Anonymous said ...
The ELCA no longer views scripture as absolute. Rather, it has replaced scripture based theology with "On the basis of conscience-bound belief". Indeed, this issue the Lutheran Church (ELCA) is facing today is due to this move from a concept of "there are some absolute truths" to "conscience-bound beliefs" of social justice. The concept by definition removes the word of "God" as the arbiter of truth and substitutes human behavior/environment as the norm for truth. Once this occurs, the authority of scripture is supplanted by the material world and therefore, will be constantly changing.
The ELCA no longer views scripture as absolute. Rather, it has replaced scripture based theology with "On the basis of conscience-bound belief". Indeed, this issue the Lutheran Church (ELCA) is facing today is due to this move from a concept of "there are some absolute truths" to "conscience-bound beliefs" of social justice. The concept by definition removes the word of "God" as the arbiter of truth and substitutes human behavior/environment as the norm for truth. Once this occurs, the authority of scripture is supplanted by the material world and therefore, will be constantly changing.
In talking about conscience-bound belief, the ELCA, I believe, is recognizing that some of its members will feel conscience-bound to be in disagreement with the actions taken at last year’s church assembly. For that reason, the denomination said no congregation would be forced to take any action that it would find unacceptable, such as accepting a practicing gay minister. La Casa will never be forced to do so.
I believe this is an equitable way to avoid a schism in the church while recognizing that Christians will differ on this highly contentious issue. This is one reason I believe we need not leave the ELCA at this time and that we should make time for a full, open discussion of these issues. The people on the other side of the issue aren’t demons, and we shouldn’t demonize them. They are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we should at least give them a full hearing and understand their position before we disassociate ourselves from them.
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Do you really believe this? What happens when we have gay bishops, like the Episcopalians? That is the next step, and then churches will not have a choice, or if they do, they will be looked down upon as "discriminating".
ReplyDeleteReality is that the whole ballgame changed Will La Casa be opened to litagation and being sued for NOT interviewing a gay candidate?
They can say there is no "forcing", but reality is that the traditionalists who remain in ELCA will be few and far between.