I've heard stories of people going to an ELCA seminary and being told that they could not be ordained because they believed in a physical bodily resurrection. I checked the ELCA website for statements in regards to the resurrection and found this article. The article is incredibly ambiguous. It seems to favor some type of spiritual resurrection and minimizes the importance of Jesus' bodily resurrection as historical event. What is important is that the Apostles had faith in the resurrection. I also came across an article on the virgin birth. This article seems to think that whether or not Mary was a virgin biologically is irrelevant.
At best the ELCA is allowing ministers to serve who deny the virgin birth and bodily resurrection. At worst the ELCA is promoting the denial of the virgin birth and bodily resurrection. Anti-trinitarianism and all kinds of anti-Christian teaching run wild in denominations with which the ELCA is in full communion.
So if the ELCA allows those who deny the resurrection and virgin birth to serve as ministers, is it really that big a deal that she allow practicing homosexuals to serve as well? Isn't it a bit like finding out that some mass murderer also broke someone's arm?
Wow:
ReplyDeleteIn four passages (Mark 16:12, Luke 24:16, John 20:14 and 21:4) the witnesses fail to recognize the risen Christ. Nor is Jesus seen by any who are not in his wider circle of disciples (with the exception of St. Paul). Clearly, Jesus’ resurrection was not simply a return to his previous condition of life.
All of this has led some scholars to write that the risen Jesus (and apparitions of the risen Jesus) is a supernatural reality which does not belong to this world and cannot be the object of historic investigation. Rather, Jesus' resurrection is an object of faith.
Question: if it's not a historical fact, what's there to believe in?
Pass the Tums.
Excellent point! Really, no one should be surprised, saddened or hurt by this gay decision. It is simply a symptom of a deadly disease that was the very cornerstone of the establishment of the ELCA.
ReplyDeleteGreat point. It's no big deal that they cross the "gay" line. They are already teaching heretical things and denying basic biblical truths. I like the statement "it's like finding out a mass murdere also broke someone's arm."
ReplyDeleteLet them be heretics.