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    Lutheran Pastors Stage Mass Coming-Out

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    In a celebrated case, the Rev. Bradley Schmeling of Atlanta was removed last month from the ministerial rolls after he advised his superiors that he had found a partner.

    The more than 1,000 clergy gathered this week received a gay-friendly devotional booklet titled “A Place Within My Walls” with contributions from Schmeling and other pastors. “My life changed wonderfully in 2004 when I met my life partner, Bradley, at a church event in Minneapolis,” pastor Darin Easler wrote.

    “In 2005, I moved to Atlanta to join Bradley, calling my family and friends with the joyful news. It was like announcing my engagement or marriage; I wanted to tell everyone! But the honeymoon felt pretty short, knowing that when the church heard this news we could immediately face discipline, rather than support and celebration.”

    Easler said he eventually left the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in favor of the United Churches of Christ, which practices equality.

    The 83 pastors listed include gay ministers now serving, awaiting a call from a congregation or removed since the churchwide assembly in Orlando in 2005. A move at the 2005 convention to suspend the celibacy requirement failed to get a majority vote, the Chicago Tribune reported.

    Also on Tuesday, the Lutherans re-elected Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson for a second six-year term. Hanson has been outspoken against the Iraq war but silent on the issue of gay clergy. (Barbara Wilcox, The Advocate)

    SOURCE:  PlanetOut.com

    Here’s another post on the subject from an MMI reader...

    As U.S. Lutheran clergy gather in Chicago last week to consider issues including relaxing their rules on gay and lesbian clergy, 83 pastors staged a mass coming-out Tuesday to help colleagues change their minds. Among them was the Rev. A. Dale Truscott, formerly of Saline, Mich., who hid his sexuality -- and his partner -- for as long as he served his church. "I retired a couple of years sooner than I needed to because of this," Truscott told the Ann Arbor News on Monday from his new home in Orlando, Fla. "I have been quiet and tried to keep the peace, and it's very painful. You finally get to the point in your life where you're tired of the pain." Truscott, an ordained Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor for 37 years, was among 83 clergy who came out by having their names published in support of a proposal to allow partnered gay and lesbian clergy to serve. The denomination now ordains gay men and lesbians, but requires that they be celibate.

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    1. Daniel D. Farmer on Wed, August 15, 2007

      What a far cry from the Acts church!  Ministers who keep secrets from their congregations about who they are and how they live!  When we value ‘peace’ above honesty, you know we’re headed for trouble…


      Perhaps we should examine ourselves and ask ourselves if we foster truth-telling, even when it’s painful, in our communities, or if we make it easier for people to lie about themselves (for the sake of ‘peace’).


      My two cents.


      -Daniel-

    2. Andy McAdams on Wed, August 15, 2007

      Truscott speaks of hiding his sexuality and partner as painful?  I wonder just how painful it was to the church he served for 37 years that he did so and lived an immoral life style?  I wonder after the news hit how many other things that Truscott preached about were brought into doubt by his congregants?  Sad…very sad that as I read his words that the most important thing to him is that he is happy, not that the people he served live in truth and feel lied too.

    3. fishon on Wed, August 15, 2007

      “As U.S. Lutheran clergy gather in Chicago last week to consider issues including relaxing their rules on gay and lesbian clergy….”


      “...relaxing their rules….” Wow! I thought it was: God rules. I stand in amazement as I watch so many people build their “lego” God/Jesus.


      fishon

    4. Eric Joppa on Wed, August 15, 2007

      Another homosexuality post?!!? Todd, what are you trying to do to us? I am still exhausted from yesterday!


      On a serious note, here is my question…


      How can the church minister to a world that sees us as fools for beleiving what we do about God, Jesus, the bible, etc., when the people who are “leading the church” are deceitful, perverted and contradict CLEAR biblical mandates in their life willingly and call it OK?


      Just currious…


      -E

    5. Daniel D. Farmer on Wed, August 15, 2007

      Eric—I’m not sure which way to interpret your question.  Do you mean that those ‘leading the church’ are human?  Because we’re all deceitful and perverted.  Right?  But if you mean that gay-affirming pastors are light-years ahead of the rest of us in perversion, well then I think you may be being unfair.


      Determining what the Bible ‘clearly’ teaches presupposes a specific model of biblical authority, and there are plenty of those to go around (and as Protestants, we can’t exactly appeal to ‘orthodoxy’, right? since one man’s orthodoxy is another man’s heresy—unless you’re Roman Catholic, in which case there is an objective standard of doctrinal correctness).  I (and others) would argue that the Bible CLEARLY and UNAMBIGUOUSLY prescribes pacifism for the people of God (what else can ‘turn the other cheek’ mean?).  Does that mean I get to call everyone here (since I think everyone here disagrees with me) deceitful and reprobate?  Well, no, not if I want to have more than a mudslinging match.  At the same time, that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be ‘fully convinced in my own mind’. 


