Response to the Report of the ELCA Task Force on Sexuality
—authored by Lutherans Concerned/San Francisco Bay Area
February 20, 2005

With the admonition that, as a church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) would “Journey Together Faithfully,” we began the examination of human sexuality and how we, as communities of faith, could find common ground as we consider these issues and their impact upon us all. It was a beginning that filled many with hope and optimism. However, in reading the report of the ELCA Task Force on Human Sexuality, Lutherans Concerned/San Francisco Bay Area Chapter does not find the long-sought path to common ground, but rather, we observe a lost opportunity.

In 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote: “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” Avoiding the issues the original mandate asked it to address, the task force produced a report that says GLBT Lutherans in the ELCA must remain strangers at their own table—telling them that they should feel welcome, yet asking them to be content remaining un-welcomed for the sake of organizational unity. The recommendations of this task force are an attempt to prevent a possible future division by allowing the current and real divisions to exist—divisions that the task force failed to acknowledge fully, let alone propose steps to address.

The report states: “While we see no scriptural rationale for changing the church’s traditional teaching that homosexual behavior violates God’s intent, we remain open to possibility of new biblical and theological insights.” It was with courage and conviction that Martin Luther challenged the church’s traditional teachings on sin, redemption, grace, and the power of the Church as the Body of Christ to effect change in our world. Our shared Lutheran heritage is a story of new biblical and theological insights showing us that God’s welcome is limitless.

We understand that issues of human sexuality are difficult for many people. While we express our disappointment and dissent to the recommendations adopted by the task force, Lutherans Concerned/San Francisco Bay Area finds common ground with second dissenting opinion presented in Part Three of the task force final report.

The Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality should recommend that the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America approve the following change in the
Vision and Expectations document of our church in Section III: The Ordained
Minister as Person and Example:

1) Remove the last sentence of the subsection Sexual Conduct which states: “Ordained ministers who are homosexual in their self-understanding are expected to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships.”
 

2) Develop a revision to the Vision and Expectations document that details the chaste and faithful behaviors that are expected of a rostered leader regardless of whether that person is heterosexual or homosexual.

It is our hope that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will once again find the courage of Martin Luther and embrace the wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr., and seize back this lost opportunity to affirm in action, rather than merely in words, that we hold firm to the biblical and theological principles that we are all called equally to be children of God.

Lutherans Concerned/San Francisco Bay Area

Members of the Board
Steven Krefting
Dean Atkinson
Charles H. Lewis
Joseph Haletky
Rachel Hoobing
Max Kirkeberg
Brian Knittel
Barbara Lembke
Markus Mueller
Gary Pence
Judy Streets