In this season of advent, the ELCA fires of the past view months have cooled. Perhaps they will blaze again after the holiday season, but except for the occasional news item about this congregation or that one voting to leave the ELCA, the heat has been turned down.
Lutheran Core released its December newsletter, which was little more than a recap of recent events. The newsletter and the Lutheran CORE blogpost of December 11 did offer a couple of gratuitous digs at the ELCA implying heresy. Seems Bishop Hanson offered the heretical view that the authors of Biblical books may not have had a twenty-first century understanding of homosexuality. Seems an ELCA liturgy celebrates a feminine image of the divine. Oh, the horror!
Seems to me that the following verses about Lady Wisdom (Sophia) are doubly meaningful in this context:
Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks; “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge.” Proverbs 1:20-22
The Lutheran CORE newsletter attempted again to justify and encourage the financial boycott of the ELCA. In his monthly newsletter, my own bishop here in the Southeastern Minnesota synod, Huck Usgaard, suggests three questions that congregations should ask of themselves.
Some have suggested withholding benevolence dollars or redirecting them. You will soon receive a year end report detailing many of the synod ministries from 2009. The simple truth is that these ministries will suffer if money is not forthcoming. If this is under consideration in your congregation, I would encourage you to ask questions like, “What are we trying to say?” “Who do we want to be impacted?” “Will our actions accomplish those goals?”
If the answer is to blackmail and inflict pain, then by all means withhold funds, but don’t expect to win friends and influence people.
The other new item of note in the Lutheran CORE newsletter was its support of the “Manhattan Declaration”—a pro-life and anti-gay document put forward by the “usual suspects” of American culture wars evangelicalism including Chuck Colson, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, and James Dobson:
If that sounds like a recipe for disaster, it is. It’s the right-wing’s new call to arms that is not only reviving the buzzword “culture wars,” but is a sign that conservative religious leaders will stoop to the lowest levels imaginable to make sure that LGBT people are pushed back into the closet and that women’s rights are sent back to the days of back alley abortions and “Mad Men” housewives.
What is the Manhattan Declaration? It’s a statement … that says conservative religious folks are called by God to go nuclear in order to prevent abortion, same-sex marriage, stem-cell research and a host of what they call “fundamental truths.”
How far to the right does Lutheran CORE intend to go?
Far be it from me to defend Lutheran CORE, but it is not a “feminine image of the divine,” that they object to, but a prayer petition in which the worship leader directly addresses God as “Mother.” Say what you will about the theology that supports or defends such a manner of addressing God, it is a significant departure from the norm of Lutheran prayer practice and a bit of a surprise to find in our weekly bulletin insert.
I wonder if this is fair. I looked up the prayer petition in __Sundays and Seasons__ that Lutheran Core is referring to: Here are the petition before the one they object to and the one they object to:
In your compassion, Father, heal wounds and care for needs. We offer our prayers for all who need your healing (especially). Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
In your love, Mother, hear this congregation’s prayers. May your presence be felt in this community in the midst of both joys and sorrows. Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
The Lutheran CORE newsletter chose not to quote either of the two prayer petitions, although it did, honestly, note that it was one among the petitions of the prayers of the people. The publishers did not change the language of the prayer of the day which ends: “in the light of your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” Although there is no explicit reference to “Father” in that prayer, either.
It seems that the objection is, indeed, to feminine imagery for God, altogether — denying regular if not widespread testimony of the scriptures which is supportive of feminine imagery of God.
My husband and I will be doubling our giving to our ELCA church in 2010, in support of the recent decisions by the Assembly as well as our wonderful church. We hope that many others will increase their giving, which could make up for the shortfalls due to both the economy and the CORE position.