Bavarian Lutheran Church
Lutherans in the United States and Canada trace their lineage through immigrants from northern Europe. Of course, Luther was German, and the Lutheran Reformation centered in the regions around the Baltic Sea. As the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), easily the largest and most moderate of the American Lutheran denominations, moves toward full inclusion for gays and lesbians, similar processes are underway in the traditional Lutheran churches of northern Europe. Sweden has a lesbian bishop. A bishop in Finland has announced an openness to “gender neutral marriage”. Now, the Lutheran church in conservative Bavaria announces that gay clergy partners who have entered into a legal civil union may live together in church owned parsonages:
Gay and lesbian Lutheran ministers in the conservative German state of Bavaria may live with their partners in parish parsonages, but only if they enter into a state-sanctioned civil union … According to church officials, six Bavarian ministers already live in same-sex civil unions.
Gay student editorial banned at Catholic high School
Sean Simonson is a senior at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, a Catholic school in St. Louis Park, Minn. His editorial entitled “Life as a gay teenager” drew heated comments in the student newspaper, The Knight Errant, and the article was removed. Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) reprinted the article in full. Here is a portion:
I have considered suicide. Yes, I have considered taking my own life. Unlike six other boys recently in the news, I never took the steps to follow through on my dark thoughts, but, unfortunately, I can understand what drove them to. Because I know what it’s like to be a gay teenager.
Imagine going through adolescence: hormones raging, body changing, and relationships that go a little deeper than friendship developing. Now, add on being gay.
Don’t believe being different is difficult? Try going through a day in the life of a gay teen.
Every day you hear someone use your sexuality — a part of you that, no matter how desperately you try, you cannot change — as a negative adjective. That hurts.
You fear looking the wrong way in the locker room and offending someone. Politicians are allowed to debate your right to marry the person you love or your right to be protected from hate crimes under the law. Your faith preaches your exclusion — or damnation. And no one does anything to stop it … Oh yeah, and the words “queer,” “homo,” and “faggot” that people throw around all the time? Yeah, those might as well be personal attacks.
As an aside, there is news today that Sarah Palin’s sixteen year old daughter Willow embarrassed herself with a Facebook homophobic rant, using the personal attack terms Simonson derides. What values is she learning from her mother?
Roman Catholic Council of Bishops signals move to the right
For progressive Catholics who thought that the solid swing to the right by the church hierarchy, away from Vatican II, couldn’t get worse, it just did. The conservative vice-president of the American Council of Bishops, in line for election to the presidency, was defeated by a right wing insurgency and an outspoken hard-liner, New York Archbishop Tim Dolan, was elected.
Conservatives [dislike the vice-president’s] reputation as a moderate who favors dialogue and persuasion over the more bully pulpit pronouncements of churchmen like … Dolan, a media-friendly but outspoken figure who became head of the New York archdiocese only last year.
[It was] conservatives’ main goal of thwarting the ascension of a progressive to the top spot; since the contemporary structure of the bishops conference was established in the 1960s, no sitting vice-president has ever been passed over for promotion to the presidency of the bishops — until now.
ELCA commits half a million dollars to cholera relief
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) announced Nov. 15 that it has committed $500,000 for the prevention and treatment of cholera in Haiti, as well as continued response to communities displaced by the January 2010 earthquake. The gift is in addition to the $25,000 the church committed last week for similar purposes in Haiti.
ELCA social statement on genetics
Critics of the ELCA can find the lamest of excuses to justify their stance. A small, rural, farm community congregation of the Red River Valley of North Dakota announced that part of their rationale for leaving the ELCA is a pending social statement on genetics.
Members of the Anselm Trinity Lutheran Church near Sheldon, N.D., interpreted the ELCA’s draft statement as saying farmers who use genetically modified seeds are “pretty much sinners,” said church council president Jill Bunn.
The church is located in the Red River Valley, where farmers often use enhanced seeds to help plants resist weed killers.
Turns out that the pending social statement, which is still in draft and discussion stage, says nothing of the sort.
“If anyone reads the statement for themselves they’ll see that it does not condemn genetically engineered seeds and it doesn’t make any recommendation on farm management practices,” said Roger Willer, the ELCA staff person working with the task force developing the statement.
During my study abroad in Germany, I found a much opener society towards gays and lesbians – both in the church and out in the secular world. (Several years ago, a poll was done of European states and their views on gay marriage. Germany clocked in at about 60% in support of such a measure.) It just generally wasn’t an issue. As for the Bavarian Lutheran Church, it is important to realize that the EKD (the German equivalent to the ELCA) has long held an affirmative stance on partnered gays and lesbians in the church. The Bavarian Lutheran Church might be a member of the EKD, and it might not be. There are several different Lutheran bodies within Germany, and some belong to the EKD while others do not. When people prior to CWA09 cited that inclusiveness would rent the church asunder, I would often cite the success the EKD had as proof that these were empty, fear-mongering threats.
