ELCA moves ahead (slowly) on sexuality
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- March
- 14
Well, a task force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has released a long-awaited “draft” statement on human sexuality that may or may not satisfy anyone.
The 4.8-million-member ELCA is all caught up in the homosexuality debate—not unlike the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Methodist Church.
The ELCA’s membership is very divided over whether gays should be eligible for ordination and whether ministers should be allowed to bless same-sex unions (neither is currently allowed). The ELCA started a process in 2001 to develop a “social statement” on human sexuality and they don’t plan to wrap it up until 2009.
Some might say they’re dragging it out.
For good reason.
The draft statement recommends that the ELCA continue to define marriage as between a man and a woman, but does not take a position on whether gay unions should be recognized in another form.
The ELCA’s task force on sexuality will now take feedback until Nov. 1. Each regional synod of the denomination will hold a hearing to discuss the report.
Then the task force will begin to revise it.
In the conclusion, the report says:
Because of God’s embrace of all the creation in Christ, we are a people set free for lives of responsibility aimed at seeking the good of the neighbor. Following Jesus, we discern what this responsibility means in terms of human sexuality. We do this not in some abstract ideal realm, but amid all the complexities, conflicts, joys, and sorrows of actual social and individual life. It is a task that this church accepts as a redeemed community.
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 3:30 pm by Gary Stern.
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The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
