03/10/2004: "History repeating itself"

The tactics never seem to change: since liberals in the church can't get the votes to change the rules, they simply ignore them, create new "facts on the ground," and then demand that the church adapt as "God does a new thing." Case in point: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in the city that is at the very heart of Lutherandom:

A third congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in the Twin Cities has voted to call an openly gay pastor, defying ELCA policy that forbids ordination of anyone in a same-sex relationship.

Bethany Lutheran Church, on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis' Seward neighborhood, intends to ordain Jay Wiesner on July 25 and call him as a pastor.

Wiesner, who is on the church's staff, will work with the Rev. Steven Benson, who said the members gave the vote a lot of thought and decided they had no choice.

"We hope this action will have a positive effect" on the ELCA, Benson said this week. There is "some worry about creating a backlash" by doing something so public, but "we also realize no liberation movement has happened by people remaining quiet." Bishop Craig Johnson of the ELCA Minneapolis Synod could impose sanctions against Bethany ranging from a minor reprimand to removal from the roster of official ELCA congregations. In similar cases, bishops have tended to issue "censure and admonition" rulings preventing the congregation from active participation in the wider church for a period of time.

Benson said that when the church council met with Johnson he urged Bethany to wait until after the 2005 ELCA General Assembly, which plans to vote on ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians.

While the Bethany council gave the bishop's request "careful consideration," Benson said, they decided to go ahead.

As reported in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Wiesner is on the roster of the Extraordinary Candidacy Project, an unofficial list of gay candidates for ordination. Asked about this by the paper's reporter, John Brooks, a spokesman for national ELCA HQ, said his offices don't keep track of how many of those on the roster have been called and ordained. That's interesting, because I found out in two minutes with a Google search:

Twelve ELCA congregations and three independent Lutheran congregations are currently being served by ECP pastors. Four ECP approved seminary graduates have been ordained and installed in ELCA congregations in the last two years. Members of the ECP roster are serving in California, Minnesota, Ohio, Missouri, Florida, and South Africa.

That's from the ECP Web site, Mr. Brooks. Maybe you should mosey on over and have a look. Or maybe because ELCA national staffers have a pro-gay agenda, you'd rather maintain "plausible deniability."