The incredible shrinking church

Over at The Federalist Alexander Griswold has a good article about the decline of Christian denominations which have discarded the clear teaching of Scripture to embrace much of the homosexual agenda.

Opening part from the article:

By now, we’ve all heard the refrain that U.S. churches need liberalize their teachings on sexuality and homosexuality or rapidly decline. The logic behind the argument is simple: more and more Americans are embracing homosexuality and same-sex marriage, including growing numbers of religious Millennials. So long as churches remain the face of opposition to gay marriage, those churches will shrink into irrelevancy when gay marriage (inevitably, we are told) becomes a settled political issue.

These arguments often see church acceptance of homosexuality as a carrot as well as a stick. It isn’t so much that denouncing homosexuality will drive people away from church, but that embracing it will also lead people into church. LGBT individuals and their supporters, many of whom hold a dim view of religion after a decades-long culture war, will reconsider church if denominations remove their restrictions on gay marriage and ordination.

But a number of Christian denominations have already taken significant steps towards liberalizing their stances on homosexuality and marriage, and the evidence so far seems to indicate that affirming homosexuality is hardly a cure for membership woes. On the contrary, every major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization of sexual issues has seen a steep decline in membership.

Griswold goes on to describe the declining fortunes of the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the United Church of Christ (UCC), and the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). My wife and I are former members of the ELCA who chose to leave after the disastrous 2009 decision to ordain non-celibate homosexual clergy and to bless homosexual unions, so this news strikes home in a significant way. Griswold's article well worth reading, especially for its detailed information about the rate of decline of each denomination.

However, I have one problem with the article. Griswold seems to suggest that the effort to change the church's stance on homosexuality is primarily to recruit new members and arrest overall decline of Christianity. In fairness to those who succeeded in changing the ELCA's position in 2009, I do not think this is necessarily so. Increasing the ELCA's membership was one stated reason for pushing for the change, but in my opinion it was not the primary one.

Instead, the proponents of the 2009 changes seemed to make three basic arguments:

Scripture is not being properly translated/applied. Regarding homosexuality as a sin is nothing more than a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Bible really says.

Lack of proper scientific understanding. The Bible was written in an era before modern psychology, so the early writers lacked a true understanding of homosexuality.

Social justice. Any religion which regards homosexuality as a sin is false and must be changed. The old attitudes towards homosexuality are on the same moral level as racism and sexism, and need to be ended.

There was some inconsistency in the reasons that proponents gave for the 2009 changes. How (for example) is it possible for Scripture to be both misinterpreted and wrong? How can the Bible actually permit homosexual behavior and be the flawed product of writers who were ignorant of modern science and how it relates to homosexuality? The argument made by the proponents of the 2009 changes could be quite murky at times.

Of all the reasons used to support changing the ELCA's stance towards homosexuality in 2009, only one - the social justice argument - seemed to me to be the primary motivation. Even before the disastrous decision to discard Scripture in favor of secular wisdom the ELCA had shown an obsession with political activism masquerading as Christianity. The Gospel continually took a back seat to political pronouncements and lobbying elected leaders.

And here is where the seeds of destruction were sown. The Bible clearly regards the homosexual lifestyle as sinful and contrary to God's plan for His creation. But the powerful homosexual lobby decried this attitude as homophobic. So the false teachers and prophets of the ELCA rejected the Gospel in favor of secular political activism and goals. They have rejected the true God, and are working on making another god in their own politically correct image. It is no wonder the ELCA is hemorrhaging members.

But (the counter argument will go) what about gays and lesbians who felt alienated and unwelcome by the church's previous negative stance towards homosexuality? Should we not rejoice in the fact that at least some of them will now come to church and embrace Christ?

My response is this: are these new brothers and sisters in Christ being given the Bread of Life - or the spiritual junk food that the world offers and which can only harm them? All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and we need a Redeemer to save us from the consequences of our sins and reconcile us to God. By discarding the clear teaching of the Bible the ELCA is telling us a hellish lie: we get to decide what is sinful and what is not. Put another way: we get to veto God's commandments and replace them with ones we find more suitable. Two thousand years ago Jesus warned us about leaders who would do such a thing:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. (Matthew 23:15 (NIV))

To my Christian brothers and sisters who are still in the ELCA, I beg you: do not let the false teachers and prophets of the ELCA succeed in dragging you into hell. I will not put myself in the place of God and tell you to leave your church - God will make it clear if He wants you to leave or not - but be aware that the false god the ELCA is creating for itself is a jealous god, and wants to separate you from the real God if it can. Your soul belongs to the One who loves you, and not the one who tells you to conform to the ways of the world.

