In a historic move for the Evangelical Church and religion worldwide, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America announced the election of Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin to a six year term yesterday, making him the first-ever openly gay bishop in history. Educated at Yale with a PhD in Lutheran history, Dr. Erwin will serve the Southwest California Synod, which encompasses the greater Los Angeles area.
“I know that many will see my election as a significant milestone for both LGBT people and Native Americans, and I pray that I can be a positive representation for both communities,” Erwin told GLAAD in a statement. “There was a time when I believed that I would not be able to serve as a pastor in the ELCA. Our church has now recognized the God-given gifts and abilities that LGBT people can bring to the denomination.”
The announcement comes only four years after the ELCA overturned a ban on clergy in same-sex relationships. Instead of seeking ordination during a time when hundreds of his openly gay peers were being forced out of seminary school, Dr. Erwin sought his PhD at Yale (where he met his partner Rob Flynn) and became Professor of Religion and History at Californnia Lutheran University in 2000.
“All kinds of diverse leaders are called to positions in the church – and the Lutheran church is blessed with many committed LGBTQ pastors, whose callings can now be fully recognized,” said Amalia Vagts, executive director of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. “This church has come a long way in 4 years. More and more people are realizing all the time that LGBTQ people have important ministry gifts, including the gifts to lead the church as a bishop. We are thrilled to see such a wonderful leader from the LGBTQ community called to the position of bishop at this time in history.”
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Allessio77
Congrats Bishop…you are on the right side of history. Hope u can influence your colleagues in other Xian faiths.
Wilberforce
Blessings go unto ye, your excellency.
Sidebar, I left the Lutheran church thirty five years ago and moved to the Episcopaliums. Now I am able to go back, mostly because Lutheran music is better. Episcopal choir directors are overly fancy.
Jonty Coppersmith
He reminds me of Congressman GK Butterfield in terms of appearance only I mean.
Go ELCA!
Harley
I’m not one to rain on a parade and I AM happy for Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin but I’m conditioned at this point to equate “Evangelical” with “hatred, bigotry, and anti-gay”. I left the church decades ago over the abuse I received by “spiritual leaders”. I’ve come to realize that it’s religious conviction that is the REAL mental illness. Every war ever fought on earth was over some definition of deity. Children are being abused to this day over god. Talk to any victim of the ex-gay movement. I don’t remember reading anywhere about any “Evangelical” organization coming out in favor of marriage equality. So here is hoping Rev. Erwin shows up in the news often redefining the word “Evangelical.”
Sweet Boy
And like Martin Luther said…… SIN BOLDLY
Badger88
@Sweet Boy: “Every war ever fought on earth was over some definition of deity”? Either drop the hyperbole or read a history book. Stop parroting misinformation you heard from somewhere else. Most wars have been fought over land, power, and wealth…and will continue to be even if the “mental illness” of religion disappears from the world.
Bad people do bad things. And while harmful things have been done in the name of religion, much charity has also been done in the name of religion.
Badger88
@Badger88: My comment was directed at Harley, not Sweet Boy. I hit the wrong reply button.
2eo
@Harley: Indeed, religion is the absolute poison, there is not a single war that has been waged that isn’t because of a god of some kind, Stalin used orthodox christianity to purge millions of none believers, Mao literally believed he was a deity, Hitler was a catholic and waged the biblical catholic war on judaism and homosexuals and roma’s.
I can’t think of a single war off hand that wasn’t [and currently isn’t] directly because of religion, our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are christian wars against islam, islam is waging war against judaism, christians and islamists are at it in Timor. muslims and the maoists are at it in northern China.
Literally none.
Religion poisons everything. It is the source of all waged wars.
Harley
@Badger88: Well, if history you want, look these up; Albigensian Crusade
Christian (Catholic)
Christian (Cathar)
Almohad Conquest of Muslim Spain
Islam
Christian
Anglo-Scottish War (1559–1560)
Christian (Protestant)
Christian (Catholic)
Arab Conquest of Carthage
Islam
Christian (Catholic)
Aragonese-Castilian War
Aragonese-French War (1209–1213)
First Bearnese Revolt
Second Bearnese Revolt
Third Bearnese Revolt
First Bishop’s War
Second Bishop’s War
Raids of the Black Hundreds
Bohemian Civil War (1465–1471)
Bohemian Palatine War
War in Bosnia
Brabant Revolution
Byzantine-Muslim War (633–642)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (645–656)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (688–679)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (698–718)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (739)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (741–752)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (778–783)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (797–798)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (803–809)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (830–841)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (851–863)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (871–885)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (960–976)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Byzantine-Muslim War (995–999)
Islam
Christian (Orthodox)
Camisards’ Rebellion
Castilian Conquest of Toledo
Charlemagne’s Invasion of Northern Spain
Charlemagne’s War against the Saxons
Christian
Pagan
Count’s War
Covenanters’ Rebellion (1666)
Covenanters’ Rebellion (1679)
Covenanters’ Rebellion (1685)
Crimean War
First Crusade
Second Crusade
Third Crusade
Fourth Crusade
Fifth Crusade
Sixth Crusade
Seventh Crusade
Eighth Crusade
Ninth Crusade
Crusader-Turkish Wars (1100–1146)
Crusader-Turkish Wars (1272–1291)
Danish-Estonian War
German Civil War (1077–1106)
Ghost Dance Uprising
Siege of Granada
First Iconoclastic War
Second Iconoclastic War
India-Pakistan Partition War
Irish Tithe War
Javanese invasion of Malacca
Great Java War
Kappel Wars
Khurramite’s Revolt
Lebanese Civil War
Wars of the Lombard League
Luccan-Florentine War
Luccan-Florentine War
Holy Wars of the Mad Mullah
Maryland’s Religious War
Mecca-Medina War
Mexican Insurrections
War of the Monks
Mountain Meadows Massacre
Revolt of Muqanna
Crusade of Nicopolis
Padri War
Paulician War
Persian Civil War (1500–1503)
Portuguese-Moroccan War (1458–1471)
Portuguese-Moroccan War (1578)
Portuguese-Omani Wars in East Africa
Rajput Rebellion against Aurangzeb
Revolt in Ravenna
First War of Religion
Second War of Religion
Third War of Religion
Fourth War of Religion
Fifth War of Religion
Sixth War of Religion
Eighth War of Religion
Ninth War of Religion
Roman-Persian War (421–422)
Roman-Persian War (441)
Russo Turkish War (1877–1878)
First Sacred War
Second Sacred War
Third Sacred War
Saladin’s Holy War
Schmalkaldic War
Scottish Uprising against Mary of Guise
Serbo-Turkish War
Shimabara Revolt
War of the Sonderbund
Spanish Christian-Muslim War (912–928)
Spanish Christian-Muslim War (977–997)
Spanish Christian-Muslim War (1001–1031)
Spanish Christian-Muslim War (1172–1212)
Spanish Christian-Muslim War (1230–1248)
Spanish Christian-Muslim War (1481–1492)
Spanish Conquests in North Africa
Swedish War
Thirty Years’ War
Transylvania-Hapsburg War
Tukulor-French War
Turko-Persian Wars
United States War on Terror
Vellore Mutiny
Vjayanagar Wars
First Villmergen War
Second Villmergen War
Badger88
@Harley: Yeah…what’s your point? Unless you’re implying that the wars you just listed were the only wars ever fought in history, your previous comment of “every war ever fought on earth was over some definition of deity” is still extreme hyperbole. The list you gave is merely a tiny fraction of every war that mankind has waged. Evil has certainly been perpetrated in the name of religion, just as it has been in the name of democracy and freedom. Because once again, evil people do evil things, no matter what their motive.
2eo
@Badger88: I like how you didn’t bother replying, instead resorting to begging the question.
Harley has completely hammered the point home, you’ve lost.
2eo
@Badger88: If you took all the Atheists and Anti-Theists out of the prison systems of the world who aren’t there because of what they don’t believe you would only remove 0.3-0.5% of all convicts.
