Saturday, August 22, 2009

Unity and Compassion

Yesterday, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted that it is in "Full Communion" with the United Methodist Church. The UMC passed a similar vote at General Conference last year, so the ELCA vote sealed the deal.

This means, according to the United Methodist Reporter, that "each church acknowledges the other as a partner in the Christian faith, recognized the authenticity of each other's baptism and Eucharist, observes the validity of their respective ministries and is committed to working together toward greater unity."

Wonderful, and a great thing to celebrate. Unity.

In the same news story, it was noted that the ELCA voted to adopt, "Resolved, that the ELCA commit itself to finding ways to allow congregations that choose to do so to recognize, support and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same gender relationships." It was not passed without controversy, and there were threats that if the vote didn't go their way, some groups would leave.

Today I was told that the when a minister was asked what the Bible says about homosexuality, and he/she responded that "Jesus doesn't discuss it, and we should be compassionate," he/she was giving a response that was woefully inadequate.

Compassion -- love your neighbor as yourself: that might be the first time I've ever heard it called "woefully (or maybe it was completely) inadequate."

Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we get it wrong.

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3 Comments:

Blogger bob said...

Compassion is great but the answer truly was inadequate. The Bible states at least two places that homosexual acts are wrong. The answer was an excuse to avoid this hard truth. I believe we must take the Bible as a whole and discuss these issues truthfully.

7:54 AM  
Anonymous jasonbradyut said...

This is just appalling. If Luther, the late German Christian protester, would still be here…where the denomination “Lutherans” derived from, he would be stunned and completely disappointed in this horrible abomination to the Word of God and the Gospel. I totally am against this election. When God created “man” he created Adam and Eve, NOT Adam and STEVE!!! Hello people. This is a direct form of disobedience to God. And this is happening in a Church, a denomination that professes to know the Word of God???? Please, God will have to deal with you guys…and it won’t be pretty.

2:35 PM  
Anonymous CompassionateUM said...

Thank you, Sandpiper, for your thoughtful and compassionate post.

I agree with Bob that we do need to take the Bible as a whole as we discern how God is moving in the church today----we cannot look only to a few isolated verses to reject/accept homosexual persons in our churches. To discuss these issues truthfully, we also need to create a climate of respect and compassion as we listen to people who might see and interpret the same texts differently.

I would encourage everyone to watch the film "For the Bible Tells Me So" as a way to see how Christian families from a variety of denominations and backgrounds have grappled with having a gay/lesbian son or daughter. It is an excellent resource for starting the hard task of Biblical interpretation and listening---to God and to each other.

More information about the film can be found here:
http://www.forthebibletellsmeso.org

[I am in no way associated with the film's producers/marketers but rather recommend it as something that really helped my Bible study group!]

4:31 AM  

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