Progressive AND BIBLICAL--a rant

I'm so tired of 'traditionalists' claiming that they are 'faithful' to the Scriptures while 'progressives' supposedly go off embracing some pottage of emotion and cultural drift.  Enough!  The latest frustration on this count comes from the trick email sent to Luther students who've signed the ELCA Seminarians statement in support of the ELCA policy recommendations (see here for more on the recommendations if you are not in the L'ran loop).  The emailer posed as a entering gay student asking for advice about coming to Luther.  Numerous students responded, and then their responses were used in an online article critical of the liberal leaning of future pastors being trained at Luther.  The author, Rev. CJ Conner writes this in another post critical of the ELCA, going on to make the case that the decline in membership in the ELCA is tied to its abandonment of the Scritures:

Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota is a congregation of the more conservative Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.  It is not unusual these days to find families leaving the ELCA to join the church.   However, a new member’s class at Bethlehem Lutheran is an unusual place to find young men from the ELCA’s Luther Seminary in Saint Paul.  The Pastor of the Church says that he sees more ELCA students coming to his traditional and liturgical congregation.  “They all have expressed a disappointment in the direction the ELCA is going, and its general disregard for the Bible as the Word of God.”

The website at Bethlehem Lutheran states that "Worship at Bethlehem Lutheran Church is founded on the verbally inspired inerrant Word of God. " Okay, but long ago fights over Scripture split Missouri and the ELCA has never held such a view of Scripture.  Inspired, yes; inerrant, no. So, truthfully, we only disregard your particular way of understanding the Bible as the Word of God.  We have another way:

The ELCA Confession of Faith:
2.01.    This church confesses the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2.02.     This church confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior andthe Gospel as the power of  God for the salvation of all who believe.
    a. Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate, through whom everything was made and through whose life, death and resurrection God fasions a new creation.
    b. The proclamation of God's message to us as both Law and Gospel is the Word of God, revealing judgment and mercy through word and deed, beginnning with the Word in creation, continuing in the history of Israel, and centering in all its fullness in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
    c. The cannonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the written Word of God.  Inspired by God's Spirit speaking through their authors, they record and announcing God's revelation centering in Jesus Christ.  Through them God's Spirit speaks to us to create and sustain Christian faith and fellowship for service in the world.

I believe this articulation of our faith in God and God's Word, have vowed to live my life and ministry according to it, and yet this articulation is not the only one Christians live by.   The ELCA has a particular and vital understanding of the Word of God, and it is first of all a Living Word, Jesus Christ, to whom we seek to be faithful.  The literal text of Scripture is not, I repeat, not the primary thing. It is Christ and his Gospel which the Scriptures bear to us that is primary.  Thus the order of a, b and c. 

One can be devoted to the bible as the Word of God AND make a case for the faithful acceptance of gays as beloved by God, fully, as gay, without the need to repent and change their sexual orientation.  It is not just such deeply thoughtful and faithful scholars that I'm blessed to have here at Luther who say so.  Many, many theologians and faithful Christians who love and live as best they can in response to the call of Christ in their lives say so, too.  Let it be so for you, too, who read this and feel discouraged by these 'traditionalist' claims to speak for Scripture and the Confessions.  We, too, have ground to claim there, and do, and will in Christ's name.

Anon and peace,
Chris

Comments

[Erik U.]

This hoax makes me sick to my stomach. How manipulative and dishonest.

Thanks for clearly representing the ELCA's way of interpreting and applying scripture. As one who is still wrestling with all of the implications of the upcoming vote at Churchwide Assembly, I appreciate articulate voices, like yours, that rise above raw emotion and offer Biblically and doctrinally based arguments for your beliefs.

Thanks!

[Alan Koeneke]

Christian,

As a Presbyterian minister, I have read your blog with interest regarding your postings about sexuality. At each of our presbytery meetings our debate pretty much goes nowhere on this issue as the sides talk past each other.

One area that you have not yet explored (and I am hoping you will) is the issue of what constitutes theological anthropology, what informs that anthropology, and are "gay" and "straight" God-given identities? And on what authority does the church state its belief on these matters? Thanks.

[Catrina Ciccone]

Preach it, brother.