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.
Athanasius on 05.18.04 @ 07:28 PM EST [link]
Two for one!
In a Harmonic Convergence of the inane, Kofi Annan of the UN and Samuel Kobia of the World Council of Churches got together Monday for some mutual admiration and some, well, inanity:
"On behalf of WCC member churches, I expressed admiration to Annan for his leadership role at a time when multilateralism is threatened and under attack," Kobia said after the meeting. The UN secretary-general acknowledged that both organizations' agendas are intertwined, and praised the partnership between them.
I wonder what UN agenda Kobia was talking about: the one where they try to force liberalized abortion on unwilling countries, or the one where they use peacekeeping operations to as cover for sex trade expansion, or perhaps the refugee camp administration program that allows such camps to be turned into military equipment collection points for terrorists, or mybe the one where Syria and Cuba become arbiters of human rights.
Regarding the Israel/Palestine conflict, Kobia shared the WCC assessment of the Road Map and Geneva Accords. While the first "does not comprise any original proposal that could help the two sides to overcome the bloody cycle of occupation, terrorism and retribution," the latter "stimulates the public opinions on both sides to overcome stereotypes and find a common understanding of respect for the other". Annan pointed out the need for cooperation between the WCC Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine/Israel (EAPPI) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
It is the latter agency that has allowed Palestinian terrorists to feel at home in the camps under their administration. As for the Geneva Accords, they were entered into by private parties and repudiated by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, essentially called upon Israel to surrender to terror, and would guarantee the demise of the Jewish state through granting the right of return. I can tell why Kobia is so enthusiastic about them.
Annan encouraged a dialogue between civilizations, stressing that while Islam is isolated in Western countries Christian communities are in a difficult position in many Muslim countries.
In the West, Muslims are universally free to practice their religion without fear, are assiduously protected by governments, and at worst are exposed to the bigotry of a handful of nuts, all while in some places (for instance, Britain) Islamic fundamentalists openly recruit for jihad against their host nations. In the Muslim world, Christians are routinely denied the right to practice their religion, imprisoned, enslaved (in Sudan), or murdered (in Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, etc.). I can see why Annan thinks these are equivalent situations.
Kofi Annan and Samuel Kobia: separated at birth? You be the judge.
Athanasius on 05.18.04 @ 07:06 PM EST [link]
What really happened in Massachusetts
A headline in the print version of today's Greensboro News & Record, referring to the events in Massachusetts yesterday, proclaims "Gay marriages resume."
Leave aside the fact that marriage is a state, not an event, and that what happened in the Bay State were weddings, ceremonies marking the beginning of marriages. What the headline writer is apparently unaware of is that yesterday was the first time in American history that same-sex weddings have taken place. What happened in San Francisco, Portland, and a handful of other locations were not weddings, same-sex marriage being unsanctioned by law in any of those jurisdictions. Rather, it was political theatre carried out by agenda driven politicians and ministers. Nothing "resumed" yesterday. Instead something completely new happened. Now, the real drama begins, as we see whether gay activists are successful in using the courts to impose their agenda on an unwilling nation, much the way four judges imposed their agenda on an unwilling state.
Athanasius on 05.18.04 @ 09:53 AM EST [link]
