The Churchwide Assembly voted on the Social Statement on Sexuality just before 6:00. The vote was 676 to 338 - it required exactly 676 to adopt. If any one of those voting positively had voted no, the result would have been the reverse.
Click here a for a link to the voluminous statement. Now the assembly is starting to debate the implementing resolutions--they are at the end of the statement.
Personally, I think this is a sad day for a church that says it relies on the Scriptures as our source and norm for proclamation faith and life.
----------------------------------------
Added 10:22 p.m. - Click here for a StarTribune story.
It is interesting to note that Luther's "Bound Conscience" was bound by Scriptures, now our "Bound Conscience" is bound by whatever we want it to be bound by.
ReplyDeleteSad indeed.
There are many issues I accept without endorsing.
Prayers for strength... on the way...
ReplyDeletePastor Steve, You are in my prayers today.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kim and Wayne. At the moment I'm feeling sick. God's Word and God's creative order are so clear that God intends male and female marriage to be THE place where we are to HONOR sexual intimacy. I so want to be able to share Christ's sacrificial love with all people, including homosexuals. God, however, has a plan that we are to honor and obey, especially as regards how God chooses to bring life into the world and protect and nurture it. I love adoptive parents and all those who stand in the gap for children whose birth parents cannot provide the loving home that is required for healthy children to grow up. I love couples and grieve with those who cannot bear children. But God's intent, broken in this fallen world, is that intimate sexuality be the foundation of family life, where parents care for children in self-giving and self-sacrificial love. What we are doing at this assembly is to continue to move away from God's intent. I appreciate your prayers as I, and many others, decide what we will do and how we will act in the days and weeks to come.
ReplyDelete