100% of terrorists are religious.
100% of suicide bombers are religious, and that is their primary and only motivation.
100% of terrorist attacks on American and British people are religiously motivated.
100% of all wars being waged in the world are wars of faith.
96-99% of attacks on our community are religiously motivated.
Ben Dover
I think 2eo means well, but it seems his monomania is causing him to simply make stuff up.
Maybe I’ve been watching “The Borgias” on Showtime too much, but in the 1490s they were always having wars about obscure dynastic claims to Naples or some pestilent hellhole like that; they were all Catholics with no doctrinal disputes, and only occasionally attacked the Turks. Savonarola does get burned at the stake, but well, he’s an a-hole (anti-gay too!) and kind of deserves it.
In the US we’ve been commemorating the bicentennial of the depressing, pointless war with Canada (1812-14), in which Toronto, Washington DC and Buffalo were all burned to the ground. I can’t think of any religious angle to that war, except perhaps from Tecumseh’s tribe. The War of 1812 started over trade embargoes, British kidnapping of American sailors, the usual American lust for land, that sort of stuff.
The larger war it was a part of: did Napoleon have a “religious” motivation? Somewhat anti-religious, as he went around freeing Jews from ghettoes and abolishing a lot of the harsh religious rules of the time (including anti-sodomy laws, he was sort of a pioneer gay rights crusader!). In France he was a conciliator who wanted the French to get past the atheistic terror of the Revolution. He was a nominal Catholic at various times crowned by the pope, and excommunicated, and putting the pope in prison. Not much of a pattern there.
Before that there was the Seven Years War (to American high school kids, the “French and Indian War”). Started as a scheme by the empress of Austria to get the coal mines of Silesia back from Prussia (didn’t work). Ended as a tremendous land grab by Great Britain, suddenly rulers of Canada and 95% of India and a whole bunch of islands.
All the Caribbean wars I ever heard of were about trade: spices, rum and stuff.
How was the American War of Independence “about religion”?
How was the Haitian War of Independence “about religion”?
How was Bolivar’s war to liberate the Spanish colonies “about religion”?
How was the British conquest of Hong Kong “about religion”? That was for trade, and to sell opium.
How was the US war with Mexico “about religion”? Again, just a land grab to steal California & the west. (The Mormons were actually annoyed about it, because they’d moved into Mexican territory to get away from us.)
How were the European revolutions of 1848 “about religion”? Kossuth, for instance, was a nominal Catholic fighting Catholic rulers. He just wanted independence for Hungary.
How was the Crimean War “about religion”? The British and French fought WITH the Muslim Turks against the Russians.
Was the American Civil War “about religion”? Both sides used it selectively to bolster their POV about slavery, specifically. But the war certainly didn’t start over religion, and wasn’t fueled by it.
How was Napoleon III’s takeover of Mexico in the 1860s “about religion”? How was Juarez “about religion”?
Was the Spanish-American War somehow “about religion,” just because the Spanish were Catholics? No, that was just an excuse for us to grab Puerto Rico and the Philippines, and ostensibly to “free” Cuba.
Plenty of self-described “anarchist,” anti-capitalist terrorists a century or so ago: the assassins of Pres. McKinley, Pres. Carnot of France, Empress Elizabeth, the king of Italy, the king of Portugal, etc. etc. etc., plus the terrorists who bombed the L.A. Times in 1910, and bombed Wall Street in 1920 killing 38 people. No religious motivation at all!
And how was World War I “about religion”? Maybe a Serbian assassin like Princip had a bit of a religious angle. That didn’t mean the Hapburgs & Willy / Nicky, French & Belgians & Brits saw it that way.
2eo has completely rewritten the history of Communism! Neat trick. Really, “Stalin used orthodox christianity to purge millions of none [sic] believers”? When was that? Every history book has it exactly the other way around.
No doubt the Tibetans will be consoled to learn that their genocide was the work of some kind of “Maoist deists” instead of atheists!
Was the Vietnam War because of religion? There was a vague awareness that the North were atheists, that was about it.
Did the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor “because of religion”? They did it because they wanted oil in SE Asia and we didn’t want them to have it.
I’m curious to hear 2eo’s explanation of how the Falklands War in 1982 was “about religion”? Just because the Argentines are Catholics, really?
This “Hitler was a Catholic” stuff is bs. Hitler had well-detailed plans, if he won the war, to abolish Christianity in Europe and restore paganism. I suppose you could call that a “religious motivation” of sorts (he was into astrology too, like most nutbags), but it was hardly a Catholic one since he intended to abolish the church. Easy to look up.
And before anybody brings it up – invariably as some misguided defense of Muslim terrorism – Timothy McVeigh not only wasn’t a practicing Catholic (hadn’t been to church in years), he was a SELF-DESCRIBED ATHEIST and his terrorist act had no religious motivation. He wrote a lot about it; again, easy to look up.
There HAVE been a few Christian terrorists in the US with specifically religious motivation – for example Eric Rudolph and John Salvi, anti-abortion nutbags.
Generally, wars before the Renaissance era WERE about religion. But not all of them either. Alexander? Cleopatra & Marc Antony? Revolts of one Roman general or another to gain power? They didn’t see it that way.
2eo
What an idiot, he’s wrote two thousand words and it’s utter drivel. The stuff about Hitler is the best though.
http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm
Hitler was a catholic, worked with catholics and the SS was largely considered a branch of the church in Germany, hence why the motto of the SS was “gott mit uns” or god with us. Hence why so manyt catholics helped tewns of thousands of Nazi war criminals evade the authorities, and the church itself offering protection and new identities to those who perpetuated possibly the worst atrocity in human history.
History doesn’t need revising into ridiculous pro-christian everyone else is the aggressor victim card playing hokem.
Get over yourself, the information is out there for everyone to see it as it is, altering history to make christians the victims is an utter lie and a spit in the face of all religions victims.
2eo
What an idiot, he’s wrote two thousand words and it’s utter drivel. The stuff about Hitler is the best though.
http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm
Hitler was a catholic, worked with catholics and the SS was largely considered a branch of the church in Germany, hence why the motto of the SS was “gott mit uns” or god with us. Hence why so many catholics helped tens of thousands of Nazi war criminals evade the authorities, and the church itself offering protection and new identities to those who perpetuated possibly the worst atrocity in human history.
History doesn’t need revising into ridiculous pro-christian everyone else is the aggressor victim card playing hokem.
Get over yourself, the information is out there for everyone to see it as it is, altering history to make christians the victims is an utter lie and a spit in the face of all religions victims.
Ben Dover
@2eo: I’m not a Christian and have no “pro-christian” axe to grind. Far from it. Hitler used the Catholic (and Protestant) hierarchy when it suited his aims, just as he manipulated the major industrialists and so on. He also put a lot of clerics like Niemoller in the camps. But it’s a simple, well-documented fact that Hitler planned to abolish Christianity if he won the war. You don’t address the several questions I directly asked you, or anything else in the long list.
It’s a long, long list, and I keep thinking of others:
The Cambodian Genocide, conducted by Khmer Roger ATHEISTS, killing about a quarter of the population of the country.
The terrorist attack on LaGuardia airport in 1975 (probably by Croatian nationalists) that killed 11 people. Arguably the most pointless terrorist attack ever – WTF could the American gov’t possibly do about Yugoslavia or Croatia at the time?
Did Lee Harvey Oswald have a “religious” motivation? Maybe an atheistic, communist one.
Did James Holmes have a “religious motivation” for shooting up that theatre? Maybe he had a religious devotion to the Joker?
Did the Columbine killers have a “religious motivation”? Klebold was dumb enough to be a Nazi even though he had Jewish ancestry. Explain that one.
The two failed assassination attempts on Gerald Ford in Sept. 1975, both by vaguely anti-capitalist women of questionable sanity.
The neo-fascist bombing of the Bologna, Italy train station in 1980 killing 85.
