05/18/2004: "More on Lutherans and sex"

Responding to the recent events involving a pedophiliac Lutheran pastor, the head of ministerial affairs for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America had this to say:

"The church has a zero tolerance policy toward sexual misconduct. We do think we have a very strong system. Our continuing goal is to make a good system better," said the Rev. Stanley N. Olson, executive director, ELCA Division for Ministry.

The tragic case of misconduct in Texas leads us to pay particular attention to things we are doing to try to avoid any misconduct," Olson said. "We will be examining that situation to see if there is anything specific that it suggests needs our attention. At present I don't see anything that requires a change in policy or procedure, but we'll be looking in detail. We'll also look at whether or not policies are being followed consistently," he said.

Rev. Olson was apparently not asked about this:

Defying their denomination's rule against active homosexuals in ordained ministry, three Lutheran congregations have appointed two gay men and a lesbian to serve as pastors in Hollywood, San Bernardino and Minneapolis.

The first of the three ministers, the Rev. Jennifer Mason, 41, is scheduled to be installed Sunday at Central City Lutheran Mission in San Bernardino, followed by the installation of the Rev. Daniel M. Hooper, 56, at Hollywood Lutheran Church on May 2 and the Rev. Jay Wiesner, 30, at Bethany Lutheran Church in Minneapolis on July 25.

The Rev. Paul Egertson, the former Lutheran bishop in Los Angeles, who plans to preach at Hooper's installation at Hollywood Lutheran Church, said Wednesday that he views such installations as acts that will eventually sweep away church laws against actively gay clergy.

"These are all the breaks in a very fragile dam that looks awfully solid but actually, in my view, is going to just either be taken down by deliberate courageous action by church bodies, or it's going to leak and leak and leak until it's more a sieve than a dam�and finally go away," Egertson said.

I certainly appreciate Rev. Olson and his agency seeking to prevent pedophiliacs and other sexual abusers from getting into ELCA ministry. May God bless their efforts. But there are other forms of sexual misconduct, as defined by the ELCA's own rules, that seem to get a pass from those in authority. Maybe Rev. Olson can't do anything about them, but if he can, he has some bishops and congregations that need talking to.

Replies: 2 Comments

on Thursday, May 20th, Little Fly said

I'd rather this become an opportunity to change the policy, but understand that this would put the cart before the horse.

on Thursday, May 20th, Little FLy said

Phillipa, Since we have now lost the comment option on the archive, I guess this is as good a place as any to address your concerns about Provincial finances. I think everyone, conservative and liberal alike, is deeply frustrated with accountability at the province. I don't know of a single church that isn't calling for greater transparency. I am also deeply concerned about where the BoWM money is going, and I know that too much of it has always gone into administration. I still fail to understand why the board resigned, but that is another matter.

I do know that there have been a number of changes in the Treasurer's office over the past few years, and know that this has contributed to accounting problems with some of the churches. I also know that some of these staffing problems are being resolved now, and hope that this will lessen some of the confusion. What we need most is unity among churches to bring pressure to bear on the PEC to address our finance concerns. One option would be to draft a letter of concern to be signed by the joint boards of multiple churches. Our concern is mutual, and so I see no reason why we shouldn't be working together on this. Frankly it is our disunity over what we do agree about that makes us weaker!