Photo courtesy of Life Issues Institute

In an article in the June letter from the director I outlined some of the ways in which the ELCA is fully embracing and constantly promoting and empowering the entire LGBTQIA+ agenda.  A link to that article can be found here.  One of the ways is the fact that the ELCA Church Council declined to consider the document, “Trustworthy Servants of the People of God,” even though it had been recommended to them by the ELCA Conference of Bishops.  Instead they referred it back to the Domestic Mission Unit for revision.  We all know that the process for writing and revising this statement of what the ELCA expects of its rostered ministers will not be complete until it fully conforms with everything desired and demanded by the relentless LGBTQIA+ agenda.

Too Conservative

We also have been wondering
all along when the ELCA would decide that the Human Sexuality social statement,
which was approved by the Churchwide Assembly in 2009, is just too conservative
in its allowing for and even giving a place of respect to traditional
views.  Lo and behold.  It looks like that time is coming.

Update on the Revision Process

By going to https://elca.org/rosteredlife you can find an update on the revision process for
the “Trustworthy Servants” document.  At
the bottom of the page you can find a link to FAQ’s – Frequently Asked
Questions.  One of the Frequently Asked
Questions is as follows –

“Does ‘Human Sexuality: Gift
and Trust’ need updating too? The Northwest Washington Synod Assembly has
submitted a memorial to revise the social statement on sexuality, and the
proposal to reopen this social statement will come before the 2019 Churchwide
Assembly.”

What Next?

Did any of us actually
believe that what was approved in 2009 would be where it would stay?  Were any of us actually naïve enough to
believe that the “bound conscience” argument that was used to gain support for
the human sexuality social statement would actually provide for the protection
of the bound conscience of those with traditional views? 

After the ELCA human sexuality social statement and the document
describing the ELCA’s expectations for its rostered leaders fully conform to
the desires and demands of the radical, relentless LGBTQIA+ agenda, what will
it be next?  Will the ELCA then rewrite
and revise its doctrinal statement – its confession of faith – so that it
actually conforms to what the ELCA actually believes and what the ELCA allows
its pastors to believe and teach? 

Photo by Robert Vergeson on Unsplash

Please save the date! Encuentro is an annual meeting that includes presentations, prayers, feasting, fellowship, outreach and encouragement for those involved in bilingual and Spanish language ministry or exploring such ministry.

To read about Encuentro 2018, click here.

To read CORE’s brochure created for Encuentro 2018, click here.

Encuentro 2019 is on September 14th, Holy Cross Day.

I originally intended my Postmodernism Gone Viral article as a one-off, but the response (both positive and negative) has been so strong that I realized there was a bit more to say on the subject.  Furthermore, that article was based on the draft document, and since I wrote it, the final proposal that the ELCA will consider for adoption has been issued.  Before my brother and sister Lutherans in the ELCA adopt Faith, Sexism, and Justice (FSJ), there is another issue that could have immediate, direct ripple effects into the other Lutheran bodies.  I will address this most serious issue in this article and then take on some of the criticisms I have received in a final installment, which won’t be published until after the die is cast regarding the adoption of FSJ.

Despite a few obligatory pious gestures to convince us that it is in fact “drawing on the deepest strands” of the faith tradition it largely critiques, it is clear that FSJ views the Christian and Jewish traditions as primarily providing impediments and challenges to its objectives.  It is therefore unsurprising that the document is significantly out of step with the Christian (and Jewish) traditions of 2000+ years. 

Goodbye to Sound Doctrine

A ready example is provided in the document’s first treatment of Scripture; here what is jettisoned is the tradition of sound exegesis guiding doctrine.  Since poor exegesis can take on a life of its own, getting copied and re-used by others beyond the bounds of the ELCA, I felt that this should be addressed prior to the ELCA deciding whether to give FSJ canonical status.

Proof?

Some rather dubious translation and exegetical footwork is engaged in to “prove” that the text of Genesis 2:7 shows God originally forming an un-sexed human being.  The proposed social statement uses a translation of this text rendered by Phyllis Trible in her book God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality:

“then Yahweh God formed the earth creature [hā-’ādām] dust from the earth [hā-ʼͣdāmȃ]
and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life,
and the earth creature [hā-’ādām] became a living nephesh [being]” 

[FSJ 419-422: I will reference excerpts from Faith, Sexism, and Justice using its own study numbers.]

