Meet 82 LGBT Lutheran Ministers
Here's an interesting sounding event taking place this evening at what appears to be a church-wide Lutheran conference called "Churchwide":
What: [Cameras OK] LGBT Lutheran Pastors, from among the 82 ministers just introduced to the wider Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, speak out in favor of eliminating the policy that prohibits continued service in the ministry by those in committed, same-gender relationships.
Background: The ELCA policy prohibits LGBT ministers from living as family in committed, lifelong, same-gender relationships. Though the ELCA says it welcomes LGBT persons into the life of the church, LGBT ministers are required to remain celibate their entire lives. This prohibition is discriminatory and flies in the face of Martin Luther's strongly stated rejection of forcing celibacy on any individual.
Eighty-two lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Lutheran ministers have chosen to introduce themselves to the ELCA and speak out against the policy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that prohibits them from entering into lifelong, loving family relationships.
[from the press advisory: "LGBT Lutheran Pastors Introduced", Goodsoil, undated.]
According to the same advisory, Goodsoil is an organization
… working for full inclusion of LGBT Lutherans in the life of their church and is comprised [sic] of Lutherans Concerned/North America (www.lcna.org), The Network for Full Inclusion (www.inclusivenet.com), Wingspan Ministry (www.stpaulref.org), and the Extraordinary Candidacy Project (www.extraordinarycandidacyproject.org).
[First seen at Box Turtle Bulletin.]
2 Responses
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Leave a Reply
To thwart spam, comments by new people are held for moderation; give me a bit of time and your comment will show up.
I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.
on Thursday, 9 August 2007 at 16.21
Permalink
Looks like a hopeful development, but someone should take up copy editing duties for these people.
"LGBT Lutheran Pastors, from among the 82 ministers just introduced . . ."
"Eighty-two lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Lutheran ministers have chosen to introduce themselves . . ."
The first statement clearly indicates a subset of 82 new ministers, while the second one says it's all 82, leading alert readers to wonder how many LGBT's there actually were.
on Thursday, 9 August 2007 at 17.57
Permalink
Perhaps it's a strategy designed to keep you guessing by continually moving them around in a herd. Besides, these are the openly gay and lesbian, so it's possible that a bit of ambiguity is appropriate!