I looked for anything new about NALC yesterday and found a Facebook page that is about as mean as it can get towards anyone that doesn’t agree with the author. I believe he had come out of ELS. The ELS churches around here went WELS. Sometimes I think some of these people are trying to be bigger than God. That didn’t work so well for Lucifer.
@Daniel
The EKD is FAR from being the equivalent of the ELCA. The EDK is NOT a Lutheran Church . I will concede this seems to be the church model that the ELCA wants to wander towards. As far as success…right… a 30% decline in membership is hardly a mark of success. Plus less than HALF of the member churches in the EDK support the blessing of same sex unions.
Please get your facts straight before you address our “empty, fear-mongering threats.”
“The Evangelical Church in Germany (German: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United (Lutheran plus Calvinist) Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches (Gliedkirchen) share full pulpit and altar fellowship. The EKD has a membership of 24.832 million parishioners or 30.2% of the German population (status 31.12.2007)[2]. Membership rates fell in 2008 to 24.515 million parishioners or 29.9% by the end of 2008.[3]”
source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_Church_in_Germany#cite_note-9
@Pastor Cary
The EKD, according to the Wikipedia article you cited, did not experience a decline of nearly 30%, but makes up slightly less than 30% of the German population as of 2008. The decline in members reported is not quite 1.3%.
I think Daniel’s point remains and is even strengthened by your statement that not all member churches of the EDK are in agreement I same sex unions, because the EDK hasn’t been rent asunder by those differences.
@Pastor Cary
I thought you left.
You are hardly in a position to criticize Daniel; “Please get your facts straight,” you smirk, but you grossly misstate the decline in EDK membership based on the Wikipedia article you cite. Correctly read, the article suggests that EDK membership declined from 30.2% of the German population to 29.9%, which is a decline of 3/10 of one percent in the percentage participation of German citizens–not 30% as you suggest.
In any case, I think it improper to gauge the “success” of moving toward a just and inclusive church merely on the basis of church membership figures. A church that heeds the call of Isaiah that “The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel” is a huge success in the minds of many, myself included, regardless of membership tallies. Increasing membership does not prove it so, and declining membership does not prove the contrary. And, when the numbers are essentially static as the Wikipedia article suggests, they become wholly irrelevant to the discussion–except to demonstrate the church was not decimated as some naysayers predicted.
@Obie Holmen
Left what?
I concede I misread the statistic, nevertheless based on what grounds does Daniel cite “success”? By the mere fact that the EKD did not implode because 10 of 24 member churches places human experience superior to Scripture through the acceptance of same gender unions? Clearly Daniel has some sort of weather gage as it relates churchly success since he uses it as a counter point in his debates.
Odie, you cite numbers all the time when it comes to discounting the supposed adverse affects of CWA09 yet now you cite Scripture? Holy Cow! In many of your posts your tone is that Scripture is almost irrelevant or at the least, written for a particular people in a particular time and human experience is clearly trump and NOW Scripture is relevant.
So which is it?
@Pastor Cary
Seems your spelling isn’t any better than your math. The name is “Obie”.
I’m sure most readers remember the joke about the closed off section of heaven with big “Silence” signs posted so as to not alarm those inside the barricades who thought they were the only ones present. Somehow the joke seems apropos to those who think they are the only ones conversant with Scripture.
Cary, I’d love to have an intelligent conversation with you, but when you blithely suggest that folks who think like me ignore Scripture, you blunt an informed discussion. You reduce the discussion to an overly simplistic “either-or”. Biblical interpretation is not as black and white as you would like, and there are times when traditional interpretations must yield to advances in understanding based on sound reason and experience–the example of Copernicus and heliocentrism come to mind. You err when you equate a traditional interpretation of scripture with scripture itself. Wasn’t that one of the key points of the reformation?
There is much irony in the current debates. Those who would stand on traditional interpretations while blustering that they are the true confessional Lutherans, align themselves with medieval Catholicism, stuck on stale tradition. Is true Lutheranism once reformed and then grown stagnant or an ever-reforming church?
@Obie
And to equate the actions of CWA 2009 with the Reformation and being the “true”
Lutheran church that is “ever-reforming” is also ironic. To align a decision with the historical Copernican revolution is arrogant. Change isn’t automatically a good thing. And it can also be heterodoxy.
Tradition isn’t always bad, Obie. Maybe that is why we call it the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Maybe Sola Scriptura , along with Sola Fide and Sola Gratia, is still a central tenet for many Lutherans.
@Jeff
Do you find it easier to overstate my position in order to respond to it?
I do not equate CWA09 with the Reformation or the Copernician revolution, nor do I suggest tradition is always bad. But, to refuse to consider credible evidence that challenges tradition is stubborn and unenlightened.
@Obie Holmen
“OBIE” – Thank you and my apologies but please note, my skin is thicker than those kind of immature comments left behind at the playground at Sibley Elementary.
LOL – Please. You “progressives” cherry-pick Scripture to suit your agenda and then when confronted, you become indignate, belittle the opposing voice based on your intelectual superiority and return to those predictable straw man positions. There is no one who abides to the traditional Christian interpretation of Scripture who thinks the world is flat nor will we kill our disobedient children, so knock it off.
