Why Not?

The ELCA this week has made decisions that will lift up and honor publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender sexual relationships and to allow people in such relationships to be pastors and other "rostered ministers" in this church. In short, we have laid the groundwork that will make possible gay/lesbian marriages and pastors in such "marriages" to be pastors in the ELCA.

I think this is not good.

Here is an attempt to say, in regard to honoring
homosexual relationships, why not?:

God's Word and God's creative order show that God intends male and female marriage to be the place where we are to HONOR sexual intimacy. This plan is written into the fabric of creation, where God made us male and female so we can "be fruitful and multiply." God's intent, which comes to us in a broken and fallen world, is that intimate heterosexual sexuality be the foundation of family life, where mothers and fathers care for children in self-giving and self-sacrificial love.

Now, let me pause and say that 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 want but cannot bear children. I know that all married men and women will not bear children. Many gay and lesbian couples have provided loving, caring homes for children. It's also true that many couples who are not married, heterosexual and homosexual, have strong, loving relationships that bring joy into their lives and the lives of others.

Still,

Because it is in the context of heterosexual marriage that God has chosen to create human life, I believe God lifts up heterosexual marriage above all other expressions of sexual intimacy. God's Word teaches us that other forms of sexual intimacy are out of bounds, fall short of God's intent, and, therefore, by definition, are examples of our human brokenness and our fall into sin.

THEREFORE, PRAISE GOD FOR JESUS, who gave his life a sacrifice for sinners--for you and for me. We are all standing on equal, level ground before the cross of Christ and his glorious empty tomb.

This whole issue is complex and difficult, and I so want to be able to share Christ's sacrificial love with all people, including homosexuals. But I find that I need to let you know where I stand, with prayers that if I am wrong that I will be corrected and will repent, and if I am not sufficiently clear that you'll ask me to clarify my position.

I believe that what the ELCA is doing in this assembly, in honoring homosexual sexual relationships, is 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.

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