Tag Archives: ELCA

What is “progressive Christianity”?

A lengthy essay by Brad R Braxton (Baptist minister and seminary professor) appearing in the Huffington Post seeks to answer this question. Since this blog purports to be about “progressive, religious themes”, we’ll pick up this thread. Braxton writes:

According to some accounts, the term “progressive Christian” surfaced in the 1990s and began replacing the more traditional term “liberal Christian.” During this period, some Christian leaders wanted to increasingly identify an approach to Christianity that was socially inclusive, conversant with science and culture, and not dogmatically adherent to theological litmus tests such as a belief in the Bible’s inerrancy. The emergence of contemporary Christian progressivism was a refusal to make the false choice of “redeeming souls or redeeming the social order.”

Progressive Christians believe that sacred truth is not frozen in the ancient past. While respecting the wisdom of the past, progressive Christians are open to the ways truth is moving forward in the present and future for the betterment of the world. Progressive Christianity recognizes that our sacred texts and authoritative traditions must be critically engaged and continually reinterpreted in light of contemporary circumstances to prevent religion from becoming a relic.

During the recent biennial convention of Lutherans Concerned North America, I attended a breakout session for “progressive clergy” (I was a usurper since I’m not clergy), and the threshold question was raised, “what does it mean to be a religious progressive?” Since time was limited, we didn’t explore all nuances of the question, but we quickly focused on the prophetic. Braxton also stresses the the prophetic nature of religious progressivism.

Prophetic religion involves a willingness to interrupt an unjust status quo so that more people might experience peace and prosperity … Prophetic evangelicalism insists that Jesus came to save us not only from our personal sins but also from the systematic sins that oppress neighborhoods and nations. Jesus presented his central theme in social and political terms. He preached and taught consistently about the “kingdom of God” — God’s beloved community where social differences no longer divide and access to God’s abundance is equal.

Braxton quotes Biblical scholar Obery Hendricks:

In our time, when many seem to think that Christianity goes hand in hand with right-wing visions of the world, it is important to remember that there has never been a conservative prophet. Prophets have never been called to conserve social orders that have stratified inequities of power and privilege and wealth; prophets have always been called to change them so all can have access to the fullest fruits of life.

In response to Fox News resident idiot Glen Beck, who foolishly suggested that social justice is not in the Bible, the President of Union Theological Seminary, the Rev Dr. Serene Jones, penned a tongue in cheek response (quoted here from Telling Secrets blog):

Dear Mr. Beck,

I write with exciting news. Bibles are en route to you, even as we speak!

Kindly let me explain. On your show, you said that social justice is not in the Bible, anywhere. Oh my, Mr. Beck. At first we were so confused. We couldn’t figure out how you could possibly miss this important theme. And then it hit us: maybe you don’t have a Bible to read. Let me assure you, this is nothing to be ashamed of. Many people live Bible-less lives. But we want to help out. And so, as I write this, our students are collecting Bibles from across the nation, packing them in boxes, and sending them to your offices. Grandmothers, uncles, children, co-workers — indeed, Bible-readers from all walks of life have eagerly contributed. They should be arriving early next week, hopefully just in time for your next show. Read them with zeal!

Oh, I almost forgot: we’ve marked a few of the social justice passages, just in case you can’t find them.

What does this mean in actual practice? How do progressive Christians live out the prophetic call to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Of course, one could cite the progressive march toward full inclusion of the LGBTQ community that is occurring in our mainline Protestant churches. For instance, seven LGBT pastors who were previously ordained by Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries but not by the ELCA will be received as ELCA rostered pastors through a “Rite of Reception” this coming Sunday, July 25.

Here’s another example gleaned from today’s blogosphere. Blog friend Susan Hogan reports that “Pastors for peace head to Cuba” (ELCA critic and WordAlone President Jaynan Clark will likely flip out again in response to this report).

A caravan carrying 100 tons of “humanitarian” aid is scheduled to cross into Cuba today, leaders of Pastors for Peace said Tuesday at a news conference at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in McAllen, Texas.

The [group] has broken the U.S. embargo against Cuba 20 times previously. The embargo includes travel and trade restrictions.

