Editor’s Note: The article below by Pastor Dennis D. Nelson originally appeared in the September 2018 Newsletter.

Click here to read the article.

All,

This month David Charlton, an ELCA pastor, wrote to Bp. Eaton about his concerns concerning seminary education of traditional Lutherans seeking ordination in the ELCA. Click here to read his letter which asked some very important questions. Bp. Eaton responded and gave him permission to share; click here to read her response.

Editor’s Note: The article below by Pastor Dennis D. Nelson originally appeared in the Summer 2018 Newsletter.

Click here to read the article.

Editor’s Note: The article below by Pastor Steven K. Gjerde originally appeared in the Summer 2018 Newsletter.

Click here to read the article.

Lutheran CORE has sent a letter to ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton asking her to take action in light of some of the keynote speakers at the recent youth gathering. Click here to read it.

A funny thing happened on my way to the 2018 March for Life–I almost talked myself out of going. I was already in DC, having attended the 8:30 prayer service at DAR Hall, although technically it was the 24th National Memorial for the Preborn and their Mothers and Fathers. At any rate, my car was in two-hour parking and I had broken away from the group (of mainly pastors), in search of a parking garage to prevent my car from being ticketed. It would have been easy to just keep driving as I needed to get to Richmond that night. But then I received an email from Dennis Nelson, President of the Board and Director of Lutheran CORE, which said, “Thank you for your bold witness as you participate in the March for Life today. Your presence and involvement help communicate the fact that we as Lutheran Christians believe that life, including the life of the unborn, is a precious gift from God.” Okay then—the timing of that was incredible and I believe in God, not coincidence–better find the others.

Four minutes later, my bus arrived and within an hour, by bus and by foot, I arrived at 12th Street and Constitution Ave where I was told to look for a large Lutherans For Life banner on the sunny side of the street. For the next two hours, Lutherans of all stripes gathered there to assemble their banners, grab lunch from the food trucks, and prepare for the march. There was unity of purpose, music, and joy in the air as introductions were made and photos were taken.

For us, the March began about 2 pm and we very slowly walked 1.3 miles to the United States Supreme Court building in about an hour and a half. Along the way, we saw a multitude of Catholic priests, nuns and lay people—an amazing witness to other Christians. There were also a number of evangelicals from independent and traditional churches. We saw Lutherans holding signs and singing along to the hymns printed on the back of the signs. I will admit, I don’t trust myself to walk and read at the same time, so it was good that the hymns were familiar.

At the prayer service I noticed a lot of young people in the seats, in sharp contrast to the seniority of some of the clergy on the stage, but during the march we saw huge crowds of high school students, often dressed in brightly colored hats, scarves or shirts, as well as babies and young children. There was even an ELCA law student who attended with his NALC mother. His mom later told me, “It was great for him to see so many young adults his age marching for the cause of life.” Another young man approached us because he saw the banner we took turns carrying. He had come in from Iowa, one of only two Protestants on the bus, and he was happy to see other Protestants present. Now, 45 years after that fateful court case was decided, there seems to be hope for the future based on the youth present. This is not a battle that is going away anytime soon. I was heartened to hear that the President addressed the March for Life at the Rose Garden, but I did not witness that.

At the prayer service, I sat two seats away from an older teenager who seemed uncomfortable in her own skin and remarked that she wasn’t even religious. Near the end of the service, the Benham twins, David and Jason, spoke and much of what they had to say was directed at the youth. It turns out that their father, a pastor, used to talk to Miss Norma nearly every day because his office was located right next to the abortion clinic where she worked. Yes, the Norma McCorvey, from the Roe v. Wade court case, that led to legalized abortion in the United States. The Benhams continuously sent her cookies and invited her to dinner at their house until, over time, she became a Christian and pro-life. It is a much more complicated story than that, but I’m glad I got up early enough to hear it. If nothing else, a seed has been planted in that teenager, and I will always wonder if that day was life changing for her.

I don’t usually think of Washington, DC as a friendly place, but I met nice people at every turn all day long. Not just the marchers, but the bus drivers, the parking attendant, random people I stopped to ask for directions, and the Metro subway workers. I made it safely back to my car, parked somewhere near the intersection of Vermont and L streets, because the Metro workers knew I needed to get off the subway at McPherson Square. That was very important to know because my phone had died by that point and I didn’t have a map. Next time I will bring a bottle of water, my cell phone wall charger plus a map and SmarTrip subway card. When I finally got to my room in Richmond, VA that night, I had walked 13,725 steps and I fell asleep instantly.

To give you a feel for just how big this event was, watch this timelapse of the 2018 March for Life. 

Kim Smith

Member of the Board of Lutheran CORE

This is Lutheran CORE’s response, dated April 2017, to the “Naked and Unashamed” movement, which has come out of the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.  CORE is doubly concerned because it is unaware of any response from the administration and faculty of the seminary, the ELCA Council of Bishops, and Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton rejecting or distancing the ELCA from this movement.

RESPONSE TO “NAKED AND UNASHAMED”

ELCA PASTORS AND SEMINARIANS NOT ASHAMED

TO REVEAL BLATANT AGENDA

In 2009 the ELCA Churchwide Assembly rejected as normative the traditional, Biblical definition of marriage as it approved changes to policy and practice which allowed for the endorsing of and ordaining persons in publicly accountable, “lifelong, monogamous, same gender relationships.”  There is now a movement within the ELCA which would reject any definition of marriage as normative for sexual relationships.

Known as “Naked and Unashamed,” this movement was started by seminarians at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago and since then has been reaching out to other pastors, leaders, and seminary students in the ELCA who share their beliefs and values.  Their purpose and agenda are clearly revealed on their website, www.wearenakedandunashamed.org, which contains such statements as the following in regard to current ELCA policy and practice –

• “The limited and hierarchical focus on marriage and family life over alternative forms of relationality is oppressive, preferential, manipulative, and culturally irrelevant to the variety of healthy sexual, emotional, contractual, and/or romantic expressions that could be part of an appropriate Christian lifestyle.”
• “Life and liberty are being oppressed in the pressure for church leaders to be in marital relationships, or otherwise abstain from all sexual intimacy.”
• “Marriage is not the only healthy relationship model within which sexuality can be safely enjoyed.”

As seminarians and pastors who have recently been ordained, they are objecting to “overt policies and direct questioning during the ELCA candidacy process that disallow sexual intimacy, cohabitation, and committed relationality outside of civil marriage.”

What can those who hold to the traditional, Biblical view of marriage as a life-long, committed relationship between one man and one woman, and even those who hold to what was approved in August 2009, which allowed for the ordaining of persons in publicly accountable, “lifelong, monogamous, same gender relationships,” now expect?  Based upon experience of what happened before, we can only expect that those who wish to reject marriage altogether are going to pursue their agenda relentlessly until they achieve their goals, and once they do so, then all conversation is to stop and anyone who still advocates for the traditional view, and even the approved-in-2009 view, will be criticized for being disruptive, divisive, schismatic, and trouble-making.  That is what happened during the time leading up to and since the August 2009 decisions.  Why should we expect it to be any different this time?

Never is there any Biblical basis given for this group’s thinking.  And why would we expect that there would be?  Just as the documents that were approved by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in 2009 were based not upon the Bible, but upon psychology, sociology, and the dynamics that build trust between and among people, so this group is arguing for their desired changes on the basis of such vague reasons as “the common good,” the fact that they are “healthy” and “life giving,” “the plethora of stories we hear,” and “our values and lived experience.”  

Even in their use of the phrase, “Naked and Unashamed,” this group is turning its back on the Bible’s description of God’s judgment and mercy.  Adam and Eve were described as “naked and unashamed” before their distrust of God’s word and their disobedience.  Their transgression caused them to be ashamed, to hide, to clothe themselves in fig leaves.  Their self-justification was their primary clothing.  When God sent them out of Eden, He gave them something better.  He did not send them into the world “naked and unashamed” to make a “fresh start” of things.  Rather He clothed them even more fully – with the skins of animals who died in their place, as a forerunner of Jesus who would die in our place and whose blood would be shed to cover our sins.

According to the Lutheran understanding of the Bible, God gives us a “fresh start” in baptism.  Spiritually we go into the water naked.  Our old, sinful, deathly self is drowned in Jesus’ own death for our sake.  And when we rise in the power of His resurrection, we are immediately clothed in white robes that signify that we are more fully clothed in the righteousness, purity, and holiness of Jesus Himself.  As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5: 4, in our redemption in Christ we are not unclothed.  We are more fully clothed!

This group’s website claims that the ELCA’s teaching, expectations, and documents surrounding sexuality are “heteronormative, white-centric, economically oppressive, and non-Lutheran.”  Standards of monogamy, commitment, and chastity are deemed oppressive and demeaning.  Ideals of faithfulness and purity are rejected.  Biblical norms of “life together” are dismissed as the invention of elite, wealthy, and white Europeans.  This group asserts that other cultures have different understandings of sexual good.  In so doing, they are not only ignoring the very staunch standards for sexuality of our African fellow Lutherans, they are also ignoring the stringent sexual ethics of the Old and New Testaments, which certainly are neither elite, wealthy, white, nor European.  

Those who thought and hoped that the decisions of August 2009 to accept same gender relationships if they are publicly accountable, lifelong, and monogamous would be enough, would satisfy those who were pressing for changes, and would be as far as this issue would go, should be alarmed to read on this group’s website that they reject those decisions because of the way in which those standards define what is a “decent and acceptable marriage in the ELCA.”  They reject the 2009 decisions because they say that “acceptable same-gender relationships must look the same as acceptable heterosexual relationships.”  

The documents of this group even give a place for advocating for polyamory (multiple partners), as evidenced in these statements.  

• “This is what we are pushing back on:  the idea that one person in your life must be the one whom you trust the most, and with whom you simultaneously work together financially, domestically, sexually, emotionally, and parentally.”
• “There exists in the ELCA multiple positions on (several different relational patterns are listed, including polyamory).  We lift this multiplicity up and demand that its full diversity be recognized within the Christian lifestyle in our church.”

There is no sense of marriage as based upon our creation as male and female, and as given its most perfect expression in the model of God’s faithful and permanent love for His people and Jesus the bridegroom’s love for the Church, His bride.  Rather this group says that “understanding and practices of marriage, relationality, and sexuality also change over time, and must be understood as contextual.”  There are “many possible forms of ‘Christian’ relationality, just as we see diverse forms of Christian worship.”  To see different expressions of sexuality as no more significant than the difference between traditional and contemporary worship would be absurd if it were not so alarming.

This group makes absolutely no mention of the long-standing and profound Biblical linkage between sexual sin and idolatry.  At the risk of being gross and offensive, I would refer you to an article entitled, “My clitoris keeps my faith alive,” posted on the “Stories” page of the “Naked and Unashamed” website.  A seminary Ph. D. student writes, “My clitoris became a gateway to the mystery of God’s presence. . . . My clitoris became more than an organ of pleasure, but a piece of heaven within me.”

How is this different from the pagan sexuality and fertility cults of the Canaanites, which the Bible clearly condemns?  This is idolatry, making a god out of part of my own body.  This is what the apostle Paul described in Romans 1: 25 as he talked about those who “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.”

Any faithful member of the ELCA should be absolutely alarmed to see this kind of thinking coming out of one of the ELCA seminaries.  Our concern for the future should be in overdrive, as we realize that our future pastors are being exposed to this kind of thinking during their seminary training.  Since this group is focusing especially on sexual ethics for pastoral candidates, are they saying that if a pastor or pastoral candidate has sex with a prostitute, it is okay, as long as s/he is respected as a sex worker?  Are they implying that if a congregation is not able to pay within guidelines, then a pastor or pastoral candidate is free to sell sexual favors to supplement income – again, as long as it is done in a healthy, life-giving, respectful, and mutually beneficial fashion?

This past February we were all reading and hearing with great alarm about the Oroville Dam in northern California.  Because of unusually heavy rains, the dam’s main and emergency spillways were significantly damaged, prompting the evacuation of more than 180, 000 people living downstream.  Those who oversee the Oroville Dam would be grossly irresponsible if they were to not take any and all necessary measures to repair the damage and ensure the future integrity of the dam.  Will the leadership of the ELCA – the Presiding Bishop, the Church Council, the Council of Bishops, those who oversee the ELCA’s seminaries – say, “Enough is enough; this has gone too far; this is not what was voted on and approved at the Churchwide Assembly in 2009”?  Or will they allow the damage and the erosion of Biblical values to continue – at probably an ever increasing rate?

Dennis D. Nelson

President of the Board and Director of Lutheran CORE

Easter Greetings and Pastor Gjerde’s Letter Asking Bishop Eaton to Stand Against Abortion

• APRIL 20, 2017 – 9:55 PM
• LUTHERANCORE

The following letter was sent in June 2015 to the sixty-five synodical bishops of the ELCA and to Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton after the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of same-sex marriages. Of the sixty-six people who received the letter, CORE heard back from only one – the bishop of the Oregon Synod – and he basically minimized our concerns.

June 28, 2015

Dear

Thank you for the ministry of oversight which you are providing for the Church.  God has entrusted you with the enormous responsibility to care for His flock, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ gave His life.

The social statement, “Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust,” as approved by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in August 2009, describes four different positions that members of the ELCA hold “with conviction and integrity” regarding same-gender relationships.  After acknowledging that “at this time this church lacks consensus on this matter,” the social statement then continues with these words: “Regarding our life together as we live with disagreement, the people in this church will continue to accompany one another in study, prayer, discernment, pastoral care, and mutual respect.”  

I am writing as president of the board of Lutheran CORE on behalf of all the pastors and congregations of the ELCA who do not celebrate and agree with the recent Supreme Court decision regarding same-sex marriage.  Many are wondering what impact this ruling will have upon them both now and in the future.  Some are wondering whether the law will continue to allow them to marry and not marry according to their religious convictions, and what will happen if the laws were to be changed.   Some are wondering whether in the future churches will lose their tax-exempt status if they refuse to perform or host same-sex marriages.  Some are wondering what steps they should be taking now to preserve and protect their legal right to not perform same-sex marriages.  

The human sexuality social statement also states, “The ELCA recognizes that it has a pastoral responsibility to all children of God.”  I am writing to encourage you in your calling to uphold this principle and to ask how you will do so.  Since 2009, those who have supported the changes in our teaching on sexuality and marriage have seen those changes confirmed and supported in many concrete ways: the ordination of practicing homosexuals, public statements by various leaders of the ELCA, a new working group on ministry to same-gendered families, and an increased tolerance of transgenderism, to name a few examples.  Lutheran CORE and its constituents do not believe that equal confirmation and support have been afforded those of a traditional mindset.  How will you now unreservedly lend your affirmation, pastoral care, and episcopal defense to those who uphold the traditional view of marriage?     

Thank you, again, for your ministry of leadership, oversight, and pastoral care.  And thank you for your attention and response to our concern.  

Sincerely,

Dennis D. Nelson

Retired ELCA Pastor, President of the Board of Lutheran CORE