The 4.8 million member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is expected, by Friday, to vote on whether to allow sexually active gays to serve in the clergy. As it stands, if you’re a celibate gay, you’re OK! Now the church will decide whether clergy members can unzip their pants and still be worthy of a parish — and how many dioceses it wants to scare away. Which is funny, because every other church in America seems to be deciding the same thing right now.
Chance
Please remember – “gay’s ok” is not the same thing as a revision of scriptural doctrine. The book still says we’re sinners and wrong. Welcoming us into the church doesn’t change that.
ThinkRealHard
The Lutheran’s are voting on a “marketing ploy” to keep and attract gay and lesbian contributors. Officially Lutherans will continue to make homosexuals “wrong, sinful and deviant.”
Why not end THAT Lutherans? Maybe make some REAL progress.
Cinderfellow
@Chance and ThinkRealHard: Stupidity has no limits, you cannot change the Christian scripture in the same way that you cannot change the plot in Shakespeare´s works with the stroke of a pen…nobody is forcing any of you to become a gay Lutheran or Christian, so get over over it, both of you start to look like Republican, extreme-right wing cracks with so much intolerance…
Quinn
Except that, having gone to an ELCA college and having known many in the local ELCA communities, I can say they’re one of the most accepting denominations I’ve ever seen. Other synods – and even individual congregations – can and do vary. But on the whole I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with the ELCA.
The Bible does not say what most people think about homosexuality. The Scripture has been perverted by radical right-wing fundamentalists to fulfill an agenda… but even more upsettingly, many within our community seem to have bought into the propaganda, instead of framing the debate, the text, and the history in our own terms.
dgz
@Quinn: agreed. and the other synods don’t even allow *women* to be clergy members.