Pastors for Peace is an outreach of the New York-based Interreligious Foundation for Community, which delivers aid to Latin America and the Caribbean.

And another from fellow blogger Terence Weldon on Open Tabernacle in an article entitled “Authentic Catholicism”. While discussing the water relief efforts of an African Catholic diocese, Weldon offers the following indictment of the patriarchal, clerical, hierarchal structures of the Vatican:

To judge from either the most outspoken voices of the Catholic right, or from the anti-Catholic opposition, you could easily think that Catholicism’s most distinctive features are an insistence on blind obedience to the Pope and Catechism, and puritanical sexual ethics. The empirical evidence from actual research, shows a very different picture … [Weldon cites two reports which gauge parishoner’s own sense of what it means to be Catholic] Once again, I do not see in there any reference to automatic obedience, still less to compliance with “official” sexual ethics. But in both these characterizations of Catholic “identity”, a sense of social responsibility and concern for the poor ranked high (emphasis added)- which is what the Ghana contribution to clean water is all about.

And then there is the silly charge by conservatives that progressives don’t uphold the moral standards of the Bible. Jesus called his followers to a higher morality that upheld the spirit of the law often in conflict with its letter, to uplift the alien and the outcast, and to love one’s neighbor. Braxton quotes author Amy-Jill Levine who imagines Jesus chiding a narrow minded, exclusivist Christian who wrongly believes his status is based on offering an appropriate creedal confession:

If you flip back to the Gospel of Matthew … you’ll notice in chapter 25, at the judgment of the sheep and the goats, that I am not interested in those who say ‘Lord, Lord,’ but in those who do their best to live a righteous life: feeding the hungry, visiting people in prison … [Jesus continues] I am saying that I am the way, not you, not your church, not your reading of John’s Gospel, and not the claim of any individual Christian or any particular congregation. I am making the determination, and it is by my grace that anyone gets in, including you. Do you want to argue?

Civil disobedience: effective LGBT strategy?

Last week at the PCUSA General Assembly in Minneapolis (GA219), a group of LGBT activists moved to the podium of the convention floor and refused to leave until the police ushered them out. The protest was organized by Soulforce and it’s executive director, Cindi Love. Here’s a link to the video from a local television station:

A few years ago at the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, a similar protest was mounted. Pastor Anita Hill of St Paul Reformation Church was one of the participants, and the following is from her sermon after returning:

I saw 100 people wearing rainbows (including 15 St. Paul-Ref members) walking to the front of the plenary hall as the business ground to a halt. As Margaret Schuster said: “There was disapproval raining down on our heads.” My heart beat fast and my hands shook. I heard the voice of our presiding bishop asking us to return to the visitor section. I heard the tension in the murmurs and groans of many voting members. It was hard to stand still. Bishop Mark Hanson was my bishop in St. Paul before his election to churchwide office. He has been my shepherd. I know his voice.

But we stood firm in our places.

We risked our reputations, risked losing the respect of the church we’ve been nurtured in along with our families for generations. We studied non-violence, sought to let our love be genuine, especially toward those we perceived to be against us; searched our hearts for ways to express God’s love as we brought our message to the church. Even without voice our message was delivered: no longer can you make decisions about us as though we are an “issue” to be handled by policy and procedure. We are human beings beloved of God, marked with the cross of Christ forever, just like you. As you make decisions, you’ll have to look into our eyes and faces, and see that we love God enough to suffer and to persevere in prayer and action.

But we stood firm in our places.

I’m convinced that whether the change we seek comes sooner or later, we must continue to be a congregation that embraces “justice rooted in gospel.” I’m ready for the day when I am a pastor known not only for being lesbian, but known for teaching, preaching, and leading in ways that move our community to care for those who are hungry, homeless, or sick, those in need of love and care, the “little ones” of the world. Let our community grow in global awareness and response even as we care for this particular metropolitan area. Let us live well and share well and witness well. Let us confound those who cannot fathom our faithful enterprise.

But we stood firm in our places.

An effective strategy or counterproductive? What say you?

Missouri Synod (LCMS) moves to the right: history repeats itself

In 1969, the incumbent president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) was voted out of office by a conservative faction that disdained the synod’s ecumenical relations with more moderate Lutheran bodies and the teaching of the historical-critical method of Biblical interpretation rather than a literalistic, infallibility doctrine. In response, many LCMS moderates started Seminex (seminary in exile) and eventually departed the LCMS altogether. The already conservative Lutheran church body effectively purged its moderates and liberals and moved further to the right.

It appears the Missouri Synod needs a ritual cleansing every generation or so to ensure its ideological purity according to the news this week that the already conservative three term incumbent president has been ousted by an even more conservative faction. A blog that calls itself brothers of John the Steadfast trumpeted the uprising. Both the incumbent (Kieschnick)and the challenger (Harrison) appealed to the base by strident bashing of the recent gay-friendly policies of the ELCA, the great bogeyman for many in the LCMS. The delegates to the convention voted overwhelmingly for two resolutions critical of the ELCA, and each of the two candidates attempted to ride the anti-ELCA sentiment to victory. In the end, the delegates apparently believed the challenger hated the ELCA more than the incumbent.

Here is a sampling of blogosphere commentary.

Earlier, as the momentum toward an insurrection mounted, the online magazine named Christianity Today suggested “Tea Party Insurgence Ripples Through Missouri Synod Election.”

Magdalene’s Egg suggests:

First, let’s be clear that this election was a sweep of massive proportions. Earlier this month, candidates were nominated, and Harrison’s nominations were nearly double Kieschnick’s, 1332 to 755. At the actual assembly, Harrison won 54% of the vote, and more than that, he won on the first ballot. This signals a decisive rejection of Kieschnick.

Otagosh refers to a “fawning interview” with the newly elected president:

It is the oozing self-deprecating humility, however, that is the most notable feature of the first Harrison interview. Again, no tribute to his predecessor was offered; the Harrison lobby would probably sooner choke. (He did however manage a one sentence reference to Kieschnick in his address to conference following his election.)

Progressive Involvement says:

Harrison is a staunch conservative, of course, as is Kieschnick. As is ever the case, some grumbled that Kieschnick wasn’t quite conservative enough. Plus, while both of them bashed the ELCA, Harrison seemed to do so with particular vigor.

Lutherans Concerned North America (LCNA) convention concludes

On Saturday afternoon, a multitude of gays and their straight allies recessed the LCNA biennial convention on the campus of Augsburg college in Minneapolis to return to the venues that were so historic last summer at CWA09.

First, along with hundreds of others from around the twin cities and farther (I bumped into my Wisconsin Methodist friends from Kairos CoMotion), the convention goers temporarily adjourned for a stunning, high church gathering around the table of bread and wine. The Eucharistic celebration at Central Lutheran Church was reminiscent of the Goodsoil service at Central following the passage of the sexuality statement by the ELCA church wide assembly last August.

But there was a striking difference also. The presiding minister was the Rev Sherman Hicks, and the preaching minister was the Rev Stephen Bouman. Both men hold high office (Executive Directors of ELCA mission and ministries) within the ELCA churchwide leadership structure. That this was truly a Kairos moment, as LCNA executive director Emily Eastwood often stated, was symbolized by the presence of these two ELCA leaders. The symbolism was first evident an hour earlier at the press conference where the three speakers who sat together to answer questions were Eastwood, Ross Murray, LCNA deputy director, and Rev Bouman–the LCNA and the ELCA together at the same table.

Of course, Pastor Bouman’s ringing sermon offered words of celebration and even an apology for previously having been “part of the problem”, but Bouman also sounded a theme heard throughout the LCNA convention—now that the LGBT community has moved toward the inclusive center of the ELCA, their sense of justice and skills at advocacy ought to be used to promote the cause of those still on the margins, especially the stranger in a strange land.

With church bells pealing, the entire congregation marched across the street to the Minneapolis convention center and the now empty assembly hall where the historic votes had occurred nearly a year earlier. Here were veterans with familiar names, pioneers in the struggle of gay Lutherans for full inclusion, but the procession also swelled with many “first timers”. Much of the crowd remained in the Convention Hall for a reception and dinner dance well into the Saturday night.

