Intercommunicable Diseases: ELCA & the Questions It Raises

August 22, 2009
James M. Kushiner

Two question nagged me after the ELCA stories yesterday. First, from the ELCA website :

The 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted today to open the ministry of the church to gay and lesbian pastors and other professional workers living in committed relationships."

Earlier the assembly also approved a resolution committing the church to find ways for congregations that choose to do so to "recognize, support and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same gender relationships," though the resolution did not use the word "marriage."

The actions here change the church's policy, which previously allowed gays and lesbians into the ordained ministry only if they remained celibate.

So: a man may be a pastor in the ELCA if he "has sex" with another man, as long as it is in a "committed relationship"? What does "committed" mean? (The same thing as a bishop's commitment to uphold the apostolic faith?) Does it mean, "really, really seriously intend to stay together"? If another man, a pastor, who is not married, "has sex" with a women--in a similarly committed relationship, is that a problem? And, officially, is there anything wrong--and why if there is--with sex outside of marriage generally, for both single and married lay persons. Of course, the "mere Christian" teaching is that sexual relations belong nowhere except between a man and a woman married to each other. the rest