Relying on Ms. Trible’s work based upon this tendentious rendering of the text, the document goes on to assert that:

In Hebrew, the word for “Adam” means “earth creature;” it is not a proper name but a poetic play upon the Hebrew word for earth. English translations of Genesis refer to “Adam” being formed first and refer to this earth creature as a male, but the original language never suggests that a man was created first. Rather, it recounts the creation of all humanity. Only later does the text refer to distinct bodies, called “Adam” and “Eve.”

[FSJ 423-427]

New Assertion

Of course, noting the relationship between the words hā-’ādām and hā-ʼͣdāmȃ is covering no new exegetical ground, but the assertion that hā-’ādām refers to “the creation of all humanity” is new… and it ignores several striking contra-indicators about the canonical text.  First, it ignores that in its canonical position, this story serves as a complement to Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them,” which clearly refers to the creation of all humanity.  In its canonical position, the Genesis 2 account adds a layer of narrative detail to the rather sparse account of Genesis 1.   

Poetic Word Play

The assertion that hā-’ādām is, of course, “not a proper name but [only] a poetic play upon the Hebrew word for earth” is not sustainable in the face of the remainder of the Genesis 2 narrative.  It ignores that hā-’ādām never undergoes a formal naming as does his wife in verse 3:20.  A consistent use of Dr. Trible’s hermeneutic should then have us logically declare that Eve is not a proper name, but rather only a poetic trope upon the Hebrew word for life.  Are we to believe Adam (and the rest of the creatures in the Genesis story) are not alive until Eve receives her name in verse 3:20?  The proposition is ludicrous in the extreme.

All of this means that hā-’ādām [Adam] is the name of the first human, and that this name is apt precisely because it is descriptive.  This last point is especially important given the dramatic contours of that happen next; Adam goes on to name “every living creature,” a task that requires that apt, descriptive names be found for each even as his own name is apt and descriptive.  The dramatic significance of Adam’s name crescendos to a climax when the Lord pronounces His judgment over the disobedience of Adam and his wife (not yet named) by proclaiming “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground [hā-ʼͣdāmȃ], for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)

Clearly Male

That the first human in the Genesis 2 story is clearly male is indicated by the manner of the woman’s creation in verses 2:21-25.  The creation of the woman from Adam’s bone indicates (among many other things) that Adam is male and his as-yet unnamed wife is female.  The narrative climax comes in Adam’s doxological hymn, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman (ʾiš·šā(h), because she was taken out of Man (ʾîš).” (Genesis 2:23)  That the woman is different from the man sexually is the very basis of her identification and clearly marks out Adam as different from her—that is already, prior to his wife’s creation, male.  Furthermore, Adam’s thanks is proffered because the woman is the essential “helper” that Adam needs.  Hence the apt, descriptive naming of her in accord with her creation; a naming after the same manner as Adam.  However, what the text pushes us to recognize is that her telos as “helper” is made possible by the very fact of her sexual differentiation from Adam, whose sex is already determined and unchanged by her creation.

Far from the social statement’s contention that Genesis 2:7 portrays the creation of humanity in general, the actual text of this verse shows the creation of a singular human nephesh (being), while the creation of humanity (human community and a species capable of being “fruitful and multiplying”) is not accomplished in the Genesis 2 story until verse 22. 

Sexually Differentiated Humanity

Both the Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 accounts therefore show God creating humanity in a sexually differentiated complementarity, a fact that the document wishes at all costs to avoid recognizing because it wishes to achieve a “reading of the Scriptures [that] promotes an understanding of human diversity that is not limited by either a binary or a hierarchical view of gender.” [FSJ 457-458]  The authors of the document must have realized the evident meaning of the original texts, because one of the things that changed from the earlier draft provided for commentary and the one to be considered for adoption at the ELCA’s upcoming churchwide assembly is the next line of analysis:  “The differentiation of humankind into male and female, expressed in Genesis 2, communicates the joy found in humans having true partners, true peers” of the earlier draft document has become in the text proposed for adoption, “The differentiation of humankind expressed in the creation stories communicates…”  In the original draft statement, the authors had inadvertently fallen back into exegesis—reading the text according to its clearly intended meaning—something that needed to be course-corrected in the document to be adopted by the church as official teaching.