Sunday morning was more subdued as the day began with the conclusion of the continuing business meeting. But then the closing worship rekindled the high spirits. The band from nearby Edina Community Lutheran Church had the worship hall at Augsburg swaying to bluesy renditions of traditional hymns and even the Kyrie Eleison was syncopated. By the time the final notes of “God be with you till we meet again” died out, there weren’t many dry eyes.

Note to my workshop attendees, click here for the powerpoint presentation in pdf format.

Lutherans Concerned Convention

The bienniel convention of Lutherans Concerned North America (LCNA)opened yesterday at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. LCNA is the principal LGBT advocacy group for Lutherans and several hundred gathered for the first time since the historic policy changes at the 2009 ELCA churchwide assembly. Not surprisingly, the mood was electric and celebratory.

The stirring opening worship was led by chaplains Lura Groen whose sermon offered many rivers of justice images, Jay Wiesner who presided during the eucharist, and Matt James who led in prayer–gay clergy all. David Lohman at the grand piano accompanied the rafter raising singing and also offered his own composition.

Following the worship, executive director Emily Eastwood and deputy director Ross Murray offered comments and updates to recurring standing ovations, especially when Emily read from her blackberry that the Presbyterians had passed a resolution for gay clergy and the US courts had struck down DOMA.

After breakout sessions and dinner, the highlight of the evening was the keynote session that began with the presentation of an award to retired ELCA presiding bishop Herb Chilstrom and pastor Corinne Chilstrom for their contibutions as straight allies. More standing ovations. Ethicist Miguel de la Torre was the keynote speaker, and he offered an impassioned call to justice, to read our Scriptures through the eyes of the oppressed, and to remind all that seekers of justice are called to advocacy for all the marginalized. More standing ovations.

The evening closed to the jazz and blues riffs of Rachel Kurtz. Off to bed. More tomorrow.

July figures of ELCA departing congregations

Here is an email I just received from the office of ELCA secretary, David Swartling.

As of June 30, the Office of the Secretary has been advised that 462 congregations have taken first votes to terminate their relationship with the ELCA (some congregations have taken more than one first vote). Of these 462 congregations that have taken first votes, 312 passed and 150 failed. Synods also have informed the Office of the Secretary that 196 congregations have taken a second vote, 185 of which passed and 11 failed. (The numbers previously reported on June 3 for second votes contained an error; the correct number of failed second votes as of June 3 should have been 10, not 21. Thus, the number of second votes that passed as of June 3 should have been 151, not 140.)

Here was the report from last month for comparison:

As of June 3, we have been advised that 419 congregations have taken first votes to terminate their relationship with the ELCA (some congregations have taken more than one first vote). Of these 419 congregations that have taken first votes, 283 passed and 136 failed. Synods also have informed the Office of the Secretary that 161 congregations have taken a second vote, 140 of which passed and 21 failed.

PCUSA 219th General Assembly to open this weekend

Later this morning, I’ll drive 50 miles up the freeway to check out the Minneapolis Convention Center where the various entities that will comprise the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) will be setting up. As I write this, the live feed from the PCUSA convention website says the convention will open in 1 day, 4 hours, 37 minutes, and 45 seconds.

First, I’ll check in with the Cokesbury bookstore, which will carry my historical fiction book about the Apostle Paul, and finalize the arrangements for my personal appearance in the bookstore on Monday afternoon to autograph copies of A Wretched Man.

Next, I’ll visit the various LGBT advocacy groups including Soulforce and More Light Presbyterians (MLP). I have signed up to do some volunteer work during the week. Soulforce is multi-denominational while MLP is obviously specific to the Presbyterian church.

The Soulforce blog suggests:

Our best information tells us to expect the votes on our issues on Thursday July 8, Friday July 9, & Saturday July 10. On these days, we will assemble in mass prayer, not blocking and not provoking, but in a highly visible process that encourages the members of the PC(USA) GA to do what needs to be done. Whatever action the GA takes, we plan a powerful conclusion to the assembly that we pray can be a celebration of justice and love. If there is no cause to celebrate, we will be there in the words and spirit of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, to demonstrate: “…to those who have mistreated us so long that we are tired — tired of being segregated and humiliated; tired of being kicked about by the brutal feet of oppression…We have no alternative but to protest.”

