Saturday, January 16, 2010

"When We Get Rid of those Crabby Old Men..."

During the great split and merger of the American Lutheran Church back in the '70's a liberal wag on the liberal side of the split said "when we get rid of those crabby old men we can do what we want". The ALC merged with the other more liberal Lutheran congregations forming the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).

The LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) remains more Biblical and conservative, believing that the Bible IS rather than "is containing" the True Word of God.

"What we want" for these more liberal "lutherans" generally meant, and means, a watered down more politically correct doctrine (conforming to humanistic liberal thought of the '60's and '70's first and the Bible second) that would include:

A communion that does not include the real presence of Christ that anyone can participate in, regardless of their faith or doctrine, even though the Bible clearly states that he who partakes of the Lord's Supper without Faith and understanding of its meaning and the True Presence does so to their own damnation. Wine.

The ordination of women as pastors, despite clear Biblical teaching that the role of Pastor is to be held by men. Women.

A more liberal and contemporary hymnal. Song.

Lightly and humorously put, the split was over "Wine, Women and Song".

Of course, that was years ago and before I joined the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. There are nuances to the splits and mergers of which I am not fully conversant. But those are a fine points. (The closing conference of the ALC was in 1988. I joined the LCMS in 1989. The first woman pastor was ordained by ALC as early as 1970).

What matters to me is the contrast between the two large church bodies that call themselves Lutheran. They could not be more stark.

The ELCA church recently voted to also include openly homosexuals in pastoral ordination, even though The Bible explicitly states in both Testaments that homosexual behavior is a sin. One more requisite for a homosexual to be a pastor according to this latest ELCA doctrine is that he or she be in a "committed" homosexual relationship.

So not only must you be sinning, you must be committed to your sin. So much for repentance. But no repentance is necessary as the ELCA "lutherans" do not regard homosexuality as a sin anymore, having bought into the either one of two erroneous and liberal "interpretations" of scripture concerning homosexuality.

Those are:

(1) the Episcopal neo-teaching that God is simply "trying something new" (ELCA recently nearly merged with liberal Episcopal church) or

(2) the one touted by the liberal Anglican church and often hand wringingly quoted by an nice, earnest but pathetically midguided young columnist named Andrew Sullivan that the Bible is "really only condemning brutal ritualistic homosexuality that happened in ancient times not the loving, committed 'gay' relationships that we have today". Mr. Sullivan is a practicing homosexual.

So the beat goes on, but, fortunately so do Crabby Old Lutherans who are willing to speak their minds in and out of church.

The other reference of "Crabby Old Lutheran" is the notion, once preached by Pastor Joseph Schruhl at Zion Lutheran in Piedmont that the sweet, accommodating, nurturing soul is not always the Christian soul.

His sermon went on to say that some of the nicest folks you would ever want to meet are condemned non-Christians. While some of the most crabby, calcified old fogies you might encounter are in fact saved Christians. Thus, Crabby Old Lutherans .... =:-)

In my opinion, the recent controversy within ELCA is a function of an overly indulgent, permissive and nurturing view of homosexuality. The devil works in wily ways.

One could expound on the notion of tough love as dispensed by God but one is tired of writing now. So.... stay tuned.

Scripture interprets itself.

"One should not say therefore that Scripture has more than one meaning.", -- Martin Luther

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