CHICAGO (Reuters) - Homosexual Lutheran clergy who are in sexual relationships will be able to serve as pastors, the largest U.S. Lutheran body said on Saturday.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in "faithful committed same-gender relationships."
The resolution passed by a vote of 538-431.
"The Church ... has just said 'Do not do punishments'," said Phil Soucy, spokesman for Lutherans Concerned, a gay-lesbian rights group within the church. "That is huge."
The ELCA, which has 4.8 million members, had previously allowed gays to serve as pastors so long as they abstained from sexual relations.
The conference also instructed a committee that is developing a social statement on sexuality to further investigate the issue. The committee is scheduled to release its report in 2009.
Since the ELCA was founded in 1988, the group has ordered three pastors in gay relationships to be removed from their ministries. The most recent case was decided in July when the ELCA's committee on appeals voted to remove an openly gay pastor from St. John's Lutheran Church in Atlanta.
The gay clergy issue has become a flashpoint in other faiths, including the Anglican Church.
source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070811/us_nm/religion_lutherans_dc_1
Here is my take---
Wow, it didn't even take 20 years since the ELCA merger to forget about what it means to be a Lutheran. Being Lutheran isn't about just gaining members, that's a bonus, it is about pure teachings of the Holy Bible. This vote totally ignored Biblical teachings of the New Testament and also ignored The Book of Concord. The liberals have officially taken over the hierarchy of the ELCA, and we all knew this was bound to happen. The traditional Lutherans are either old or have died, what would they think of this? What would Martin Luther think of this? Pastors are supposed to be looked up to, trusted and be role models to the entire congregation, this includes children. The ELCA according to what the Book of Concord teaches is no longer following the Lutheran faith. The conservatives no longer have a voice in the ELCA. People wonder why the ELCA membership is in a decline, the ELCA notes that, this is why, dumb things like this get the real Lutherans upset.
Soon, and very soon, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod will be the largest Lutheran body. The ELCA conservatives have no where else to go than the LCMS. Many ELCA members believe that the LCMS is very different from the ELCA, they are very wrong. The LCMS is a lot alike the ELCA in many ways, except that the LCMS does not ordain women and they see the Bible as inerrant, as the ELCA used to believe.
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