Last night, at 6:30 p.m. in Chicago, these 82 Lutheran ministers put their careers on the line by announcing at the ELCA General Assembly that they are gay or lesbian and in loving, committed relationships.
And on Friday, the ELCA General Assembly will in essence vote if they are to lose their jobs. Actually, according to Lutherans Concerned, a couple of hundred ministers and seminarians have been removed because they are in same sex relationships in the past two years.
Many of them tell their stories in a new publication called "A Place Within My Walls" that you can download at http://www.goodsoil.org/ My heart hurt as I read the stories of these courageous ministers who have decided that they can be silent no more.
Several years ago, the ELCA voted to ordain lesbian and gay ministers IF they agreed to be celibate. It's hard for me to understand the rationale behind this type of decision: if sexuality is part of God's gift to us, if sexual diversity is part of God's blessing, if God calls us to be in communion in others, surely God rejoices when we find loving partners to journey with in life. How can this church teach "where there is love, the sacred is in our midst" yet deny it to their gay and lesbian ministers?
The Bible also calls us to truth telling: know the truth and the truth will make us free.
These 82 ministers spoke truth to power last night. We'll know on Friday if the ELCA votes for that freedom.
Please pray for them today.
2 comments:
Awesome picture
I will certainly pray that these people will be enriched by their courage and honesty. But I doubt that the loss of their jobs, should that be the churches decision, will mark the end of their ministries. I applaud them in that regard.
I also find it curious that these ministers sexual behavior (sexual attraction to a member of the same sex), is being treated in the same way that the church might treat heterosexual ministers guilty of infidelity. I think this is very strange, indeed. A true case of sexual hysteria.
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