I call out the Rev. Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, for false teaching. A respected colleague in the ELCA made me aware of the latest evidence of this fact by pointing me to Bishop Hanson’s December 6 videotaped, virtual “Town Hall” meeting, which you may view here. Another colleague provided me a portion of the transcript:
Question: Ron Huber, Akeny, Iowa: Where is there anything other than rejection of homosexual behavior in the Bible? Where is there specific acceptance of this behavior in the Bible?
Hanson: “My fear is that the we are missing a marvelous moment we have to bear witness to one another and others are watching, expecting division, because this is how these things are being defined. We have a moment to say, “Let us tell you how we understand the Word of God.” It is God’s address first incarnate in Jesus, as Gospel, Law/Gospel, and the Word recorded in Scripture. How then do we read the Scriptures? Are we falling into a differentiation of ‘some love it and some don’t love the Scripture.’
“The question is not do some love the Scripture or not, but how do we read the Scripture? We read them evangelically as Lutherans, we read it open to the Spirit bringing us to saving faith in Christ. We understand Scripture through Jesus.
“When we come to the question of how we read the Bible, in response to homo or place of gay/lesbian in life and ministry. Let’s bring the question to the text, but to the text others turn to, that leads them to say, ‘The questions of homosexual orientation that I hear asked and the understanding we have of homosexuality that we have today does not seem to be reflected at all in the context of the Biblical writers, so let us bring our understanding of sexual orientation that has been opened up to humankind over the years to this conversation.’
“My plea is that we not move into conversation with like minded people. Let’s not let this moment be a moment when Bible divides us, but an invitation to conversation with one another. To bear witness to what it means to hear Word as Law and Gospel. God is still speaking to us, and through us.”
Bishop Hanson gives evidence of his Law-Gospel reductionism. Lutheranism, for Him, does not find the proper distinction of Law and Gospel to be the interpretive key of Scripture, but the Gospel only. But Jesus Christ is the God of the Gospel and the God of the Law. In short, Hanson’s Gospel not only fulfills and supplants the Law, it destroys it.
Hanson’s response regarding homosexuality is carefully nuanced. He is correct in asserting that the Bible writers knew nothing of what we call “homosexuality,” because that is a relatively new sociological invention based on how one “feels” about sex. The word “homosexual” is only about 200 years old. Bible writers were certainly familiar with same-sex activity, however, as were the ancients. And, of course, the Bible in every instance condemns same-sex behavior without reservation. Why? Because same-sex behavior militates against God’s creation of male and female and His desire to enlarge His human family.
What Hanson is suggesting, and what this summer’s ELCA General Assembly confirmed, is that contemporary human sexuality, sociology, psychology, and the gay rights movement are the authorities to which Bishop Hanson and the ELCA submit when it comes to this sin, for which Christ also died and now freely offers His rich forgiveness through the waters of Holy Baptism.
