Is it me, or does it seem like Lutherans are forming more splinter groups than the Tea Party? Well, here comes the North American Lutheran Church, or NALC. Pastor Tom Brock is going to be so happy!
“Critics of the country’s largest Lutheran denomination and its more open stance toward gay clergy formed a new Lutheran church [Friday] at a meeting of a conservative activist group. The overwhelming voice vote by members of the Lutheran Coalition of Renewal created the North American Lutheran Church, a tiny denomination of churches formerly affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As of early August, 199 congregations had cleared the hurdles to leave the ELCA for good, while 136 awaited the second vote needed to make it official. In all, there are 10,239 ELCA churches with about 4.5 million members, making it by far the largest Lutheran denomination, or synod, in the U.S. The vote followed the ELCA’s decision to move gay pastors into its fold, becoming the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. to allow noncelibate gays into its ranks. The vote came during Lutheran CORE’s annual meeting.”
Not that there isn’t some excellent history here: “The church has strong ties to a little-known ministry in the Twin Cities and a new seminary in Brookings. The battles have included scorching accusations of blasphemy, ‘devilish’ behavior and the leader of a reform group declaring that last year’s vote on gay clergy amounted to the biblical sign of the beast: 666.”
[AP, Argus Leader; pictured: Paull Spring, the new bishop of the North American Lutheran Church]
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
dbillings
BREAKING NEWS — NALC will be merging with NAMBLA. They’re planning to call the new organization “The Catholic Church.”
dave
These christ centered organizations sure get off on hate and intolerance. It’s time that they were taxed just as any business. What a scam.
David
That guy doesn’t look very happy at all. I might not notice such a countenance if it was sequestered halfway into a box of prunes.
Nevertheless, if that’s the way they want to play church, well, that’s their problem. They might consider merging with the friendly folks at http://www.landoverbaptist.com , where the ‘worthwhile’ worship and the ‘unsaved’ are not welcome. Supposedly, they have a treatment facility in North Dakota for “pre-sodomites.”
lol . . .
Baxter
I don’t know why they didn’t just join the Missouri or Wisconsin Synods. Is it really necessary to create a whole new body?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Hmmm, ratcheting up the hatred towards the Gays. Gee the catholic church revved into overdrive their hate campaign towards all things Gay as soon as the kiddie diddling drama started unfolding. Should we start the countdown clock for the lutheran scandal to explode?????
Jeffree
When is the portion of the Lutheran church opposed to divorce and adultery going to form their own branch ?!
(I’m not opposed to divorce but this religious obssession with the gheys makes no sense to me, when their Holy Book talks more about those issues than about us)
@DBillings: That was *very* funny. Props to you. Post more often !
@David: Lol “pre-sodomites” is now my favorite word! I’m going to goooogle it now & try to throw it into my next vid!
Baxter
@David: Landover Baptist is a parody website, just an FYI.
David
@Baxter: Yep, but it’s a good parody site.
The Weekly World News is now just online, but it concocts some funny stories, too. They try to work “Batboy” in as many stories as they can. I can’t tell if they’re a parody or if they’re just nuts.
lol . . .
Vman455
@Baxter: I’m guessing because the Missouri and Wisconsin synods don’t allow the ordination of women. Apparently, that’s fine with these ex-ELCAers, despite any biblical prohibitions of it (I’m thinking mainly of the Pauline epistles), but the ordination of our kind isn’t.
Queer Supremacist
@Baxter: Really? They didn’t have to exaggerate very much.
B
QUEERTY: “Is it me, or does it seem like Lutherans are forming more splinter groups than the Tea Party?”
… what else is new? http://orthodoxwiki.org/Timeline_of_Schisms has a time line of “schisms”, and this includes only the major ones. http://3lotus.com/en/Reflections;%20Misc/Christian-schisms.htm#IV has a little more of the history.
Splitting off from the Catholic Church, set a precedent for protestants splitting off from each other.
A D
This is kinda sad to me–I’m a bi guy with a girlfriend who’s Lutheran, and she’s always telling me how open and awesome they are to gays. I guess this isn’t indicative of the whole sect but it’s still kinda sad.
Ray
@Baxter: It is more about power than Theology. They won’t join the Mo or WI synod because they couldn’t be leaders in those synods. They will form, grow for awhile and eventually close or merge when they find somthing or someone else to hate.