The true confessional Lutheran position is far from medieval Catholicism, but you need to appreciate it is even older and dates back to the first century, namely we let Scripture interprete Scripture. True Lutheranism is ever-reforming indeed. REFORMING back to and around the Word of God not this retooling of the word to look beyond God’s Word.
Your thesis that “traditional interpretations must yield to advances in understanding based on sound reason and experience” is clearly flawed. Here is why Obie, sound reason and experience says dead people stay dead but the traditional interpretation says Jesus Christ is very much alive after being really, really dead. So is the tomb empty or not? Being an amateur Pauline expert, I’m sure you know very well what the Apostle has to say about that.
You know. Believe what you wish, it is your blog and you will always have the last say. My solution is simple. If you don’t want to abide by the Lutheran Confessions and do not hold a high view of Scripture, fine. Just don’t call what you and those who share your “traditional interpretations must yield to advances in understanding based on sound reason and experience” confession, Lutheran.
@Hobie
And to throw away 2000 years of tradition, confessions, and scriptural understanding is also heterodoxy. Being of two minds sums up bound conscience, which isn’t even practiced. Note the new rules being proposed for 2011 CWA to make it even more difficult for churches to leave.
@Obie Holmen
@everyone
Despite our differing opinions and outlooks, may everyone have a blessed Thanksgiving holiday!
@Pastor Cary
What is the German equivalent of the EKD according to you? I’m not going to make assumptions that might lead me to make untrue conclusions, but few people in the United States have had the wonderful experience of worshiping in another culture’s churches as I did – yet they make generalizations based on their false facts. During the course of a year, I worshiped almost weekly (when I wasn’t otherwise engaged) at the Elisabethkirche in Marburg, Germany. The church is a member of the Evangelische Kirche in Hessen und Nausau. This church blesses same-sex unions. It was a non-issue for them.
Luther wrote “Von den Juden und ihren Lügen.” Lutherans today don’t demonize Luther (as he did the Jews in that piece) and his positions put forth in that piece worthy of example. Instead, they hold that it reflects the point of view of the reformer influenced by cultural, temporal, and emotional inputs. Luther also condemned the “Sodomites” in his sermon on the book of Genesis. His culture and temporal environment influenced his understanding of “Sodomites,” surely. Why do we view Jews as somehow unfairly maligned by Luther but the “Sodomites” as justly spurned? The “Luther says” argument falls on its face for me whenever I consider his work “Von den Juden und ihren Lügen.” No matter who you are or how God-inspired you are, culture and times influence your experience – even your experiences with God. You are human…not God. To purport to know the Mind of God is blasphemous, no matter who you are. The question is what is the transtemporal, transcultural aspect of God? Is it individual laws, precepts, and admonishments whereby we sinfully seek to earn our righteousness, thereby bypassing the need for a Christ due to our self-obtained justification? Or is it the nature that God creates and loves his creation, even though it is flawed and sinful, but nonetheless sends the necessary means to experience His grace in God the Son, Jesus Christ? If you’d have to decide which message to pass on (evangelize(!)), would it be the one of “Do this, or you’re damned,” or “God the almighty creator loves everyone, even the scum of the earth. Don’t you want to be part of that?!”
In Germany, when I’d tell my friends that I’m a Lutheran, they cringed. Why? Because the term “Lutheran” is associated with radicals. Right-wing fanatics. Biblical literalists. They are what are considered freikirchlich – that is, they aren’t “official” churches recognized by the government in the same way that the evanglische Kirche or the katholische Kirche is…when I explained my positions and the positions of the ELCA, my friends insisted that was evangelisch. It’s important to recognize that each culture/language uses different words that describe the same thing.
I also admonish all my Lutheran brothers and sisters in Christ, traditionalist and progressive, to remember our reformer’s interpretation of the eighth commandment when we discuss of differences (for traditionalists: this too is part of the esteemed confessional documents). (I reference “amateur Pauline expert” as an example where I sense we are forgetting this comandment. Although this nomenclature might be nominally true, the connotation is that Obie is somehow less worthy to understand the writings of Paul simply because he lacks some piece of paper stating he’s an expert. If I remember correctly…our Lord and Savior wasn’t an “expert” who spoke with authority granted Him from some earthly source. Instead, He spoke with authority from the Father…Furthermore…Luther maintained that all were capable of reading and understanding scripture. As futile as I understand it might seem to suggest it to traditionalists, the interpretations of progressive Christians might in fact be derived from the inspiration of God. To admit that would be to admit that they’re wrong about their positions, and just like the progressives refuse to admit they’ve erred, so too do the traditionalists. As aspersions are cast in the direction of the progressives for “cherry picking,” so too might criticisms be lobbed toward the traditionalist camp for their seeming blindness for many aspects of God, Scripture, and Tradition…
There is a good article in the latest “Ladies Home Journal” addressing the issue of gay teens, their parents, their schools, and their churches. For one teen whose church was condemning him, the answer was for the parents to join a more accepting church. Amen !!!!