      So for the whole homosexuality question, let’s certainly be grounded in Scripture, let’s certainly have our firm beliefs, and let’s certainly contend earnestly for (our opinion about) the truth.  But calling our ‘opponents’ deceitful and perverted… well that’s probably not the most helpful thing.  If you know what I mean.  The debate should be about Scripture—what it says and how it says it—not about character judgments (which should be left in the hands of God—lest we too be judged by the same standard).


      My two cents.


      -Daniel-

    6. Danny Daniels on Wed, August 15, 2007

      Where do we draw the line between giving grace to others who see things differently than we do and challenging unbiblical beliefs and statements in order to attempt to prevent further delusion of those who don’t know any better?


      I’m serious…


      I need some clarity.

    7. Daniel D. Farmer on Wed, August 15, 2007

      Danny—wherever you feel convicted to, of course.  If one does choose to ‘challenge unbiblical beliefs and statements’ though, it should be done without making character judgments (the statement ‘belief X is unbiblical’ is preferable to the statement ‘person Y is a reprobate’—regardless of how true we think the latter is).  Additionally, challenging beliefs should have the goal of either 1. changing the opinion of the person who holds them or 2. warning people under our care about the potential danger of these views.


      If nothing productive can come from expressing our opinion, we should shut up.


      My two cents.


      -Daniel-

    8. Eric Joppa on Wed, August 15, 2007

      I agree Danny,


      Having a dialogue is a good thing and I can certainly appreciate opinions that differ from mine. However, I find it interesting that we say we have the courage to show grace and love, but no courage to direct people to a path that God has clearly chosen for ALL people to walk.


      Mr. Farmer,


      I appreciate your thoughts and agree also that we are all broken, sinful, and depraved souls in need of a savior. In that light the entire world is in the same boat. However, Scripture does not waver on how the pastor will be judged, and on the fact that we must live “above reproach”.


      That said, I think it’s safe to say (without judging character) that if you are in a gay lifestyle, that you disqualify yourself from the position of pastor/elder/teacher/leader in the church.


      If you do not hold a position of leadership in the body, than while the standard changes slightly (your struggle is between you and God and affects far less people), you are still in sin. What is so hard about that?

    9. DanielR (a different Daniel) on Fri, August 17, 2007

      Eric, you ask what is so hard about that?  Most Christians I know have an opinion on the issue of homosexuality and most believe it is not in keeping with a biblical lifestyle.  Most, not all.  There are churches were it is affirmed as an acceptable lifestyle.  There are churches with gay clergy.  ( I’ve heard there are even churches with female clergy.  http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/grin.gif  ) 


      I had a close friend and barracks roommate in the Army who struggled with homosexual attraction (not for me!).  I watched him struggle for years with what he felt versus what his Christian upbringing taught him.  Eventually he left the Army and entered the seminary.  And still he struggled with what he felt and who he saw himself to be.  He finally seemed to find peace when he accepted that he was gay and became a minister in a church that accepted gay clergy. His focus is not on being gay or his partner in life, but on serving God.  He says gay is just something he is, serving God is what his life is about.


      I don’t know if he is right or wrong in what he believes but I have my opinion and I pray for him.


      I had another Army friend from Guam who was born intersex or hermaphrodite and surgically “corrected” at birth, and I saw her frustration with being called “Tom-boy”, “butch”, and worse, while she struggled with homosexual feelings she didn’t understand. Her parents never told her and she could never understand until a courageous female gynecologist ran some tests and sat her down to explain what had apparently occurred and that she had the genitalia of a female but had also retained “internal testes” which resulted in the testosterone levels of a male (which was why she was as big and strong as any of the guys, and possibly why she liked girls).  Watching her initial devastation (depression, calling herself a freak of nature, etc.) turn to understanding and then acceptance, and seeing her desire to just be OK and “normal”, made me question whether God is really that concerned with what gender she is or likes, as long as her relationship with Him is strong.


      Part of what is so hard about this issue is that it is at the very core of how some people see themselves and many people who are opposed to it are irrationally ardent in their opposition.  Another thing that is so hard about this issue is the conflicting messages regarding the issue coming from different parts/denominations of the church.

    10. Laptoper on Tue, May 06, 2008

      Come baby! Pastors go on!

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