Churches feel fallout of Lutheran sexual orientation vote

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Nebraska and Iowa are feeling the fallout from a decision by the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination to allow non-celibate gay clergy and church leaders, as well as recognition of same-sex couples.

Thanksgiving! Lutheran Church in Bellevue voted Jan. 31 to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA. It takes two votes with at least a two-thirds majority, taken at least 90 days apart, for a congregation to split from the national church.

The Jan. 31 vote was Thanksgiving!’s second vote, so it appears to make the church the first Nebraska congregation to break from the ELCA since a controversial churchwide assembly in August. the rest