Conflagration of Influences

Such unadulterated eisegesis of the most ham-fisted variety should be expected in any document that is deeply influenced by the conflagration of deconstructionism, post-structuralism, Marxism, and reactive, sophomoric cultural analysis that fits under the umbrella of postmodernism.  This is because, as I asserted in my last article, postmodernism views integrity to the data—coherence—as utterly superfluous to the true purposes of communication. 

Course Correction

And this gives me the chance to course-correct a failure of my first article—my failure to state explicitly the observation that led me to draft the article in the first place.  FSJ is more than disingenuous, it is hypocritical because it uses privileged communication from a position of hierarchical advantage to promote the ideology of egalitarianism.  In a technocratic meritocracy like our own, positions purportedly based upon “scholarship” or “expert testimony” like the aforementioned work of Dr. Phyllis Trible carry undue weight and have disproportionate influence.  The inclusion of the transliterated Hebrew words helps bamboozle the nominally educated and those who “just want fairness” (a noble predisposition) into thinking that the contentions of the social statement are supported by solid, relatively incontrovertible scholarship.  This leads inexorably to the conviction that there can be no principled reason to oppose the social statement, and that those so opposed must be of bad character, prompted by despicable (dare one say, deplorable?) motives.

We All Suffer

I have had the opportunity to experience firsthand this resultant dynamic in the less-than-thoughtful, reactionary responses to some of my articles over the years.  I will address some of the correspondence I received over part 1 of this article in the next issue of CORE Voice, but I end this article by noting that all of us suffer when the methodologies employed by FSJ are utilized.  Many have bemoaned the current state of political discourse in America, but few have noted that postmodernism, by removing all objective reference points and reducing all social interactions to mere exercises of power, necessarily forces our philosophical, moral, political, and theological discourse to this extremity.  For a Sola Scriptura tradition like Lutheranism, solid exegesis is the objective touchpoint that prevents our theology from becoming mere tribalism and enables it to retain its character as an expression of the “one holy catholic and apostolic faith.”  On these terms, FSJ not only fails to be an aspect of this faith, but it hypocritically attempts to use privileged internal mechanisms of that faith — Biblical exegesis and church governance structures — to establish a purportedly egalitarian ideology.  These are just two more reasons for its rejection by any church that hopes to remain part of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Many thanks to those who have already responded to the appeal for prayer and mission partners for a faithful, orthodox ELCA pastor and his Spanish-speaking ELCA congregation – Pastor Samuel Nieva and Pueblo de Dios Lutheran Church in Compton, California.  Compton is one of the poorest and most violence-prone cities in California.  A link to the article, which was part of the June letter from the director, can be found here.   

At the current time Pueblo de Dios is receiving $24,000 a year from the ELCA Churchwide and $5,000 per year from the Southwest California Synod, in support of an annual budget of $75,000.  But these amounts are at risk of being reduced, plus Pastor Nieva would like to not be financially dependent upon the ELCA.  Combining the donations from the congregation’s current mission partners, plus the amounts that have been given or pledged in the last few weeks, we are about one-fourth of the way towards meeting the goal of $50,000 per year from mission partners.  If you feel that God is speaking to you and/or your congregation about the needs of this most effective, faithful, and powerful orthodox ministry, please contact me at dennisdnelsonaz@yahoo.com.   

Pastor Steve Shipman wants to be clear that the political statements below are his opinions and do not represent official positions of Lutheran CORE. He served as a pastor in the ELCA for more than 45 years including as Director of Lutheran CORE. He is now an NALC pastor serving an interim pastorate in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. You can contact him at prsteveshipman@gmail.com.

One could almost feel sympathy for ELCA
Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton as she tries to navigate the minefield that is
the current political debate over legislation permitting or restricting
abortions.

As I noted in a previous article, the ELCA published a social statement on abortion a number of years ago, probably the last such statement that truly included a variety of opinions and was not simply stacked on one side along with a token “conservative” or two to make the outcome look legitimate.

Radical Feminist Cabal

The reality is that nobody in the ELCA officialdom seems willing or able to challenge the radical feminist cabal who are evidently the power behind the crozier. The ELCA has become what Secretary Almen warned against when it was being formed: It is the far left wing of a certain political party at prayer.

Correction

At the end of May poor Bp. Eaton issued a
letter on abortion, followed swiftly by a “correction.” Obviously she stepped
over a line on the first try, which did fairly accurately represent the
statement. The original letter from the Bishop said, “Through this social
teaching and policy statement, this church seeks to travel a moderating path by
supporting abortion as a last resort for pregnancies that are unsafe or a
result of rape or incest.” And that is basically true. But less than an hour
later she issued a correction, dropping “for pregnancies that are unsafe or a
result of rape or incest.”