Looking for Josiah

The ELCA has elected its first gay bishop. Even though we all knew this sad day was inevitable, the wounds this ordination has inflicted on the Church are still painful.

Key quote:

Rev. Dr. Guy Erwin was ordained as a pastor in the ELCA two years ago. A press release by Lutherans Concerned/North America at the time stated “R. Guy Erwin, a teaching theologian at California Lutheran University (CLU), was ordained in the Samuelson Chapel of that institution at 10:00 a.m. on May 11, 2011. He is both gay and in a committed same-gender relationship. His ordination, the fulfillment of a lifetime desire, is made possible by the change in policy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that followed the decision of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to allow ministers in committed, same-gender relationships to serve in the church.”

The above quote notes that Dr. Erwin was a pastor only two years prior to becoming bishop. Even by the troubling standards of affirmative action - which judges people solely by their skin color, gender, and sexual orientation instead of their ability and character - this is alarming.

Yet even now there is still time. Time for the leadership of the ELCA to rediscover the faith once delivered to the saints. Time to throw away the false god of political activism they have created only to please themselves. Time to repent and humble themselves before the one true God.

In case anyone thinks that this is impossible, they should consider the story of King Josiah (2 Kings 22: - 23:3 ) . Josiah led the people of Judah in a period of national repentance:

And [King Josiah] stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.

2 Kings 23:3 (KJV)

Pray that God raises up in the ELCA someone with the faith and courage of King Josiah.

The sound of silence

John R. Stumme, the retired Director of the Department for Studies in the Church in Society unit of the ELCA, wonders why the ELCA has not taken a public stand against recent government efforts to define religion. The case in question is the HHS mandate that would force Catholic Church organizations to pay for abortion and contraceptives.

Key quote from the end of the article:

I do not know the reasons for this silence. I am not surprised, though, that a church body whose health plan pays both for contraceptives and also for a range of procedures including those for miscarriage and abortion up to the 20th week of pregnancy has not stood with church bodies that for theological and moral reasons refuse to pay for contraception. I would hope, however, that our church, recognizing the larger issue at stake, would be vigilant and vocal when questions arise about federal regulatory agencies defining religious organizations in ways that limit religious freedom.

Stumme is puzzled by the ELCA's reticence on this issue, although this silence probably should not surprise anyone. The history of the ELCA since its formation and its growing abandonment of the Christian faith has been painfully clear, although many (such as myself) lived in denial for many years. To the extent the ELCA's leadership still believes in a god or gods, it is a god of extremist secular political activism they have created in their own image. In the ELCA's secular progressive mindset, Catholics who still adhere to their denomination's position against contraception are nothing more than ignorant, knuckle-dragging barbarians who live only to oppress women (or Muslims, or homosexuals, or minorities, or whichever group happens to be the focus of the hot political topic of the day).

Why should the ELCA support religious freedom when their new god demands absolute obedience to the gospel of modern progressive thinking? They would sooner pluck out their own eye then be caught doing anything that could be even remotely considered "conservative".

The mathematics of the post-Christian Church

David Barnhart has an interesting post at his blog that shows the membership of the ELCA since its beginnings in 1987. With the exception of 1990 and 1991 the denomination has lost members every year.

Overall, the ELCA has experienced a 19.2% decline in its membership from 1987 (5,288,048) to 2010 (4,274,855). By far the steepest decline was from 2009 to 2010 (5.9%, or 268,182 members). It will be interesting to see what the figures for 2011 will be like.

Supporters of the ELCA might argue that most denominations have been losing members during that period of time. That may be so, but as I recall one of the major selling points of the ELCA's 2009 decision to reject the clear teachings of the Gospel was that the new emphasis on "diversity" and "tolerance" would bring in the unchurched. That does not seem to be happening. The mathematics of post-Christian churches appears to be subtraction (driving away faithful Christians) and division (bringing conflict and chaos among those who remain).

By far the most interesting aspect - to me, anyway - of the ELCA's decline is the fact that it is slow and steady. Had the ELCA lost 19.2% (one in five) of its members in 2009-10 instead of the actual 5.9% it might have caused quite a stir among those left behind. A major loss like that would have captured the attention of even the most laid-back of laypersons. It might even (horror of horrors!) have caused people to dare to ask questions of the ELCA's leadership.

It is a situation familiar to every driver. If one of your tires blows out, you are forced to stop the car and deal with the problem. But if you have a slow leak, you can be tempted to put off facing the situation and drive on. The second scenario is the one the ELCA appears to be locked into.

The question of what the ELCA will look like a decade from now also fascinates me. I seriously doubt that the ELCA will one day go completely out of business, so the question is: will it be absorbed into another denomination (such as the Episcopal Church USA) or become a small rump of what it once was? To me the latter seems most likely. But only God knows, and He will make it known to us in good time.

The poor you shall always have ... to use for political gain

I thought that mixing Christianity and politics was an unmitigated evil. Or so the secular media has always claimed. Apparently if your politics are acceptable to secular progressives, then mix away.

Jim Wallis believes that the trillions the US has already spent on so-called anti-poverty programs has not been enough. He is demanding more, as if the colossal failure of the modern welfare state never happened.

Like any other US citizen, Wallis is free to petition the government to enact policies he supports, although in the past he has shown undisguised hostility towards those whose politics disagrees with his. But he is not entitled to his own facts. For decades Wallis and other progressives have exploited the poor for political gain. When will they be held accountable for putting their greed over the needs of their brothers and sisters? When will they be required to explain why so much money only made the problem of poverty worse while poisoning the political debate in the process?

Wallis' attitude, I am sad to say, is a major sickness in Christianity today. The ELCA and other politically-minded denominations are quite willing to regard the poor as a kind of political cash cow to be invoked and used at will. On the issue of poverty these denominations take a harsh, uncompromising stance that allows no debate and tolerates no criticism. They also mix politics and religion to a degree they would immediately condemn if the so-called Religious Right tried it.

The irony is that if Wallis and other progressives stopped pushing failed government programs that only make poverty worse, if they merely sat on the sidelines and did absolutely nothing, it would be a far greater contribution to fighting poverty than they are presently making.

New Christian college in Bennington, Vt.

The Northeastern Baptist College is scheduled to open in August 2013. Plans are for the four-year college to offer three degrees: music, Biblical studies, and education.

I am working towards a Master of Science degree in Mathematics at a large state-run university in Texas. My coursework this summer has convinced me of one thing: many state-run colleges and universities are openly prejudicial towards Christians and Christian beliefs. Christianity is one of the few subjects where you can say anything you want about it, no matter how demeaning and derogatory. But if you change the target to (say) Islam or homosexuality, you can face possible discipline and even expulsion. Defending Christian beliefs, or even questioning sacred topics like evolution, is risky.

So what are Christians to do? A "slow march through the institutions" - Christians moving up the ranks and taking over positions of leadership in these state-run colleges and universities - will be a difficult process that has no guarantee of success. It will be a long time (if ever) before Christians are free of the growing prejudice and bigotry they face in these institutions. Nor is there any assurance that Christians who attempt this will not end up being changed by the institutions and participate in the discrimination.

The alternative is to support Christian colleges like Northeastern Baptist College. The problem is that many colleges and universities that bill themselves as Christian may not really be very Christian. An example: Texas Lutheran University is a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I have heard some parents complain about the growing secular views of the administration and faculty of TLU (my own experiences with TLU tend to confirm this). It remains to be seen if TLU can maintain some degree of independence and avoid the downward spiral into secular political activism that is consuming the ELCA.

There are no easy answers. But lately I have begun to warm to the idea of Christians forming more of their own colleges and universities. And to those who protest that Christians should not segregate themselves from the rest of the world I would say: no one has an obligation to be a doormat simply to prop up the fragile egos of those who hate them. Turning the other cheek does not involve slapping yourself, and Christians have no calling to compromise with and give credibility to those who clearly hate them. Instead, let the faculty and administrators who run the state colleges and universities explain how promoting Christophobia is somehow consistent with "diversity and tolerance".

The Church Lite

Only 15 percent of members of the Church of Sweden believe in Jesus. Another 15 percent are atheists.

I am shocked to the very core of my being: I had no idea there was still a Church of Sweden.

Key quote from the article:

"Many are members, not for religious reasons, but because of the role the church plays in society, or because it serves as an organisation which maintains Swedish traditions," said [Jonas] Bromander.

"In fact, there are many members who would rather that we focus more on our social work in Sweden than on Sunday services."

That is the ELCA in a nutshell. Less of that pesky troublemaker from Nazareth who claims to the Son of God, and more protests, campaigning, and signing petitions.

Theologically and intellectually the ELCA's laity and clergy are very weak. The ELCA is primarily a political organization in thrall to a god of secular politics. Gone is the Lutheran tradition of salvation through grace alone. Gone are thousands of years of Biblical scholarship. Gone is the testimony of Christian witnesses and martyrs for the faith. Gone.

Instead, a purely secular doctrine has become the new gospel, in which race, ethnicity, gender, age, and income are the real measure of our character. And forget Heaven - the ELCA believes that paradise on Earth can be fashioned by government laws and regulations. Thank Darwin the ELCA can fix what God screwed up! In fact, this calls for a new Beatitudes:

Blessed are the petition-signers, for they shall be praised in the pages of the New York Times.

Blessed are the political protestors, for they shall be on TV.

Blessed are the community activists, for they shall hold a two-thirds majority of the seats in Congress.

Blessed are those who spend taxpayer money for all sorts of social programs, for they shall receive the praises of the glitterati.

Blessed are those who deconstruct the Bible, for the Bible was written by a bunch of racist misogynist homophobic dead white guys who lacked our modern scientific understanding of the world.

Blessed are those who fashion their own gods in their own images, for they shall be called the fathers of gods.

Into the abyss

One of the reasons (though certainly not the only reason) for the decline in so-called mainline Christian denominations is their obsession with sexual matters. Now comes word that the Episcopal Church is breaking new ground in this area. Or (depending on your point of view) the Episcopal Church has hit bottom and is now blasting and digging.

An interesting quote from the link:

Patrick Cheng, an ordained minister in the majority-homosexual Metropolitan Community Churches and an openly homosexual faculty member at [Episcopal Divinity School], attempted to claim biblical characters such as the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 as examples of transgenderism.

“That’s the first queer person of color in the Bible,” Cheng said of the Ethiopian eunuch. Cheng also named Joan of Arc, Saint Perpetua, and early church theologian Origen as people who defied traditional gender expectations: Joan for her use of male clothing, Perpetua for her visions of gladiatorial combat, and Origen for reportedly castrating himself.

“There’s a lot of work being done on the transgendered Christ,” Cheng revealed, producing several different books that either focused upon or addressed the notion of Christ as transgendered.

Wild speculation unencumbered by fact, a near-complete ignorance of Biblical scholarship, and a blatant in-your-face blasphemy. This is the sort of pseudo-intellectual pap the modern Episcopal Church goes bananas over.

It will be interesting to see if the ELCA follows the Episcopal Church over this particular cliff. In many ways the Episcopal Church is the spiritual/political mentor of the ELCA. It seems that whatever the Episcopal Church does the ELCA mimics sooner or later.

Or maybe not. My own experience with both denominations (I taught at an Episcopal school for several years) leads me to believe that the Episcopal Church fancies itself the intellectual savior of Christianity. Like the ELCA, the Episcopal Church has an unhealthy involvement in left-wing secular politics that has driven away many confessional Christians. But the Episcopal Church seems more interested in gaining acceptance for its crackpot theology than in manipulating the political process. By contrast, the ELCA worships a god of secular politics, and is obsessed with using "social statements" to fashion a secular political platform that is often at odds with Christianity.

Put another way: the Episcopal Church is deeply interested in how many angels (or, in Rev. Cheng's case, transgendered spiritual beings) can dance on the head of a pin. The ELCA is concerned about the angels' gender, sexual orientation, age, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, and whether dancing on the head of a pin causes cultural imperialism, deforestation, anti-immigrant xenophobia, or global warming.

When I read articles like the one in the link above I feel like a shipwreck survivor. At the time I was involved with the ELCA and the Episcopal Church I was uncomfortable with what seemed to be many excesses and weird ideas in these denominations. But I believed that the leaders of these denominations were my brothers and sisters in Christ and kept my misgivings to myself. Now I realize that many of these leaders - perhaps most of them - are false prophets and teachers who are trying to trick others into abandoning the Word of God for purely secular teachings.

Not negotiatable

Tanzanian religious leaders say peace and harmony is not negotiable.

Here is an interesting quote from the article:

More importantly, the religious leaders resolved not to be swayed by politicians or political parties for political gains.

Excellent words! Are you listening, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America?

UPDATE: Congregations who have voted to leave the ELCA

David R. Barnhart has an updated list of congregations who have voted to leave the ELCA. Some of the congregations on the list will need to vote a second time.

Voting to leave the ELCA

Eleven congregations voted this past Sunday to leave the ELCA. David R. Barnhart has the details. If I am understanding the process correctly, some of these will require a second vote later on.

Please pray for these congregations who are in the midst of this difficult transition.

List of mission churches

David R. Barnhart has an updated list of mission churches started by former ELCA members.

The End?

Some Christians believe the end of the world is coming on May 21, 2011.

Harold Camping is the leader of Family Radio Worldwide, and is apparently the one behind this movement. Camping details his evidence for the impending end of the world at the link above.

Where to begin? For one thing, how did Camping arrive at the date May 21, 2011? His calculations (if I am understanding them correctly) run like this:

In Genesis 1, one day must be interpreted as a thousand years. This is crucial to Camping's date of 5/21/11.

The justification for one day being a thousand years comes from 2 Peter 3:8 ("But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." (NIV)).

By this interpretation of 2 Peter 3:8, Camping reasons that the world was created in 11,013 B.C. (and not 4004 B.C., as some Biblical scholars claim).

Following this reasoning, the Flood took place in 4990 B.C., which Camping regards as the crucial date for determining the date for the end of the world.

Using the formula 1 day = 1000 years, and starting with the 4990 B.C. date for the Flood, Camping comes up with the year 2011 (I have not been able to determine where May 21 came from).

I am not a Biblical scholar. My knowledge of Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek is equal to exactly zero, so I cannot get into an argument over whether "days" and "years" have interchangeable meanings.

But to me, there seems to be two serious problems with Camping's conclusions. For one, the link between the Flood story in Genesis and 2 Peter 3:8 seems extremely tenuous at best. Why (for example) does the "1 day = 1000 years" formula Camping relies on so heavily apply in this case and nowhere else in the Bible?

Worse still, there are statements like the following ones. In attempting to explain passages like Acts 1:7 and Matthew 24 (which tell us that we are not to know the exact time of the end of the world) Camping writes:

Therefore, regardless of how brilliant or how learned a theologian or Bible student might have been, or how diligently they studied the Bible or faithfully served Christ, it was impossible to learn from the Bible the timetable for the end of the world. Anyone who claimed he knew the time of the end was always wrong.

This is followed up almost immediately with:

In the Bible a wise man is a true believer, to whom God has given a profound trust in the authority of the Bible. True believers have been in existence since the beginning of time. But the timeline of history as it is revealed in the Bible was never revealed to the hearts of the true believers. For example, throughout most of the church age it was generally believed that Creation occurred in the year 4004 B.C.

However, about 35 years ago God began to open the true believers’ understanding of the timeline of history. Thus it was discovered that the Bible teaches that when the events of the past are coordinated with our modern calendar, we can learn dates of history such as Creation (11,013 B.C.), the flood of Noah’s day (4990 B.C.), the exodus of Israel from Egypt (1447 B.C.) and the death of Solomon (93l B.C.)*

However, it was not until a very few years ago that the accurate knowledge of the entire timeline of history was revealed to true believers by God from the Bible. This timeline extends all the way to the end of time. During these past several years God has been revealing a great many truths, which have been completely hidden in the Bible until this time when we are so near the end of the world.

Camping seems to be arguing that even true believers could not possibly know the exact time of the end of the world - until now. How convenient.

Camping's predictions are almost certainly incorrect, unless he has stumbled upon the actual time of the end of the world by blind luck. As to whether he is a crook or a sincere believer who has made a very embarrassing public error, only time will tell.

Reading Camping's rather bizarre claim about how modern-day believers now somehow have knowledge about the Bible not available to others in the past, I was struck at how similar his reasoning was to the ELCA's attempts to find Biblical justification for homosexual behavior. Like Camping, the leadership of the ELCA claims special knowledge unavailable to past Christians (modern-day understanding of homosexual behavior) validates their position. Like Camping, the ELCA uses numerous Biblical passages and Christian beliefs that usually have little or nothing to do with the issue at had. Like Camping, the ELCA skips over any evidence that contradict their claims. Like Camping, the ELCA's claims are well outside hundreds of years of Biblical scholarship (I am not a fan of "scholarship by consensus", but it does have some weight that cannot be casually cast aside).

And like Camping, even a layman can easily demolish the wishful think that makes up the ELCA's position by asking a few simple questions. Frankly, I find that more alarming than the end of the world.

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

Former Atheist Aims to Reverse Negative Christian Stereotypes.

The article is about the efforts of R. Brad White founder of Changing the Face of Christianity Inc. to overcome negative stereotype about Christianity among the young. A key quote from the article:

Dan Kimball opines in the beginning of his book, They Like Jesus but Not the Church, that the emerging generation is spiritually open to talk about Jesus but are very disinterested in joining or being associated with church.

Kimball argues that pastors and ministers have lost touch with the younger generation by shutting out all other viewpoints and opinions but those of fellow Christians.

White has taken the argument a step further and states that church members and leaders have blatantly turned them off by "hating the sin and the sinner." He said this is most evident with homosexuality. Church leaders have mixed the Bible with politics to condemn homosexuals for their lifestyles, he lamented.

Though the sentiment may be based on the Bible, he noted, "The things we say and the way we say them turn them off."

The above quote from the Christian Post article reminded me of this skit from Monty Python:



I must confess (due to more than just a mortal fear of the soft cushions!) that I am not in sympathy with the goals of Mr. White and Mr. Kimball. For one thing, their approach has already been tried for decades in "mainline" denominations like the ELCA - and has been an unqualified disaster.

For another, trying to make the church more palatable to the world will never work. Jesus warned us about the conflict between the church and the world when He said, "My Kingdom is not of this world." It is true that some Christians (including myself) have been guilty of hating both the sin and the sinner. But I do not think that is what is going on in this case. If anything, the church has been too timid in confronting the sin of homosexuality. Anyone who accepts the world's ground rules in any debate - rules which are stacked against Christianity - should be prepared to lose time after time. You cannot use the ways of the world to win converts to Christ.

But above all, young people need to hear the truth so they can make their own decision. We must tell young people the truth about homosexuality and many other things acceptable in popular culture, such as casual sex, pornography, disrespect of the elderly, contempt of tradition, etc. It is important that folks like Dan Kimball and Brad White realize that when the world (smug in its own self righteous cocoon and judgemental of all opposition) demands tolerance of the homosexual lifestyle, what it really wants is 100% acceptance with no dissent. In other words: total surrender.

Like the old women in the Monty Python skit: having the church confess to crimes it did not commit should be a cause for nothing except laughter.

Recommended reading

Don Kriefall at Common Sense for a Senseless World has written one of the best posts I have ever read. Be sure to chack out his other posts.

Genetically-modified seeds are the Devil's work

...or so the ELCA seems to believe. There is an excellent post over at Farmer on a Mission about the ELCA's proposed social statement concerning genetics.

I know the ELCA is obsessed with secular politics, but ... wow!

God's law and "bound conscience"

An excellent post over at Common Sense for a Senseless World.

It should be pointed out that the whole "bound conscience" shtick employed by the ELCA is nothing but an effort to make the radical political gospel of the ELCA look brave and courageous instead of partisan and narrow-minded. If Luther were alive today, he would be nailing his 95 Thesis on the ELCA's door at 8765 W. Higgins Road in Chicago.

North Dakota congregation leaves ELCA over social statement

No, this is not about the ELCA's decision to discard the Bible's clear teaching on homosexuality in favor of secular political activism. Anselm Trinity Lutheran, a congregation in North Dakota, is leaving the ELCA over a proposed social statement concerning agriculture.

The ELCA's target this time is farming and the use of genetically modified seeds. It would seem that the ELCA, in addition to finding the Bible's views on sexuality too square, is now turning up its nose at agricultural science. Like other extremist political parties, the ELCA seems increasingly isolated in its own alternate universe.

Key quote from the article:

[Church council president Jill] Bunn said the Anselm congregation feels the ELCA is making too many social statements that don’t have anything to do with the church.

Indeed. As the ELCA abandons any pretense of being anything except an extremist political party, we can expect even wackier social statement to be coughed up by the leadership. The ELCA's new god of secular politics demends constant sacrifices.

Don't even think about leaving.....

A convention in Pennsylvania is drawing fire for its stance that homosexuals can turn from their lifestyle.

Future historians are going to write on the strange inconsistency of "tolerance" advocates who will defend to the death your right to agree with them. But if you are a homosexual and want to leave that behind and follow Christ ... well ... it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for you. Given the extreme intolerance of the homosexual movement towards those it regards as "traitors" one wonders: will former homosexuals wake up one morning to find a horse's head in their beds?

As a Christian with libertarian leanings I would be sympathetic to the calls for homosexuals to have the right to marry, so long as the Church is not forced to perform those marriages or recognize them. Homosexuality, prostitution, divorce, and pornography are all things that are bad for a society, but I do not believe that a government has the right to ban such things any more than a society should be forced to support the welfare state, "hate crime" laws, various "reform" proposals for immigration and campaign finance, or abortion. Each individual must choose whether to accept or reject Christ, and using the levers of government to force people to support some purely secular form of Christianity is evil.

But the ugly campaign of violence and intimidation that many homosexual advocates engaged in over California's Proposition 8, and the Big Brother monitoring of speech for "homophobia" has shaken many potential allies (including myself). The real issue, it seems, is the efforts of homosexuals to use government to force their belief on everyone else. Tammy Bruce, a lesbian who is also a libertarian, has commented on the cult-like aspects of what she terms the "gay elite". Here is an interesting quote from an interview:

I’ll give you an example when it comes to gay marriage. If Christians are against gay marriage, the gay elite don’t believe that’s because the Christian is concerned about tradition, concerned about the future of this nation, or has a series of issues (with it) surrounding their faith, instead, of course, the gay elite says, “Oh, they’re homophobes.”

They’ve made a decision because they hate me, that they’re thinking this way because of me, that they’re making that decision because they want to hurt me – as opposed to, that they may be against gay marriage because, again, of faith, because of the importance of the tradition of marriage. In fact, God forbid should they ever consider that it might not have anything to do with homosexuals at all, but it has everything to do with (people's) families, that kind of deeper thinking beyond one’s self, they’re incapable of.

That’s why on the abortion rights front there is no consideration that a pro-life individual is... really just a person of faith and really truly believes that (conception is) when life begins. Instead it’s about misogyny. It’s about hating women, it’s about controlling women, it’s about men’s jealousy of women, it’s all about us...

This captures perfectly not just the attitude of secular politicians who are pushing the homosexual agenda, but also the attitude of the ELCA and other post-Christian denominations who have rejected Christ in favor of secular politics. You are not merely wrong for opposing homosexual marriage and ordination of non-celibate homosexuals, you are some sort of sociopath or criminal for daring to question the prevailing beliefs of secular society. And if you are a person with homosexual tendencies who wants to reject that sin, then you are a self-hating gay or lesbian who is the Enemy (all of this is for your own good, of course).

Please pray for all who struggle with feelings of homosexuality.

Social justice?

I missed this one when it happened:

ELCA drops out of Lutheran Malaria Initiative; Lutheran World Relief and LCMS to continue joint effort to combat malaria.

Interesting how when it comes to its obsession with secular politics the ELCA never seems to run out of cash. I understand that all denominations have budget priorities, but any organization that engages in race-baiting, funds Washington lobbyists, or issues political proclamations about everything under the sun has no business calling itself a Christian church.

I wish that all denominations - be they conservative or liberal - would take a decade-long break from secular politics of any kind. Stop yammering about "social justice" and instead work to feed the poor. Re-discover the Gospel of the Lord, and engage in some serious prayers. Stop "organizing the community" and actually live in it. If Mark Hanson, Pat Robertson, Jim Wallis, or any other Christian leader wants to be a politician, let him or her run for office and stop trying to hijack God for their own selfish purposes. Using church donations to help politically powerful groups while ignoring the cries of dying children - that is evil.

I suppose that this should not bother me, since I am no longer a Lutheran. Yet since the decision of August 2009 to reject the Gospel in favor of secular politics the ELCA has started giving voice to every filthy, dirty instinct the human spirit can vomit forth. How much longer will God let this go on?

At any rate, if you wish to donate and help to actually do something for social justice click here.