Meanwhile, a post from the MLP blog sets the stage for the Minneapolis event:

As the denomination gathers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, many are aware that in the same hall, one year earlier, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American voted to allow ministers in partnered same-sex couples to be listed on the official roster and to serve the church. All requirements to limit participation were dropped and Lutherans are living into the new policies by receiving clergy back into the church.

Lisa Larges, head of That All May Freely Serve, said, “Faith traditions are moving toward a new understanding of God’s diverse creation. The time for policies based on our love of God and call to serve has come. Churches are learning to affirm gifts for ministry rather than reject ministers because of whom they chose as a life partner.”

The PCUSA currently allows gay and lesbian people to serve in official capacities if they maintain “chastity.” An amendment to lift the requirement for “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness” was passed at the 2008 General Assembly, but after the long process of voting by regionally based presbyteries, the constitutional amendment did not garner the required number of presbytery votes.

What was impressive was that presbyteries in relatively conservative areas like Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, southern Illinois, rural Michigan, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Montana voted to support equal acceptance of all those who feel called to serve the church, including those in same-sex committed relationships.

Will this be the summer for the Presbyterians to step forward into full inclusion for their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters? Stay tuned.

Is confessionalism the new circumcision?

During this morning’s weekly Blue Monday coffee shop theology table discussion with area ELCA pastors, I suggested that as a historian and novelist rather than clergy, I bring a different point of view to the weekly lectionary. I have an eye for conflict.

See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Luke 10:3 NRSV

Though we may wish otherwise, conflict is part of our past and our present. The first schism in the church occurred during the first generation following the death of Jesus with Paul and his Gentiles on one side and the original Jewish disciples on the other. This split is evident when comparing the three synoptic versions of the gospel lesson for this Sunday. The Markan original (Mk 6:7) suggests Jesus sent out the twelve, but the Matthean and Lukan revisions are revealing. Matthew speaks for the Jewish faction, and he agrees that Jesus sent out the twelve and adds “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Mt 10:5-6). Luke’s motivation is entirely opposite, and he mentions not twelve but seventy (Lk 10:1), an obvious symbolic reference to the nations—the Gentiles. For the Pauline Luke, exclusive boundaries marked by circumcision had been dismantled by the Christ, which Paul himself confirmed in the conclusion to his letter to the Galatians:

It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised … even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law … for neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! Gal 6:12-15

Paul’s concluding comment, “As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them,” was echoed by Luke:

first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who who shares in peace, your peace will rest upon that person; but if not, it will return to you. Luke 10:5b-6.

Pauline theology suggests the Christ has torn down the boundaries of traditional Torah exclusivity, marked by circumcision, and Paul offers a new and broadened understanding of the descendants of Abraham. Come and join us, he says, we will “bear one another’s burdens”, but if you insist on your traditional boundaries, on your walls of exclusion, on your separateness based on literal application of the law, then … you “cut yourself off” and ”you bite and devour one another”. Again, Luke offers the final word, “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you.”

Upon returning from coffee with this lectionary fresh in my mind, a blog post from Pastor Brant, “Both Saint and Cynic”, popped up on my computer. Pastor Brant writes of the new SAWC (Synodically Authorized Worshiping Community) that has arisen out of the dust of conflict in Tomah, Wisconsin. Another blog friend, Kelly, reports on the Tomah House of Peace SAWC that is developing after a former ELCA congregation refused to accept the peace offered by the inclusivity of the revised ELCA ministry policies. Paul tore down boundaries, but the Judaizers rebuilt them. This ancient church conflict presents a compelling parallel to the inclusivity of the ELCA versus the exclusivity of LCMC, CORE, and WordAlone that boast of their confessionalism, their reverence for the traditional, their persistence in championing sharp lines of division.

Has confessionalism become the new circumcision?

Stonewall: Forty-one years and counting

This is essentially a reprint of my Stonewall post from a year ago. The response to the police raid on Stonewall, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York City, June 28, 1969 marked the beginning of the gay rights movement. For many, progress toward full equality and inclusion of LGBT folks seems slow; yet, for one like me who thinks like a historian, the progress since 1969 has been remarkable, and the same is true for the advances since this post first appeared.