Bp. Eaton’s Political Issue

Let’s review what the ELCA Abortion Statement actually said. It was quite clear: “…this church supports legislation that prohibits abortions that are performed after the fetus is determined to be viable, except when the mother’s life is threatened or when lethal abnormalities indicate the prospective newborn will die very soon. ” And of course the political issue which Bp. Eaton cannot or will not address is that laws are being passed and celebrated in shameful ways which permit any and all abortions up to the moment the baby comes out of the birth canal. Some political figures even leave it up to the mother to decide whether doctors should be permitted to treat a baby born after a botched abortion.

Abortion and Slavery

I personally believe that the
abortion issue in our time is the moral equivalent of the issue of human
slavery two centuries ago. If the Lord tarries, in another century the ELCA and
the other oldline churches will be seen much as we view those Christian groups
that justified slavery, often on biblical grounds.

Incapable of Biblical Truth

It is ironic that while the ELCA eagerly accuses every white person of being a horrible racist who needs to be re-educated to give up our “white privilege,” (which is even worse if you are a male), it is incapable of speaking a word of biblical truth in defense of vulnerable life unless it serves a certain political agenda.

The Science is Clear

And while on other issues the ELCA champions truths of science to support its political lobbying, the science is very clear that the unborn child has a very different DNA from its mother. The unborn child clearly has a higher moral claim than a spleen or an appendix.

So what can you do?

Goddess Choice

First, pray. Pray because just
as we are still experiencing what the prophets would call God’s judgment over
the practice of human slavery, God will not be mocked over the sacrifice of
innocent life on the altar of the goddess Choice.

Second, join Lutherans for Life, support them with your prayers and financial gifts, sign the petition they have recently posted (links are also on our Facebook page), and learn more about what they are doing.

Nothing is More Important

And third, I’m sorry to say
this, but please reflect on this issue when you cast your vote.  I am unapologetically a single-issue voter. I
believe that nothing is more important today as a political issue than the
protection of all life from conception to natural death. Yes, there can be a
few squishy areas on the extremes. But I cannot support any politician or
political party that advocates and even celebrates abortion without any
restrictions whatever.

March for Life 2020

So maybe that brings up a fourth point. I have gotten involved again in political campaigns to support some strong pro-life candidates. And they know why I support them (although they aren’t about to pander to the abortion lobby to save their political careers). Politics may not be for everybody. But at the very least, I hope to see many of you at the March for Life on January 24, 2020 in Washington (or you can look for a local march). We need some ELCA folks too, since I can no longer hold one end of the “ELCA for Life” banner.

Photos of baby in the womb by Life Issues Institute

Some startling statistics were included in a newsletter article by the president of an ELCA seminary.  According to the president, there are currently 2,776 vacancies in the nearly 10,000 congregations of the ELCA.  That is over one out of every four.  One thousand of those vacancies are for a full-time position.  What makes these statistics even more startling is the fact that the majority of the baby boomer pastors have yet to retire. No wonder there is such an extreme urgency about what Lutheran CORE’s Congregations in Transition (CiT) ministry initiative is doing.     

CiT is a new ministry, sponsored by Lutheran CORE, to assist churches facing the departure or retirement of their solo pastor.  CiT can be especially helpful in two kinds of ministry scenarios: 1. When the pastor has recently announced — or is planning to announce — his or her upcoming retirement; and 2. When congregational leaders who are already dealing with a vacancy have found the search and call process to be longer (and perhaps more frustrating) than they had anticipated.

Each congregation that “signs on” is assigned their own trained coach/consultant to provide customized counsel to the church for up to six to eight months.  These trained coaches are mostly recently retired Lutheran pastors, which means that they are volunteering their time.  This is a pan-Lutheran effort.  We have pastor/coaches who are rostered with ELCA, LCMC, NALC, and AALC.  The only costs to the congregation are the reimbursement of actual travel expenses incurred by the coach, plus a nominal $150 administrative-cost fee paid to Lutheran CORE.  This ministry is not designed to replace the ministry support and resources available to your congregation from your own church body.  Instead it is designed to supplement those resources.

