Scope Note

ELCA Decisions on Sexuality and Ministry

This blog concentrates on questions facing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America regarding questions of sexuality, in particular same-gender relationships and the ministry of pastors who are in committed same-gender relationships.

I speak as a Lutheran in this denomination by all my inheritance going back to the foundation of the Lutheran Church in Norway and by my great-grandparents or grandparents who emigrated to the Midwest and into Minnesota in waves beginning in 1850. I was baptized within the Lutheran church in 1940, subsequently confirmed a Lutheran, active in the Luther League and other religious instruction through high school, and graduated St. Olaf College, 1962, a college of the church. My interest in the church has never waned. I am particularly fond of Bible reading, study and the pursuit of theology.

I see myself in the mainstream of Christianity, however presumptuous that may be. My thinking is based upon a continuing tradition of scriptural relevance and thoughtful consideration that I detect has gone on for the last 2,000 years. I accept in great measure the teachings of the church that through examination over the ages have come to us with systematic consistently. I am "modern" to the extent that I understand our sixty-six books of the scriptural canon cannot be understood in all their parts in the same way, certainly not all literally.

I follow these principles: 1) scripture came to us through many stories, authors, and editors; 2)scripture is a collection of various forms of literature produced over a long period of time; 3)consequently, scripture has inconsistencies; 4)among the forms of literature are myths and metaphors, poetry and other literary types; personal witness or testimony; laws of various kinds; theologies and interpretations; prophecy and apocalypsis; 5) each of these forms has its own context and requires its own approach to understanding; 6) from the first, the church has regarded these scriptures for their particular gifts, passing on what they found true and useful, disregarding those found erroneous; 7) among the tools of understanding scripture is the practice of taking scripture as a whole so that scripture interprets itself, however different its parts; 8)knowledge of the scriptural context increases through continued findings from the Biblical past, chiefly through arachaeology and the recovery of lost texts, even though many of them may be scraps, in the languages pertinent to scriptural origins - Chaldean, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and likely others outside my ken.

Finally a 9th: Our knowledge remains imperfect so that our understandings remain tentative at best. We act to the best of our abilities upon conclusions, but we must guard against error and constantly pursue our learning in as self-correcting a mode as possible.

Upon this basis, then, I have come to challenge the views that currently divide Lutherans and Christians and other religious from each other and one another even in their own faith communities. The ELCA, as other bodies, has engaged itself in study on sexuality for the last 10-12 years. In that time, I have learned that among my own denomination that I thought so fondly to be in the mainstream, we also run the spectrum from the most fundamentalist to the most radical. Questions of sexuality are not the only issue at difference among Lutherans, though they appear to be the most volatile and divisive. Nevertheless, we do change and move on.

The history of Lutherans in the United States, is that they have divided in the past over such social issues as slavery, secession, racisism, inter-marriage, church polity, the role of women, birth control, and the ordination of women. Abortion remains a contentious issue, but we have worked through the others or history has dragged us forward, and we have moved on.

Likely, the same is happening now over the bugaboo of sexuality. We will see.