In the last year, two major, mainline protestant denominations took significant steps toward full inclusion of LGBT folk. Following the encouragement of Integrity (an Episcopal LGBT advocacy group), the Episcopalians now offer “all the sacraments to all the baptized”. In practical effect, this means that the episcopate is fully open to gays and lesbians, and the year saw the election and confirmation of suffragan bishop Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, to the diocese of Los Angeles. My own Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) committed itself to recognize and affirm publicly accountable, monogamous, life-long same gender relationships and to allow persons in such relationships to be fully rostered as ordained clergy. There were also advances in Judaism, which already boasted an enviable record of inclusivity.

2009 & 2010 saw advances in LGBT legal and political rights: gay marriage became the law of Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Washington D.C.; partners of gay federal employees received expanded benefits; and the military policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” appears to be in its last days. What will the next year bring?

The following is my post from a year ago under the heading “June 28, 1969: Where were you?”

Many of you probably weren’t born, so I guess this is a question for the baby boomers, like me. But, I encourage the young’uns to read along, anyway, to get a better understanding of who and where we are this Sunday, the fortieth anniversary of Stonewall.

Here’s my answer. I had just turned 21 and had just finished my army infantry training in the heat and amongst the snakes and spiders of Fort Polk, Louisiana, “Fort Puke, the arm pit of America,” we called it.

“If’n one of them coral snakes bites ya, here’s the proper military procedure,” droned the drill sergeant. “Spread yer legs to a comfortable military stance, put yer hands on yer knees, bend down at the waist as far as you kin, and kiss yer sweet ass goodbye.”

A few weeks earlier, over Memorial Day weekend, our battalion received back to back three day passes, a rare treat toward the end of our training. We were all headed to Viet Nam to become “grunts”, anyway, might as well allow us a good time. My new girlfriend of less than six months drove down from Minnesota — along with my parents, brother Mike, and his girlfriend — and we all camped out at Aunt Carol’s place in nearby Lake Charles. In front of a sultry red sun of dusk, under the bearded Spanish moss that hung from the live oaks that leaned over a dusty country lane, I had proposed, but the girlfriend had turned me down.

But now, three weeks later, I was back in Minnesota on a 30 day leave before departing for my one year tour of duty as an infantryman in Viet Nam, and the girlfriend had finally consented under my relentless urgings, and she allowed me to purchase an engagement ring. I needed that lifeline, that sense of commitment and belonging, that sense that there was a future beyond the jungles of Southeast Asia, and her assent to one day becoming my bride gave me that grounding. Lynn still wears that ring, today. I didn’t know then what a privilege it was to ask the one I loved to be for me; to hold my hand and keep my heart close; to send and receive trite, and silly, and melancholy missives; and to wait and to be there when I returned.

Bobby Dylan was singing and saying that the times were a’changing, but it wasn’t clear in what direction. Tricky Dick was in the White House. Dion was lamenting the losses of Abraham, Martin, and John: “but it seems the good, they die young,” and in my narcissism I knew the song was about me. I wasn’t much concerned about what was going on in Greenwich Village, NYC.

If there were any gay people in my life then, I didn’t know it. Oh, there was elderly Emil, a hapless figure who would buy the small town boys cigarettes, but we all knew not to go behind any buildings with him. Maybe some did, I don’t know. I suppose somebody had to be the source of the giggling about the comic old man. In hindsight, I know that an older cousin later died in alcoholic squalor, never fully able to come to grips with who he was, and I have a younger cousin who thrives in a long term relationship with Robert. Perhaps there is symbolism in the differences between the older and the younger. In a reunion with my younger cousin a few years ago, he laughingly recounted how he loved to come and spend time with us in Minnesota and with dear old Grandma Olga because she allowed him to dress up in girl’s clothes.

Queers were deviates, so said the medical and psychological establishment. Fags were outlaws and security risks, so said the FBI, State Department, US Postal Service, as well as state and local law enforcement agencies. Homosexuals were sinners who had chosen the wrong path and needed repentance, so said the word from Christian pulpits. And these others, whoever they were, were mostly invisible:

a secret legion of people, known of but discounted, ignored, laughed at or despised. And like the holders of a secret, they had an advantage which was a disadvantage, too, and which was true of no other minority group in the United States. They were invisible. Unlike African Americans, women, Native Americans, Jews, the Irish, Italians, Asians, Hispanics, or any other cultural group which struggled for respect and equal rights, homosexuals had no physical or cultural markings, no language or dialect which could identify them to each other, or to anyone else. Wikipedia, the Stonewall riots.

