning Jan 1, 2010.  She presently serves as Executive Director of the Minnesota Council of Churches, and she is a frequent contributor to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the state’s leading daily newspaper.  She also serves on President Obama’s faith council

According to a press release from the ELCA, the incoming President Elect is Kathryn M. Lohre, the daughter of Rev. John and Mary Lohre.  John serves as senior pastor at Saint Paul Lutheran Church, Pine Island, Minn.Kathryn Lohre

The governing board of the National Council of Churches USA (NCC) elected Kathryn M. Lohre on Nov. 10 to become the 26th president of the NCC in 2013. Lohre is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and assistant director of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 

Lohre becomes NCC president-elect on Jan. 1, 2010, and president three years later. The current president-elect, the Rev. Peg Chemberlin, will serve those three years as NCC president. They will be installed in their respective new positions tonight, Nov. 12, 2009, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis.

Lohre, 32, will be the second youngest president of the NCC since the Rev. M. William Howard, an American Baptist, became president in 1979 at the age of 33.