God is Still Speaking.

September 23, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

It is high wedding season for the lesbian and gay couples in California. We’ve had several months now to get weddings planned and guests invited. So I am very busy, doing several weddings per week from now until election day November 4. (Do I need to remind anyone to vote NO on Proposition 8?)

But our national churchbody, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is apparently rattling its sabers about gay marriage. The word has leaked out that the top national official who is responsible for interpreting the ELCA’s constitution between biennial churchwide assemblies is saying that ELCA pastors in California (and Massachusetts I presume) should not be performing the legal ceremonies even if they preside over “blessings.” He (it always seems to be a he) is interpreting the rules by making a real stretch of logic that because our pre-existing guiding social statements about marriage and family see a marriage as two of opposite genders that pastors, who have pledged to obey the rules should not be presiding over gay and lesbian marriages. According to sources I heard yesterday, he is even suggesting that a pastor who performs a gay or lesbian wedding could be subject to disciplinary charges — even to the extent of being removed from the professional roster.

It is a stretch because the pre-existing documents did not even contemplate the possibility of legalized same-sex marriage. It is a stretch because he is suggesting that broad social statements must control and limit every individual pastoral act on the local level. It is a stretch because he leaves no wiggle room for the individual’s conscience. It is a stretch because he is trying to keep his juridical rubber-band around a world which is rapidly changing.

It is beyond me why he would want to take the ELCA down the road which is so rocky and pitted and filled with land-mines that have endangered the United Methodist Church, the United Presbyterian Church and the Episcopal Church.

Why he would want to take the path of conservative control, when the ELCA is in very close and significant agreements with the United Church of Christ, is equally beyond me. The United Church of Christ is much more open-minded about gay/lesbian marriage and the presence of gay and lesbian people in its membership and professional ministry. In recent years that national body has produced and broadcast some amazing television ads that use the slogan ”God is Still Speaking.”

In other words, the book is not closed on the will of God.  God speaks in our changing world. We should be listening to and discerning what the word of God is for our changing world.

But apparently high-ranking ELCA officials believe that God is not still speaking, or that the pre-existing documents written more than 20 years ago have the last word. I think it may be closer to the truth that the ELCA is not listening, but God is still speaking.

In the meantime, I am conducting marriages, invoking the blessing of Almighty God with confidence that God is present wherever love is lifted up and where commitments are made and kept.

On Sunday afternoon, I presided over the wedding ceremony for two men who have been partnered for 16 years. One of them is in a wheel chair now, and could not even stand to recite his vow of love and fidelity for life to the younger man who had pushed him down the aisle and whose tears streamed down his cheek. So that partner knelt beside the wheel chair for them to exchange their vows in front of the altar of our church.

Go ahead, mister high-ranking official: Try to tell God not to be present in that sacred moment. Try to tell me that I should not announce the unconditional love and blessing of God on these two brave men. Try to tell me I am in violation of 20 year-old documents which I pledged to uphold, or that I could be subject to discipline for signing a document which certifies that these two men have freely and without coercion decided to accept responsibility for one another for the rest of their lives. But while you are trying to tell me this stuff, I can scarcely hear you, because I am listening for a voice which is louder than yours. God is still speaking.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Ecumenical Issues, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs, Ministry, ELCA | Print | No Comments »

Historic Hollywood Church Opposes Proposition 8

September 7, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

At a special congregational meeting convened today, September 7, the voting members of Hollywood Lutheran Church unanimously approved a motion to endorse the No on 8 campaign, adding its public voice against the ballot measure that would eliminate marriage rights for same-sex couples.The congregation received and discussed information about all 12 measures on the November 2008 general election ballot, as well as information about taking positions on matters of public policy from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Office of Public Policy in Sacramento, and other faith and justice organizations.

Today’s decision-making process was broken into two parts. The first decision was whether or not the congregation should take a position on Proposition 8. After a detailed explanation of what tax-exempt religious organizations may and may not do in matters of public policy, lobbying and endorsements, a motion passed unanimously that Hollywood Lutheran Church take a public stand on Proposition 8.

The second decision concerned what stand the congregation would take. Specific information and a brief history behind Proposition 8 and the Marriage Equality efforts was presented. After lengthy discussion, a motion passed unanimously that Hollywood Lutheran Church is opposed to Proposition 8.

Clarification of this decision included a discussion of its implications for the congregation’s public ministry. The Pastor, officers and Church Council of the congregation are authorized to publish this decision in all its regular publications, including bulletins, newsletters, and internet sites.  Pastor Hooper is specifically authorized to communicate today’s decisions, and to speak on behalf of the Hollywood Lutheran Church in opposition to Proposition 8. It was also specifically noted that no allocation of funds was involved in this decision.

Hollywood Lutheran Church was founded in 1921. A member congregation of the Reconciling in Christ program of Lutherans Concerned/North America, the congregation adopted a resolution nearly a decade ago to welcome and fully include gay/lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in its activities and ministries. In 2002 the governing Council of the congregation adopted a policy to permit blessing or covenant ceremonies for same-sex couples in its sanctuary.   Hollywood Lutheran Church is a member congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), a Christian body of approximately 5 million members in over 10,000 congregations in the United States.

Posted in Hollywood, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, History, Public Affairs, ELCA | Print | No Comments »

Catholics, Lutherans and same-sex marriage, oh my!

August 7, 2008 by PD.

Lutherans and Catholics remain far apart on many religious issues, and the reality of same-sex marriage in California is proving to be yet another one of those issues.

On August 1, the Catholic Bishops in California endorsed Proposition 8 — the proposed constitutional amendment that would take away civil rights form gay and lesbian people which the Supreme Court has established.  it was not enough for the Catholic Bishops to oppose same-sex marriage on theological principle — according to their medieval theology which includes the teaching that marriage is a sacrament — but no, they had to actually endorse the right-wing efforts to deny civil rights and roll them back.

So the Catholic Church in California contributes to the muddle which has been created by other “Religious Reich” folks — ripping into the wall of separation between church and state.  The Catholic leaders in California are trying to tear this wall down, by imposing fundamentalist, medieval Roman Catholic views of marriage on all citizens of this state.

Lutherans have so far avoided such bad politics and bad theology.  The three ELCA Lutheran Bishops in California have issued advisory letters to their pastors which discuss and wrestle with the issue of same-sex marriage, but they remained silent about Proposition 8.  In addition, the Lutheran Office of Public Policy has decided to take no position on Proposition 8, even after a face-to-face discussion with one of the Lutheran bishops.

While the national ELCA Bishops in 1996 said that marriage is between a man and a woman, it was indeed only that, when the statement was drafted.  Such a statement is of course no longer accurate, because “gay marriage” does indeed exist, whether Christians like it or not.

Interestingly, the most conservative of California’s three Lutheran bishops, the Rev. Murray Fink in Orange County, took the trouble to cited Martin Luther’s views of marriage, in his advisory letter.  Finck, who was present at the LOPP Policy Council meeting on July 26, said in his letter,

From the time of the Reformation, Lutherans have regarded marriage primarily as a civil matter. Martin Luther said, “Marriage is outside the church, is a civil matter, and therefore should belong to the government” (Table Talk No. 4716, Luther’s Works, Volume 54 [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967]).

So Lutherans divide with Catholics on marriage precisely where they did in the Reformation era 500 years ago.  Although Luther supported the Christian family, and was himself proably what we would classify as “homophobic” today (he repeatedly condemned the “vile practices” which were going on in monasteries at the time without explaining them), he believed that ultimately civil marriage was irrelevant to the church and its Gospel.  He believed priests should be able to get married — which at the time was against the law. 

In 1519 three priests decided to take Luther’s views seriously, and informed him they were about to be married (to women).  He struggled at first with whether or not to participate by preaching for the nuptial mass.  Only several years later Luther himself decided to marry, still in defiance of Roman Catholic canon law but protected from civil penalties only by the power of local German princes who believed Luther was right and the Catholic church was wrong.

Our own bishop here in Los Angeles, Rev. Dean Nelson, has asked his clergy to inform him and discuss the pastoral conditions in their parishes before performing any same-gender weddings.  While this is a far cry from banning the pastoral participation in such marriages, Nelson’s careful and conservative word to his clergy may be having a chilling effect on some pastors in his jurisdiction.  Personally, I am not in his jurisdiction or under his authority.  His office considers my pulpit to be “vacant” and did not even send me his letter of cautious guidance until it was requested.

I have, of course, performed numerous “blessings” or “holy unions” (without the knowledge or the permission of the ELCA), over the last 20 years.  I have done so with absolute confidence in God’s blessing of these relationships.  But now that same-sex marriage is a reality in California (and Massachusetts, Canada and other European countries), I find it kind of fun that the first actual wedding of two lesbians I conducted, on June 17 in West Hollywood, was of two Roman Catholic women who are very much in love.  They are now happily married in the sight of God and in the records of the State of California.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Doctrine, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Ecumenical Issues, Ministry, ELCA, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

Can I be Christian and be gay? Part 2

March 28, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

I am in the midst of preparing for a gay wedding, the joining of two lives together at the heart—a wedding at which, along with friends and families, I will bless God for the gift of love which two men have found in one another.

This is heresy to the world’s conservative Christians, and it is troubling to those who are out in the middle on this spectrum of love and hate.  As I mentioned recently, we are not considered to even be Christian in the eyes of the right wing (the “religious reich”).

Who or what is a “Christian”?