Chuck Amdahl, retired LCMC and NALC pastor and one of the trained coaches, describes CiT in this way:

“It is all about people whose hearts are great for the people of God, for the life of the congregation. . . . As coaches they come alongside of congregations in transition, encouraging and equipping – empowering leaders whose responsibilities include navigating the congregation through uncertain transitions.  These coaches are building awareness, strength, and confidence among its members, renewing purpose (mission) and vitality all the while. 

“I am privileged to work alongside of these coaches.  They are brothers and sisters serving the Lord Jesus and His Church – your congregation, and the very Church which as Samuel Stone so rightly reminds us in that old and favorite hymn composed well over a century ago:  ‘…with His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.’”   

For more information contact Don Brandt at pastordonbrandt@gmail.com or Dennis Nelson at dennisdnelsonaz@yahoo.com.  You can also read more about Congregations in Transition by visiting the Lutheran CORE website.  A link to that portion of the website can be found here.

“And all the kingdoms of Canaan; and He gave their land as a heritage,
a heritage to Israel His people.  Your
name, O Lord, is everlasting, Your remembrance, O Lord, throughout all
generations.  For the Lord will judge His
people and will have compassion on His servants.”  (Psalm 135:12-14)

Our modern world still fights
the struggle that was spoken of many millennia ago.  What the Lord gives, the Lord gives.  What the devil fights over he fights over.  This too is a witness of the truth of the
ages.  God is LORD and all that He made
is His.  Do not war over things of this
world, but come into the Lord’s presence and walk humbly with Your Maker, for
He will lead His servants.

Lord, You have called for us to serve one another.  Guide me, O Lord, in the way You would have
me go.  Lift me up to see in You the hope
of glory.  Guide me according to Your
never-failing principles to see that in You alone is hope for all who will come
to You.  May I learn from You to walk in
Your provision and know that only in You is there hope and a future.  Grant compassion upon Your faithful.

Through the Holy Spirit, Lord
Jesus, lift up my countenance to see Your way of truth amidst a world at
war.  Guide me today in the way of truth.  Lead me according to the principles You taught
Your disciples that I would learn to live life as it is meant to be lived.  Guide me this day in the way I should go that
I would not tarry, but live into the promises You have given for the
faithful.  Amen.

“He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and
all his servants.  He smote many nations
and slew mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan,” (Psalm
135:9-11)

Generation after generation the
nations come and go.  The mighty deeds of
the Lord are evident to any who will look, but many do not look and so do not
see.  The Lord delivers the faithful and
the church continues.  The wicked go down
to the pit, but the way of the Lord abides. 
Come into the house of the Lord and although times are tough, know that
the Lord provides for all.

Lord, I do not understand the times or seasons, but I see the witness
of goodness of Your provision throughout the ages.  Lead me, O Lord,  to see in You the hope You provide for those
who trust in You.  Guide me into the good
life You offer for those who follow You. 
You will watch over our going out and coming in.  Let me understand this and be affirmed in
faith that I may always trust in You.

Lord Jesus, there are many thing
You have taught us.  You have provided
and led the way that each of us might become like You.  Guide me this day, Lord Jesus, so that I
learn from You and do what is pleasing in the Father’s sight.  Help me now and always to look to You as my
example and be guided by what You have taught us to do.  Your ways are wonderful and forever.  Amen.

“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; who makes
lightnings for the rain, who brings forth the wind from His treasuries.  He smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man
and beast.”  (Psalm 135:7-8)

The earth is the Lord’s for He
made all things.  Know that He who made
all things knows His creation.  Do not
trust in the words of mere mortals, but in the One who created all things.  In Him alone is life and light.  In Him alone is goodness.  Come then and dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.  Come and be nurtured by the One
who made you and all things that you may know your Maker.

Lord, I am often led off the path of righteousness by the cares of this
world.  Help me, O Lord, to live into the
life for which I was made.  Guide me
according to Your goodness to see the hope of glory which You have placed
before me.  Lead me ever deeper into the
unimaginable depths of the faith You have given me.  According to Your goodness, lead me to live a
life of faith.

Jesus, my way, truth and life,
guide me this day to understand a little more about the faith You have given
me.  Guide me according to Your goodness
to see that in You is all hope.  Lift me
up to see today Your guidance as I live out this day.  Help me to see through the clouds that will
come that I may now and always abide in the light of Your countenance.  Lead away my Savior; I will follow.  Amen.