Church split follows years of infighting

Lutherans' breakup reflects nation's gulf over social issues
Jeff Martin
August 29, 2010

Fierce fighting among some Lutherans culminated in Friday's formation of the North American Lutheran Church, the nation's newest church body. The church has strong ties to a little-known ministry in the Twin Cities and a new seminary in Brookings.

The battles have included scorching accusations of blasphemy, "devilish" behavior and the leader of a reform group declaring that last year's vote on gay clergy amounted to the biblical sign of the beast: 666.

It's not the sort of thing typically seen among Lutherans, the low-key Christians that Garrison Keillor jokes about on his radio show. They prefer to sit in back pews and project an image of grace and peace.

But the infighting has been ongoing for years among some factions within the 4.5 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the nation's largest Lutheran denomination. It's also the state's largest Protestant group, with about 115,000 members in 240 congregations in the South Dakota Synod.

Disputes within the ELCA became evident more than a decade ago, long before the denomination last year approved its policy allowing noncelibate gay clergy in committed relationships. the rest