I am not the only Lutheran parish pastor to blog. (And yes, I admit that I am more of an essayist than a blogger. But when I get started on something, I have to give it a fair run in my mind.) But when I happen to run into blogs being written by other Lutheran clergy – and there are a lot – I am discouraged and annoyed at what I find.

They all seem to be on the religious right-wing. They tend to rant or wring their hands about what’s becoming of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or the loosey-goosey thinking of the Left. I guess I should spend more time just searching for Lutheran blogs, because I can’t believe that I am the most Left-Leaning Liberal Lutheran bLogger out there. (There, the “L word” over and over, without mentioning Lesbian.)

I did come across a Lutheran blog a couple of years ago that had some valid points on other issues, but seemed to be “stuck” on sexuality issues. It was inviting other bloggers to identify themselves and get listed on a bigger blogroll. So I wrote in and asked to be listed as another Lutheran blogger. Never heard from those folks again, so I guess I was on their “lunatic fringe.”

It reminds me of a student at [1] PLTS years ago who was from the (then LCA) Indiana Kentucky Synod. Why he picked Berkeley was beyond me, but we would tease with him a lot about his position on social issues. And back then the issues were drugs, free speech, the war (Vietnam not Iraq even though it seems as if the Iraq war has been going on for generations already), etc. He was courteous about those of us with more liberal attitudes, but was honestly afraid that if he leaned any further toward the center (from the Right) he would be perceived back home as a [2] Commie Pinko (yes, if you are reading this, [3] you might be a Commie Pinko!). And never get a call.

[4]

Religion Facts:  A classmate of mine, actually.

(For those of you who are not genetically Lutheran, a Lutheran seminary graduate, no matter how qualified, likeable, intelligent or even straight, will never be ordained if s/he doesn’t receive an actual Letter of Call from a congregation. The Lutherans do not ordain candidates to ministry in general, or without portfolio, but ordain only candidates who are formally called to a real ministry. No play priests here.)

As a consequence of this particular ecclesiology, we tend to come down on the conservative side compared to some other Protestant denominations where you graduate, get ordained and can spout off from any bully pulpit or soap box you can find. Lutheran pastors serve, for the most part, Lutheran congregations. There is a comparatively tiny percentage in specialized ministries and even then typically only after having served in a parish setting for a minimum of three years.

Why I bring that up is because I myself am a pretty conservative Lutheran pastor, no matter how much I may seem to be on the Left Coast of the ELCA. In conscience I truly struggle with issues of public policy and pop culture and constantly try to fit them into my understanding of church tradition, biblical theology, and congregational community life.

There are hundreds, thousands, of subjects I just would never bring up in a sermon, for example. And I suppose this [5] Indwelling Spirit blog is my one outlet otherwise (kind of a “safe harbor on the Left Coast”), even though members of the church are entirely welcome to read what I write.

If I haven’t mentioned this before, the name Indwelling Spirit came to me while in seminary as a name for a collection of liturgical renewal pieces which a group of students were drafting and collecting for daily chapel services. Ever since, it has stuck in me as a reflection on the Early Church’s process of reckoning what to do with controversy and change when individual apostles or deacons simply marched into uncharted territory. The final test was whether or not those who were drawn to the faith had received the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 5:32, 10:44–48)

The premier text on this experience, which I claim in faith and make it my own is this from Acts 15:8–11, in a speech by the apostle Peter in the Church’s first general Council meeting:

“And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

My point is that, like my friend from Kentucky years ago, I am “fringy” only in contrast to reactionary clergy of the Religious Right, who rant about the presence of lesbian/gay people in the church of Christ (but seldom does bisexuality, transgenderism and other sexual minority issues even blip on their radar). To the people I meet in the community around me, and in the LGBT circles of Hollywood, I am orthodox to the point of boredom.

But when I read the scriptures from the fringes, rather than from a position of power and entitlement, I read them differently. The Scriptures are the word of God to me like they are for the conservative Christian, except that the Scriptures radicalize me because they speak to me on the fringe.

In the passage above, who are the “they” of whom Peter speaks? The Gentiles—the outsiders whom the insiders wagged their heads about and ranted that admitting them unconditionally was a slippery slope for the church! The insiders (the New Testament will identify them as “Judaizers”) believed that Gentiles were sinners and that the Law of God could not be relaxed just to accommodate outsiders. This seems amazingly parallel to our experience as [gay and lesbian people]:

“And God, who knows the human heart, testified to gays and lesbians by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

[6]

You Tube:  The shocking truth about the gay lifestyle.

My right-wing blogger friends would scoff at such a comparison, if not be entirely outraged. After all they would insist gay people choose that lifestyle. But in the great Jew/Gentile [7] debates which wrenched the earliest Christian community, being a Gentile was a matter of “lifestyle.” They were thought to be sinners who should simply quit doing all the disgusting things that Gentiles do, and come under the Law and obey God and get circumcised. It always seems to come down to that particular male anatomical appendage, doesn’t it? And the right wing of the church today never learned what the New Testament teaches about this, so they continue to insist that we need to cut it off in order to please God.

[8]

Acts 15: The Brick Testament’s “Great Penis Debate”

And because I see the Scriptures from the margins, from the view of the marginalized, I am considered a lunatic of the left? The Spirit that dwells within me tells me not to trust their view, but to trust my own conscience and to keep reading the Scriptures … and to keep blogging.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles