Lutherans Consider Gay Issue With Unique Approach That Omits Discipline

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The nation’s largest Lutheran church body will try to settle the divisive issue of homosexuality by maintaining bans on gay clergy and same-sex unions _ while also allowing churches to break both those rules without threat of discipline. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), with 5 million members, […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The nation’s largest Lutheran church body will try to settle the divisive issue of homosexuality by maintaining bans on gay clergy and same-sex unions _ while also allowing churches to break both those rules without threat of discipline.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), with 5 million members, will consider a three-pronged proposal on homosexuality when it meets Aug. 8-14 for its Churchwide Assembly in Orlando, Fla.


But, because traditionalists say the proposals go too far, and progressives say they don’t go far enough, the ELCA could reject the proposal and leave Orlando without any major change to its gay policies after spending four years wrestling with the issue.

As a large, middle-America church, the Lutherans are a revealing barometer of U.S. church life. And, if approved, the rules-without-discipline approach would be a novel way for U.S. churches to sidestep the explosive yes-or-no answers on gay issues.

The church’s top leader, Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, said he hopes the “diverse middle of the church” can help the left and right poles arrive at some kind of consensus.

“Lutherans can live with some ambiguity around these questions, and we will not take the tensions they create as evidence of a divided church,” he said in a conference call with reporters, “but a sign of a church that is struggling with what it means … to be engaged in God’s mission in a very complex and ever-changing world.”

The three recommendations are based on a January report from a 13-member panel that was appointed in 2001 to help the church settle the issue. If passed, they would:

_ Urge the church to “concentrate on finding ways to live together in the midst of disagreements.” One conservative leader, the Rev. Mark Chavez, said allowing the church to tolerate different views of homosexuality is just “wishful thinking.”

_ Maintain a 1993 statement that frowns on the blessing of same-sex unions, but leaves the final decision to local pastors and churches on how best to provide “pastoral care” to gay and lesbian couples.


_ Allow churches to hire gay clergy who are in “life-long, committed and faithful same-sex relationships,” but only under limited circumstances. Current policy requires gay pastors to remain celibate.

Even though gay clergy would be allowed to serve, they would have to seek a three-tier approval from their local bishop, from local elected church leaders and ultimately, from the ELCA’s Conference of Bishops.

Both sides agree the third recommendation _ which requires a two-thirds vote by the 1,018 voting delegates _ is the most contentious, and probably has the highest hurdle to pass. And surprisingly, neither side likes it.

Conservatives say it would sanction behavior that the Bible calls sinful, promote a look-the-other-way approach to defiance, and would strain relations with other churches.

“We’ve seen the trainwreck the Episcopalians are suffering (for allowing an openly gay bishop), and we’d rather not go that route,” said Chavez, director of the conservative Word Alone Network.

Liberal groups, meanwhile, say the proposal would set up a “separate-but-unequal” standard for gay clergy. The so-called “Good Soil” coalition of pro-gay groups will instead push for the church to rescind all laws that ban gay clergy.


“It creates a series of exceptional hoops through which gay and lesbian people have to jump,” said the Rev. Jeff Johnson, an openly gay pastor of University Lutheran Chapel in Berkeley, Calif., and co-chair of Good Soil. “Nobody else has to jump through those hoops.”

Both sides are also uneasy about the gay unions proposal _ conservatives because they say such unions are condemned by Scripture, and liberals because it would yield a patchwork of differing policies across the church.

The task force, in its January report, said it could not find support for “wholesale change” to existing policy within the ELCA. Conservatives agree that the church will not stomach major changes.

“I don’t think the numbers are there,” said the Rev. Roy Harrisville III, director of a new conservative group, Solid Rock Lutherans, based in Minnesota. “But I don’t think the spirit is there for the change. It’s not a question of numbers or readiness, but a question of the gospel.”

The ELCA’s counterpart in Canada recently voted not to allow the blessing of gay unions, even though the country recently legalized gay marriage. Other members of the Lutheran World Federation have allowed more recognition of gay unions. Hanson is the president of the worldwide LWF.

Whichever way delegates decide to vote, both sides agree that the church will likely leave Orlando with much of the same ambiguity as before. They also agree that the church is likely to stay together, whatever the outcome.


“I think those on both ends of the spectrum who want absolute clarity coming out of this assembly will be disappointed,” said the Rev. Michael Cooper-White, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pa.

“I think we’re going to live in the murky middle of struggling to understand the will of God.”

MO/JL END ECKSTROM

Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for photos of Hanson, Harrisville and Chavez to accompany this story. Search by slug or by name.

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