Sexually Active Gay Pastors Divide Lutherans

By Advocate.com Editors

LUTHERAN CORE PAULL SPRING X390 (COURTESY) | ADVOCATE.COM

The decision to allow sexually active gays and lesbian pastors to serve as clergy members has caused a split in the country’s largest Lutheran denomination, and some conservatives now say they’re forming their own body separate from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

According to the Associated Press, leaders of Lutheran CORE said Wednesday that members had begun drafting a constitution and taking other steps to form the denomination. They say they hope to be off the ground in August.

"There are many people within the ELCA who are very unhappy with what has happened," Reverebd Paull Spring (pictured), chairman of Lutheran CORE and a retired ELCA bishop from State College, Pa., told the AP.

ELCA delegates voted to lift the ban on sexually active gay and lesbian pastors at the denomination's annual convention in Minneapolis last August. The ELCA's new policy allows gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy and is expected to go into effect in April.

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Name: Kris
Date posted: 11/28/2009 4:14:26 PM
Hometown: Racine, WI

Comment:
Yes, us young folks are still here. The church in my hometown still has a large number of young adults & youth. Same for the church I went to while in college. Where I am now though, Rapid City, SD, the congregations are much older. Funny thing is, the ones with the older congregations are also the more conservative ones.
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Name: Carl
Date posted: 11/24/2009 3:18:10 AM
Hometown: Omaha

Comment:
Ginelle wrote, "okay, it is alright for you to be straight - but you just cannot have sex". The Catholic Church already says that to unmarried heterosexuals.
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Name: okzebra2
Date posted: 11/22/2009 11:04:52 PM
Hometown: harrisburg

Comment:
I think every major Christian denomination is struggling with how to reconcile civil rights and civil unions with their Biblical and Tradition-based (or limited) understanding of what Jesus meant/said to his motley flock of losers, the poor, tax collectors, multiple-partnered women, prostitutes, Romans, Gentiles, and other social undesirables. Fortunately, for me, there is no express statement by Jesus in the New Testament, as opposed to after-the-fact opinions written in the Scriptures, so that would normally settle the matter except for, really, the fear of change and economic uncertainty reflected in the smiplistic fundamentalism of some Christians. That fear and uncertainty, not Jesus, underlies this debate. So, proponents need to be a little more insightful and the opponents, well, they need to go back to what Jesus said -- not what they think.
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Name: okzebra2
Date posted: 11/22/2009 11:04:25 PM
Hometown: harrisburg

Comment:
I think every major Christian denomination is struggling with how to reconcile civil rights and civil unions with their Biblical and Tradition-based (or limited) understanding of what Jesus meant/said to his motley flock of losers, the poor, tax collectors, multiple-partnered women, prostitutes, Romans, Gentiles, and other social undesirables. Fortunately, for me, there is no express statement by Jesus in the New Testament, as opposed to after-the-fact opinions written in the Scriptures, so that would normally settle the matter except for, really, the fear of change and economic uncertainty reflected in the smiplistic fundamentalism of some Christians. That fear and uncertainty, not Jesus, underlies this debate. So, proponents need to be a little more insightful and the opponents, well, they need to go back to what Jesus said -- not what they think.
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Name: Michael
Date posted: 11/20/2009 1:41:43 AM
Hometown: Longmont, CO

Comment:
Kelly, this has nothing to do with multiple partners. The new "rule" allows partnered gay men and women to be Pastors. The old rule tried to enforce celibacy on gay and lesbian Pastors. It's funny how the tables turn. For all these years, congregations that accepted and supported homosexuals in their congregations never threatened to withhold contributions to the national church body or threatened to leave the church. But, look what happens now.
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Name: Dieter
Date posted: 11/19/2009 2:20:08 PM
Hometown: Chicago

Comment:
Maybe once this retired Pastor and his contemporaries have passed on the church will be less divided about facing reality and more ready to embrace the example of Martin Luther. Unfortunately, I'm just wondering if there is any one under 50 in the Lutheran Church left? Our local church choir all wear bifocals.
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Name: Kelly
Date posted: 11/19/2009 12:43:48 PM
Hometown: Spokane

Comment:
This is NOT a "gay issue". LUtherans have aproblem with ANY Minister being with multiple partners.
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Name: Ginelle
Date posted: 11/19/2009 10:01:12 AM
Hometown: British Columbia, Canada

Comment:
It all goes back to the old bigotted cliche which so many of these religious conservatives try to hang onto: "you can be gay, you just can't have sex". Some 39 years ago, I read those exact words from my own mother in a letter she wrote to me, and it is of no surprise that a lot of these conservatives still hang onto that tired old cliche despite the variations in the wording. And as many times as it is used in defense of religious teachings, it still is a senseless, double standard, so maybe we as Gay people should just turn it around and say "okay, it is alright for you to be straight - but you just cannot have sex"!
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Name: Jay
Date posted: 11/19/2009 8:55:34 AM
Hometown: Santa Monica

Comment:
Let these conservative bigots form their own denomination (or join "Misery Synod"). It will clarify things. What is weird here is that whereas the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada are more liberal than the "mother" Church of England and the Anglican Communion generally, the US branches of Lutheranism are far more conservative than the Lutheran Churches of Europe, which permit same-sex marriage and openly gay bishops.
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Name: Richard W. Fitch
Date posted: 11/19/2009 12:09:12 AM
Hometown: Indianapolis IN

Comment:
From an organization that purports to be an 'advocate' for the LGBT community, I find the headline for this article to be highly offensive. The perception conveyed by 'Sexually Active Gay Clergy' is certainly not equivalent to clergy in committed same-sex relationships. It is disturbing to see tabloid type presentation in this context. I would expect this from the ELCA anti-gay opponents, but it is entirely inexcusable here.

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