The Minnesota Independent is reporting on the ELCA’s August Churchwide Assembly at which delegates will be asked to vote on sweeping changes to that church body’s polity, including becoming more welcoming to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered/transsexual) persons, as well as allowing area synods (LCMS: districts; Roman Catholic/Orthodox: dioceses) to opt for ordaining practicing homosex persons and, in some cases, re-rostering clergy dismissed by the ELCA for violating its (previous) moral expectations.
Perhaps most interesting in the article is the final paragraph, a quote from ELCA presiding bishop, the Rev. Mark Hanson:
‘Sometimes, when I hear concerns about division in the ELCA, I worry that they express a fear that unity depends on the actions of church leaders or assemblies,’ he said in a statement on Friday. ‘Our unity, however, comes to us because God gives it freely and undeservedly in Jesus Christ.’
Here again is an example of templating übervalues, this time “unity.” Bishop Hanson appears to deflect “rational scrutiny and grounding in the natural realm.” Unity, or better, fellowship, is God’s free gift through Baptism and faith in Jesus Christ. But I can use the ministerial gift of human reason to point to, explain and defend, the scriptural basis for that unity, even as I point to the corporeality of fellowship first between our resurrected Lord and the baptized, and second among the baptized. I can also use the ministerial gift of human reason to point to, explain, and defend God’s gift of marriage and the divine imprint of His will stamped into our created sexes, as well as His strict prohibitions of any act that goes against His revealed will for marriage. As support, I can also muster copious and detailed exegesis and systematic treatments of these topics from none other than Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Chemnitz, Johann Gerhard, etc., ad naseum.
Here I would like to ask Bishop Hanson: If “unity” doesn’t “depend on the actions of church leaders or assemblies,” is it affected by them? If not, then of what value are the Ecumenical Councils or the Lutheran Confessions? What does an assembly intend to do when it passes resolutions?
This is a Schliermachian übervalue of personal feeling, where I feel unified with you.
I, for one, do not feel unified with the ELCA, particularly if the Assembly approves Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust next month.
As a typical American, my reaction is that the LCMS, WELS and other confessional Lutheran bodies in fellowship with these should file a lawsuit to require ELCA to drop the word "Lutheran" from its name as false advertising. But I know all of the arguments why we will not do that – secular vs. Christian worlds, the Biblical admonition to avoid courts of law whenever possible in dealing with fellow Christians, etc. Perhaps we can somehow convince the ELCA to change its name to the Evangelical lutheran Church in America (ElCA) to communicate their minimalist adherence to the Confessions.