US Evangelical Lutheran Church approves homosexual clergy

On Friday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted in favor of allowing practicing homosexuals, in committed relationships, to hold positions of authority within the sect, reports Thaddeus M. Baklinski, LifeSiteNews.com.

By a vote of 559 to 451 at last week’s national convention, representatives of the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States decided “to open the ministry of the church to gay and lesbian pastors and other professional workers living in committed relationships.”

“The actions here change the church’s policy, which previously allowed gays and lesbians into the ordained ministry only if they remained celibate,” ELCA information director John Brook told AFP.

“This is not simply rules and procedures for implementing something new,” said Rev. Stanley Olson, executive director of ELCA Vocation and Education. “We have these policies because we are committed to having the kind of leaders who will serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who will respect this church and other churches, and who will have the world in view.”

Members of Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Reform), representing over 400 conservative congregations that fought against the homosexualist resolution, renounced the ELCA vote.

“ELCA has broken faith with its members and Lutherans worldwide,” CORE said in a statement released on Friday.

“Lutheran CORE is continuing in the Christian faith as it has been passed down to us by generations of Christians,” Rev. Paul Spring, chairman of Lutheran CORE, said in the statement. “I am saddened that a Lutheran Church that was founded on a firm commitment to the Bible has come to the point that the ELCA would vote to reject the Bible’s teaching on marriage and homosexual behavior. It breaks my heart.”

Rev. Spring said CORE will encourage ELCA members and congregations to withdraw financial support from the denomination.

“Lutheran CORE leaders are inviting faithful Lutheran congregations and individuals to direct funding away from the national church body because of the decisions made this week by the Churchwide Assembly. Lutheran CORE will participate in and support faithful ELCA ministries, but cannot support ELCA ministries that reject the authority of God’s Word,” the group’s statement stated.

Rev. Richard Mahan, pastor at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Charleston, W.Va., told AFP that he believed a majority of his congregation would want to now break away from the ELCA.

“This will cause an ever greater loss in members and finances. I can’t believe the church I loved and served for 40 years can condone what God condemns,” Mahan said. “Nowhere in Scripture does it say homosexuality and same-sex marriage is acceptable to God. Instead, it says it is immoral and perverted.”

Lutheran CORE announced it will hold a convention in Indianapolis, September 25-26, to plan its further response to the ELCA announcement.

Report from the Christian Telegraph

WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH

I thought it was time to highlight the Westboro Baptist Church in the United States. This is a church that I believe has gone way too far in its condemnation of homosexuality.

Yes, I do believe that the Bible (and therefore God) condemns the homosexual lifestyle and way of life. It is a practice that the Bible clearly condemns and no one who reads the Bible can escape the clarity of its condemnation of homosexual sinfulness. As such, all attempts to bring the practice of homosexuality into the church as an acceptable alternative lifestyle are clearly anti-Biblical and anti-Christian.

Yet it is my contention that the Westboro Baptist Church goes way too far in the way that it condemns homosexuality and it seems to make attacking homosexuality as one of its most central tenets. This would seem to me to be an overbalanced position that has caused the church to loose a more balanced approach to homosexual sin, let alone the presentation of the gospel to sinful men and women.

The holier-than-thou approach of the Westboro Baptist Church is evidenced all over the church’s web site and even the site’s domain name of www.godhatesfags.com is a clear indication of what you would expect to find on the site.

The church declares that the 9/11 attacks were the result of God’s punishment on America for condoning the homosexual lifestyle. In one photo there is a slogan carried on a banner that reads, ‘Thank God for AIDS’ and another that reads ‘Pray for more dead soldiers.’ There is a plethora of similar sentiment on the web site and in its sermonic materials.

The Blog site for the church is also full of the rants and raves of this church and I’m sure you will be appalled at the diatribes contained within it.

Visit the web site of the church at:

http://www.godhatesfags.com/

The Westboro Baptist Church Blog site at:

http://blogs.godhatesamerica.com/

As a humorous aside, you may like to have a look at ‘The Chaser’s Way on Everything’ and its dig at the Westboro Baptist Church at: