Gay Clergy

[Matt Miller]

A week ago a tornado hit downtown Minneapolis.A freak storm it came out of no where.It's target was the convention center downtown where the Lutheran Church ELCA was having it's national convention/The ELCA is the largest of the Lutheran Synods - a Synod - simply means " an association of believers agreeing to move together".The symbol of the ELCA is the large Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis.My father (a renowned Lutheran minister) preached there last year.The Central Lutheran Church is a massive church.The tornado tore the steeple off - and bending the cross so it pointed downward.Why the tornado?The Lutheran Church at the moment of the attack of the tornado which tore up the large white tents outside of the convention center and the Central Lutheran Church where thousands were meeting in their annual convention was debating on whether to allow Gay Clergymen in Committed Gay Relationships to be ministers in Lutheran Churches.Gay Clergymen were already permitted as long as they remained celibate but the debate was to allow gay clergymen who were not CELIBATE.This is a letter I recieved from a dear friend that was actually at the convention. His name is Ken and his wife Miriam and I have known each other since childhood.I invite any comments.Greetings from Minneapolis!Tornado.What an remarkable year I have been having in such a variety of stunning locations--Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, 18 U.S. states, and now my hometown!Today, Minnesota Public Radio reported that a tornado "came up out of nowhere."Today, that same tornado hit downtown Minneapolis, including the convention center building where I was located, tearing off part of the roof.Today, the tornado also knocked over the only cross on the outside of Central Lutheran Church, the symbolic center of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in the Twin Cities (where my seminary graduation ceremonies were held), bending the steeple over so that the cross hung upside down.Today, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly (CWA) approved a social statement on human sexuality by a one-vote margin with precisely the 66.6 % required to adopt.I have had the opportunity this week to be a visitor to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly (ELCA CWA), the biennial national conference of my denomination. Each ELCA CWA is held in a different city--this one conveniently taking place in downtown Minneapolis just a few short blocks from where I spent my first seven years of life.This particular ELCA CWA has been making news because of the decisions put before the voting delegates (of whom I am not one). These decisions have revolved around human sexuality and whether or not to ordain gays and lesbians living in publicly accountable, committed relationships. The first issue was addressed in the social statement on human sexuality, the second by a proposal (to be voted on Friday) to change the guidelines entitled "Visions and Expectations" so that it no longer requires pastors and church leaders who are homosexual in their self-understanding to remain celibate.It has been fascinating to overhear conversations between people from opposing sides of these issues.Some people said that it is illegitimate to base the denomination' s standard of clergy behavior on a social statement created and approved by a committee and a convention instead of on the Bible. They wondered if, when a church social statement approves of a behavior that is disapproved of by God's Word, if the social statement does not become, by definition, an idol--a man-made creation honored more highly than God's own revealed logic and communication. They pointed out that in both the Old Testament and New Testament, in lists of condemned actions as well as descriptions of the behavior of those who turn away from God, the Bible repeatedly denounces homosexual activities. This side seemed to presuppose that the Bible is actually the enduring disclosure of an involved and loving yet unchanging God.On the other side, people pointed out that lots of things that people do today do not fit with what the Bible says, so why should gays and lesbians be singled out for exclusion or, worse yet, condemnation and attack? This point is highlighted by the increasing number of people who identify themselves as gay and lesbian. Perhaps God is doing something new, perhaps God is making more people gay and lesbian in this day and age--something that the people who wrote the Bible could not have foreseen. Furthermore, given the changes in our culture and the movement of the Holy Spirit, it is time for the church to, at last, catch up with the advances in our society. This side seemed to presuppose that the Bible is not a record of God's speech but is instead a product of a community of believers--a record if you will, of people's engagement with the divine at different times and different places.One side said that the Gospel and its freedom can only be experienced after one has been crushed by the convicting power of the law and repented--the marvelous reality of being free from our brokenness and bondage to that which harms us can only be truly known after we have given up trying to justify ourselves before God or prove that we should be accepted as we are. For this group, it appears that the Gospel is valuable and real precisely because it is the way in which people can hear Jesus' invitation to receive cleansing from all our sin, respond to it, and to live forever.On the other side, people said that the Gospel is that which lies at the heart of the Bible; it is the power which demands inclusion of the excluded. The world has done enough excluding of gays and lesbians, they experience with harassment and discrimination every day, and therefore do not need to have the Law.On one side, there were people arguing that the American church needed to listen to the calls from bishops, pastors, and lay people from around the world--Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America--asking the ELCA to refrain from approving a social statement endorsing homosexual activity. They pointed out what they saw as ironically racist tendencies in the ELCA (whose members are 97% white)--American moral superiority and neo-colonial attitudes showing up under the guise of "inclusion"- -acceptance of gays and lesbians but not of the leadership of the church in the 2/3 world.On the other side, there were people saying that "the African church will have to catch up" to the more progressive American church and culture eventually.Some said that blanket statements such as "As a gay man, if I were to go to Tanzania, they would kill me," were simply racist. Others defended such statements as being simply true.On one side, people decried the way in which the language of inclusion and diversity was proclaimed in word but immigrant voices dismissed in deed. They pointed out that African immigrant congregations had been publicly praised during the Assembly by ELCA leaders who support the gay and lesbian cause. Yet these same congregations consist of people who had been fasting and praying for weeks asking God to miraculously stop the ELCA from formally approving of gay and lesbian sexuality and ordination.On the other side, people questioned whether the immigrant church leaders were fully informed on the issue and the ELCA documents under consideration. They wondered if those opposing gay and lesbian leadership were not doing so out of fear. To that point, they pointed out that no congregation will be required to accept a pastor that they find unacceptable- -immigrant congregations will not be forced to issue a pastoral call to a gay or lesbian pastor in a publicly accountable, committed relationship unless they want to. The ELCA, in that way, is truly inclusive of a whole variety of people. Immigrant churches have specialized ministries for people from their communities who are not comfortable worshiping with a pastor who cannot empathize with, likewise gays and lesbians should be able to have congregations in which their pastors can empathize with them.It was during such a conversation that the tornado rolled through. Amazingly, I never even heard it, saw signs of it, or even was alerted by sirens as the twister passed. Miraculously, no one was seriously hurt. Thankfully, I was able to go outside and see the damage. Surprise, surprise, I managed to take some pictures as well. ;)In the attached picture, you can see through the glass of the convention center, on to one of the main walls of Central Lutheran, and the cross hanging upside down from its steeple.

[Matt Miller]

Thanks John - for saying that - I did enjoy the clip - and I really liked the movie too.

Liked the Titanic too - it sunk with no storm - perfectly calm seas.
Just one floating iceberg and a ship going too fast -
And the band playing as the ship went down.
Matt

[John Richeson]

Matt you are not an idiot. No more than any of the rest of us are.

[crae akerson]

Yeah Forest Gump was a good one.

[Cindy Kuchmy Kelley]

Love the Forrest Gump clip - I really like Lt. Dan. They endured thru the storm, but Forrest did the believin'.(Lt. Dan cussed out God thru the whole thing). They cast down the nets and reaped the results after it was all over 'cause they were the only ones left standing.

[Matt Miller]

Dear John and Kevin,



Obsession is what got so many hurt - it was obsession.



Obsession is what sinks the ship.



Herman Melville - I bring him up - as soon as I saw Kevin on here as a merchant marine.



The first time I saw Moby Dick I was a kid - it is full of significance in my my mind to those events that John referred to but did not want to open.

So I tread with care.



Obsession takes the whole down.



When we see the enemy in everything that God's nature taught us to live in balance with - to work with - to hold in awe - to teach us we are left with Ahab.



The enemy is everywhere - in everything and in each other.



All that remains is vengeance that is heaped upon the innocent - and the innocent go down with the ship.



We no longer listen to the reason of Star buck who argues with Ahab to make the journey profitable by doing what we set out to do - kill whales for oil and return home.

The obsession of Captain Ahab subdues the whole ship.



Once obsession sets the sign will be made - God is done with it.

Nature will finish you and mark your mission in some way as over.

His wind will leave your cross pointing to the ground.



Ahab ultimately dooms the crew of the Pequod (save for Ishmael) to death by his obsession with Moby Dick. During the final chase, Ahab hurls his final harpoon while yelling his now-famous revenge line:

... to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.
The harpoon becomes lodged in Moby Dick's flesh and Ahab, caught around the neck by a loop in his own harpoon's rope and unable to free himself, is dragged into the cold oblivion of the sea with the injured whale. The whale eventually destroys the whaleboats and crew, and sinks the Pequod.

Ahab has the qualities of a tragic hero — a great heart and a fatal flaw —



Ahab's motivation for hunting Moby Dick is perhaps best summed up in the following passage:

The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them, till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung. That intangible malignity which has been from the beginning; to whose dominion even the modern Christians ascribe one-half of the worlds; which the ancient Ophites of the east reverenced in their statue devil; -- Ahab did not fall down and worship it like them; but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated, against it. All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby-Dick. He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.
From Wikepedia article on Moby Dick.



Now I will rest.



Sometimes the blog is left untouched by everyone after the idiot who started the blog tampered with it - and tampered with the natural flow - so this idiot will now rest.



I am nervous that I did that.



So bless,



Matt

[John Richeson]

Matt you will like this one from one of my favorite movies of all time:

[Matt Miller]

John on the pure scientific side.

Warm air on the bottom - cold air slides on top - a funnell is created by the rotating of the earth.
Warm air from the Gulf - cold air from Canada.
Interestingly enough the Native American Indians have few to no records of tornados in their era of living and moving on the Plains.
Why? The natural forested areas and tall grass prevented tornados.
Especially in Indiana - Kansas etc.
It is man clear cutting and cropping the Mid West that allowed the conditions for rapid funnells in the area to be called Tornado Alley.
Also the construction of the building in our cities and how and the spacing especially in the Mid West.
The tornado conditions were exemplified by MAN AND MAN"S LANDSCAPE.

Kevin,

Storms are also used in the Word to reflect spirtual warfare. Just as two huge air masses collide - Low and High Pressure zones - so does a storm reflect or signify unstability as a result of change and collision of spiritual zones from two sources or systems - they are in contact and the result is a storm - the natural displays the spirtual warfare.
Good night,
Matt

[Matt Miller]

I just thought before I turn in I would add one verse that shows God moves in storms.
It is Zecharias 9:14 and I chose this verse because it starts out with GOD APPEARING OVER THEM.

Like the storm Kevin at the Rock - you were talking about.

A Storm appears over us - and God appears over them in this verse. - then the sorm analogy goes on with his arrows being the lightning - the sound of trumpet - like thunder - he marches IN THE STORM or as KJV says in THE WHIRLWINDS - God in the whirlwinds - a tornado is a whirlwind..

Thus to say God is never in a storm is unbiblical and dishonest and does even nature disservice.
For Romans says to observe nature and be without excuse to know there is a God.

Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south, NIV

And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. KJV

Well anyway I will pull my sheets back and thank him for the storms in my life - they have made life interesting and have given me the deepest appreciation of His Providence to disturb my sense of knowing and my pride - for He moves in the wind and landscapes my life with friends like all of you.

Matt

[Matt Miller]

Thanks for all of your coments - they enriched us all

[Matt Miller]

John
Thanks bro for befiending this blog,

I found all the insight and humor and lightness refreshing - the memories couched in wind.

Matt