August 4, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

Does the Christian “right wing” really think that the Gospel belongs to them alone? Or that they can prevent unsavory or unacceptable people from receiving the word of God. One of the continuous drum beats we hear coming from the anti-homosexual right wing is that we are not really Christians. What? Do we not profess our faith in Jesus Christ just the same as they? Or is there another criterion to which we don’t measure up, because we are lesbian/gay, bisexual, transgender or use another label to describe ourselves?

We can all read the Word which tells us that all are welcome, even the least and the last. But if those who believe themselves to be saved—to be among the insiders, to be God’s cherished people, don’t like “the least and the last,” to what can they appeal to insist that those other people—us— aren’t really welcome? They can appeal to the idea that everyone must repent. And for the insiders’ purposes, the bar of repentance can be set very high indeed.

Greg Egertson once told of his experience and struggle with the discernment that he was gay, and especially how he dealt with this in relationship to his Christian faith. Greg’s grandfather was a respected Lutheran pastor in Los Angeles. His father, Paul Egertson, has served both as an equally-respected pastor and bishop of the Synod; and continues in retirement as a faculty member at California Lutheran University. Greg is a seminary graduate who is one of many qualified and gifted individuals that Vision & Expectations continues to exclude from the ordained ministry of the Lutheran Church.

And his statement of faith? Greg expressed his understanding as a young person very succinctly: “I believed that all God’s promises were meant for me.”

It is such a clear and unfettered, uncomplicated statement to make – one that sings with the melody of the Gospel and the harmony of the Lutheran confession of the Christian faith. “I believe that all of God’s promises were meant for me.” Is not this perfectly equivalent to the favorite slogan of those who say they have been born again: “I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” Amen, sisters and brothers.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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August 2, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

My partner and I have been about the psychic homework of re-constructing lost relationships. It is both spiritually moving and painful, rewarding and treacherous.

I will not talk about his psychic work, but my own. For one thing, my church Council has basically ordered me to attend the up-coming Churchwide Assembly next week. I am going to “put a face on the issue” of LGBT pastors serving in the Lutheran Church.

But it’s my face I am taking to Chicago, and it promises to be both rewarding and treacherous. When I was previously active in the ordained ministry, prior to 1988, I was known among a wide circle of people in Southern California, and hopefully well-regarded. No scandals, no missteps. The closet door was closed to all but the most trusted friends.

Then I was outed, and in a matter of months the rumor mill got to the Bishop’s ear. He was privately “supportive” but unwilling to defend me publicly. My ministry went down in flames in a matter of weeks. I vowed to myself and my partner that I would never go back into the closet even if it meant I never returned to the Lutheran ministry.

For sixteen years I worked in other jobs, some of them challenging enough in their own right. Then came downsizing in the new economy, and my second career also went down in flames.

The psychic homework that began then is still going on, as the Spirit led me to reconstruct my life, or re-invent myself, all over again. When I was surprisingly called back to the ministry in 2004 by a congregation willing to take risk of discipline upon itself in order for us to work together, the psychic homework of reconstructing lost relationships took a huge step forward. Spiritually, both moving and painful, both rewarding but treacherous. As another pastor (not gay) said to me, “Dan, you’ve done very well in handling rejection in the past. But now you have to learn to handle acceptance.”

So the work continues as I face the Churchwide Assembly and prepare to put my face in the room with people from whom I had hid for many years, or who will only see my face connected to a rainbow stole and a social controversy. It is humbling and frightening to take this kind of risk. It reminds me of a book by a Jesuit, Powell I believe, called “Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am?” This formative question came to him in a counseling session when a man answered it so succinctly: “Because you may not like who I am, and it’s all I’ve got.”

The psychic work — spiritual work — is to put myself out there, the only self that I’ve got, not knowing whether anyone will like who I am. Whether I will learn some new ways to handle acceptance, or be reminded of old ways I’ve handled rejection.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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