Sexuality and the ELCA- What Now?
Moving Forward with the ELCA’s Tenth Social Statement
Sep 21, 2009
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in its Eleventh Churchwide Assembly, held in the summer of 2009, voted to accept gay and lesbian clergy who are in a “…publicly accountable lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationship.” These words are quoted from "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust," a social statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church adopted August 19, 2009.
The votes that accepted this social statement and the accompanying resolutions, while not overwhelming, were sufficient to show where the ELCA stands on homosexuality, gays, and gay clergy in the church.
Opposition to Gay and Lesbian Clergy in the ELCA
Many Christians inside and outside of the ELCA are opposed to these positions and have made that fact abundantly clear over the years. Those clergy and churches, within the ELCA, that were, and still are, strongly opposed to this decision have had a lot of time to look at alternatives and plan their responses.
Some have already begun the processes of disassociating themselves from the ELCA. The group "Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ" (LCMC) on their website, LCMC.net, list 23 churches that have left the ELCA and joined the LCMC since January 2009. Many are now left wondering, will those leaving the ELCA move on in peace and with tolerance, or with animosity and hostility?
The history of church schism indicates that the ELCA should expect the latter. Cordial relationships between splitting factions take a long time to be restored, if they can be restored at all. One example can be found in the original split between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism; it took centuries to restore any type of cooperation or acceptance between the two groups. The "dissenters," in this case continued to agitate against the Roman Catholic Church convinced they had God's true message, and confident of the correctness of their position from their understanding of the Bible.
This is exactly the position taken by the new dissenters within the ELCA. They reject the conclusions of the social statement based on their interpretation of certain scriptural passages.
The ELCA and Moving Forward
How, then could those who chose to remain in the ELCA, clergy and laity, proceed from here and get back to the business of the church and the gospel? Three basic steps present themselves as possible preliminary actions the ELCA could take in each congregation to help them move forward.
First, bishops and pastors could warn the congregations under their charge that some, inside and outside, of the ELCA may continue to agitate for a constant revisiting of the issue of homosexuality and its ramifications for the church. Questions about what has happened, and what the social statement means for the church, are normal and will be helpful for the members to understand. However, churches remaining in the ELCA may continue to receive pressure form within and without to reject the social statement and leave the denomination.
Second, bishops, pastors, and lay leaders may provide as much positive information as they can about the social statement and the resolutions that were adopted in Minneapolis. Information on whom, what individuals, professions, and groups support the social statement may not be common knowledge in some the churches across the nation. While the dissenter’s Scriptural position is widely known, many who tend to support the conclusions of the social statement are unaware of its scriptural or theological basis.
The social statement itself is a very hard read, and the average lay individual unfamiliar with academic or theological writing will find it almost impossible to follow or comprehend. Bishops, pastors and able lay leaders need to break it down for the congregations. Those who studied, labored over, wrote, and backed the social statement are educated, sincere Christian men and women who are working for the good of the church and the gospel, as they understand it.
There are many good teaching themes and some powerful Christian principles in the social statement that some feel need to be shared with the congregations. Positive information can promote spiritual growth and help broaden the scope of the churches ministry in areas where the dissenters, by virtue of their stand, will never be able to reach.
Third, bishops, pastors, and lay leaders might promote these new areas of concern and available ministry on the local and synodical levels. The church cannot expand its ministry in a social statement like this and then fail to take advantage of the opportunities it presents. The ELCA now has the chance to expand its ministry in planting new churches, special services, and specialized missions to reach individuals and groups that have before been very reluctant to join in the life of traditional churches.
The study period is over, the debates have gone on well over a decade, the social statement was written, was voted on, and approved. It is history. Now, many members of the ELCA feel it’s time get on with the work of the Kingdom.
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