John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan to impress Jodie Foster, or something.
Not to defend him, but Adam Lanza was horribly bullied as a child at Sandy Hook school for his autism. Which means that of course, Rev. Al Sharpton has idiotically referred to him as a “Christian terrorist”! (I’ve never heard one way or another that he was even baptized.)
The Camden NJ massacre in 1949 killing 13, carried out by a war veteran and an apparent homosexual who was bullied (later diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic).
The Bath School massacre (Michigan) in 1927 that killed 46 including 38 children, carried out by a disgruntled town politician with no religious motive.
John Hinckley wasn’t mad at John Lennon for that “more popular than Jesus” remark!
Ben Dover
@2eo: Your contention is that ALL wars had a religious motivation. So I gave you a few dozen examples (which you totally ignore) of some that didn’t have one, or at least didn’t have much of one.
Most wars before, roughly speaking, Columbus’ time, WERE religious. Most after then were motivated by trade rivalries, dynastic struggles, or just plain power grabs (e.g. Nap III in Mexico). Some had a minor religious element. Some had no religious element at all.
To go back even further, how about Athens vs. Sparta, and the various wars between the Greek city-states? They all had the same religion (to the extent they took it seriously). And when they fought Persia they didn’t see themselves as fighting Zoroastrianism per se. They just wanted to remain independent.
Badger88
@2eo:
Fine. Here’s a list of wars which had absolutely nothing to do with religion. And I only spent five minutes on it, so I could have included many more secular wars if I was willing to put in the effort for a simple internet discussion:
American Revolutionary War
War of 1812
American Civil War
Napoleonic Wars
Barbary Wars
Finnish War
Peninsular War
Mexican War of Independence
Cisplatine War
Java War
Crimean War
Paraguayan War
Franco-Prussian War
Austro-Prussian War
Ten Years’ War
Boer Wars
Anglo-Zulu War
Spanish-American War
World War I
World War II
Sino-Japanese War
Korean War
Cambodian Civil War
Vietnam War
Kosovo War
Persian Gulf War
Nepal Civil War
Badger88
@2eo:
Psst, here’s a tip: don’t accuse others of having a pro-Christian bias, and then cite a website with a blatant anti-religion bias.
I respect informed atheists, but I can’t stand atheists who are too lazy to do the proper research from academic sources.
Ben Dover
How was the Franco-Prussian war “about religion”? Did Napoleon III intend to restore Catholicism in northern Germany or something? (A little late for that!) Was Bismarck trying to turn France Protestant?
How was China’s war with India in 1962 “about religion”?
How was the “soccer war” between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969 “about religion”? They’re both Catholic! But I guess soccer is a “religion” of sorts.
Ben Dover
@Badger88: I’d make at least one exception and contend that the Kosovo war should NOT be on that list! The Kosovars are Muslim and the Serbs are Orthodox Christian, which yeah, was always a key aspect to that war.
Otherwise a pretty good list, thanks!
Sweet Boy
Make love….gay love, not war
Ben Dover
Heh heh. I found an amusing one: the Chincha Islands War. Spain vs. its ex-colonies Peru & Chile. All parties Catholic. No religious angle.
And not only was it NOT about religion, it was about bird sh*t! – guano.
Alan down in Florida
I think a case can be made that the American Revolutionary War was, in part, religious in nature. The Pilgrims and other early New England and middle Atlantic colonists came to the New World in order to be able to worship in the way they saw fit. Remember that the King Of England was also the head of the Anglican church and when it came to worship it was their way or the highway (as it were). That is why the concepts of separation of church and state and freedom of religion were written into the Constitution/Bill Of Rights by our forefathers after winning the Revolutionary War.
Ben Dover
@Alan down in Florida: Sure, “their way or the highway,” within England. But the non-Anglican colonists could take the “highway.” They went to colonies planned from the beginning as havens for other sects (or in the case of Rhode Island, no established church). That was the whole point of many of the colonies.
You’re correct though that all this was on the minds of the founders, who wanted to avoid an established church.