When the eight police officers knocked on the Stonewall door at 1:20 a.m., June 28, 1969, and announced “Police! We’re taking the place!”, they didn’t know they were about to make history, any more than the bus driver who ordered Rosa Parks to surrender her seat on the Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white passenger 14 years earlier. Spurred by the successes of the civil rights movement, the bra burning feminists, and the college students protesting the war, the response of the gay community of Greenwich Village to the routine police raid on the Stonewell Bar of Christopher Street, said Dylan was right, the times were a’changin’.

We all had a collective feeling like we’d had enough of this kind of shit. It wasn’t anything tangible anybody said to anyone else, it was just kind of like everything over the years had come to a head on that one particular night in the one particular place, and it was not an organized demonstration…. Everyone in the crowd felt that we were never going to go back. It was like the last straw. It was time to reclaim something that had always been taken from us…. All kinds of people, all different reasons, but mostly it was total outrage, anger, sorrow, everything combined, and everything just kind of ran its course. It was the police who were doing most of the destruction. We were really trying to get back in and break free. And we felt that we had freedom at last, or freedom to at least show that we demanded freedom. We weren’t going to be walking meekly in the night and letting them shove us around—it’s like standing your ground for the first time and in a really strong way, and that’s what caught the police by surprise. There was something in the air, freedom a long time overdue, and we’re going to fight for it. It took different forms, but the bottom line was, we weren’t going to go away. And we didn’t.

Michael Fader quoted in the same Wikipedia article.

Will the occasion be noted from any pulpits this Sunday? Some, I hope, but only a few, I fear. Probably not in my own church, even though I know my pastor is willing, but the congregation isn’t ready. Not yet. But, someday, and sooner than you think. It’s blowin’ in the wind.

WordAlone exercises the nuclear option

Was it something we said?

In a posting on the WordAlone website dated June 23rd, WordAlone vice president Tom Walker announced an “irrevocable change of direction”—suggesting, of course, that it was the ELCA that has shifted course. Remember the infamous line “we aren’t leaving the ELCA. The ELCA is the one leaving us.” Well, label it what you will, but Walker, on behalf of WordAlone, announces that they are leaving the ELCA, once and for all.

Walker claims that WordAlone has been the “loyal opposition” for more than a decade. Wrong. Disloyal agitators is a better description, and now all pretense is gone. Walker writes:

For over a decade, WordAlone has assumed the role of the loyal opposition in relationship to the ELCA. We clearly voiced opposition to prevailing trends, but always with the intention of getting the ELCA back on a faithful track with a future.

Here’s my interpretation of Walker’s comment.

We kept running our candidates and proposing our resolutions, but we kept losing. Failing to take over the ELCA, we finally realize that if we want to be in control, we must start our own church.

Just as WordAlone President Jaynan Clark earlier warned ELCA presiding Bishop Mark Hanson that his mortal soul was in danger, Vice President Walker now expands that message to the rest of us … “disassociate with the ELCA,” he warns “for the sake of [your] spiritual well being and particularly for the spiritual well being of their children and grandchildren.”

Go straight to hell. Don’t pass go. Is there no end to their narcissistic self-righteousness?

Clark’s earlier meltdown focused on the ELCA presiding bishop. Walker indicts the rest of us. Our sixty-five synodical bishops are “weak-kneed”. The voting members to the momentous CWA09 “rejected Biblical authority.” And the broad rejection of WordAlone and fellow travelers can only be attributed to “the pervasive apathy of the membership at large”. Or, maybe we’re doing mission: teaching Sunday school, quilting, singing in the choir, or one of the thousands of ways the healthy congregations of the ELCA keep on keepin’ on. Failing to jump when WordAlone says “jump” is not a sign of weakness but of the strength of the thousands of ELCA congregations that aren’t cowed by the WordAlone propaganda.

See ya’.