Dr. Rembert Truluck offers a simple suggestion in his essay, “A Gay Christian Response to Southern Baptists”:  a Christian is one who is Christ-like.  Truluck is not picking on the Southern Baptists.  He has the credentials to take them on as an insider, not an outsider.  He received his Doctor of Theology degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky; he was a Southern Baptist pastor, and even served as a writer of the Southern Baptist Sunday School Lessons for six years.

So when Dr. Truluck suggests that “Southern Baptists ceased to be Christian (Christ-like)” it is worth paying attention to his reasoning.

This is not a stretch, but fundamentally good Bible study: Jesus began his teaching and healing ministry by including people who had previously been left out by his faith tradition. In Luke 4:18–19, we see that Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, his boyhood home.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Curiously, the passage goes on to say that “the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.”  Meaning that people were watching, and wondering what he meant to imply.  From the very outset, there were those who held Jesus in suspicion because he included people whom others excluded from their faith communities.

Jesus went on to welcome women into circles reserved for men, to praise Samaritans who were hated by Jews, to preach tolerance for the leper, the foreigner, and the eunuch (a sexual misfit if ever there was one).

“Jesus in the Gospels defined his ministry by those he included that previously had been left out,” says Dr. Truluck. “When the people rejected the inclusive message of Jesus, he left town. When Southern Baptists defined themselves by who they left out (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people) in changing the bylaws of the Southern Baptist Convention to exclude any church that accepted openly gay and lesbian members, Southern Baptists ceased to be Christian (Christ-like).”

When I first read this I almost whistled out loud—as if to say that was a brave or even dangerous comment to be so critical of the second-largest Christian body in the U.S., and one that must still believe it has hegemony in political circles.  But as an insider, Truluck is entitled to be severe with that denomination.  More importantly, he is right that one important definition of who is a Christian, or what is Christian behavior, is to make the comparison with Christ and his behavior.  If Christ included those whom others exclude or “preclude” (the ELCA), they are at variance with Jesus Christ.

Of course (if you could ever have a civil discussion with them!), the conservatives would argue that Jesus never included homosexuals.

But that becomes a matter of heated debate over the “dangerous memories” (Dr. Theodore Jennings, The Man Jesus Loved), and somewhat obscure passages of the New Testament.  [See Joe Perez’s review of Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.]

It can be fiercely argued that Jesus and the Beloved Disciple were not gay (John 13:21–26; 19:25–27; 21:20–24); that Cleopas and his companion sharing a home in the village of Emmaus (Luke 24:13–32) were not gay, that the centurion and his pais (lad or boy; Matthew 8:5–13) were not gay. It can also be fiercely—and responsibly—argued that those of us who are LGBT are given clues in these places in the Gospels to “read between the lines”: Jesus means include us, too, who formerly were excluded.

It is not merely a little “side issue” of no particular importance, to include LGBT people, if we see that Jesus defined his ministry and his Gospel by those he included who had been excluded before. In fact, his inclusion is fundamental, central and of the highest importance to what it means to be Christ-like.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Doctrine, Bible & Interpretation, Ecumenical Issues, Fundamentalism, ELCA | Print | No Comments »

A death in the family.

December 22, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

I received an e-mail yesterday about the death of a retired pastor, 89 years old. The news brought up mixed feelings in me.

As a pastor of the church I should feel some sadness for this man, who lived a long life and remained faithful to our church. I don’t know all the facts of where he served in his long career, but I only know of the one brief time—a few months—when he served as the interim pastor of a congregation I was attending.

This was in the 1980s while I served in a specialized ministry of the church.  I wasn’t officially “out” although my immediate superiors knew that I was gay and had been living in a relationship of more than 6 or 7 years. But officially I was still quite closeted.

But this particular pastor, in his 60s at the time “put two and two together” and realized that I was living with another man.  Now, perhaps in the span of his career he counseled and prayed and struggled with people who faced very significant life issues.  Perhaps he was quite supportive and loving with them.  But he never spoke to me about being gay, or how I could justify serving the church as an ordained pastor while living in a semi-secretive relationship with another man.  He never asked me about my faith, my pilgrimage in life, my sense of call, my understanding of the Bible, or any other significant life issue.

Yet I came to find out that, behind my back, he was spreading the news that I was homosexual.

Within two years I had been recommended by my bishop, and called from my specialized status back into the parish ministry in the area.  And within about a year in that position, I began to feel the suspicion of parishioners.  Before long I was asked to leave the congregation, but was never confronted over any significant failing on my part.  This story unfolded slowly, but within a few more years a woman who was in a position to know the facts confirmed for me confidentially that the reason I had been forced to resign was that people were told I was gay.  I knew that this particular pastor had been the one who launched the wave of rumors which pushed me out of the ordained ministry of the church.

Twenty some years ago, this was the fate of those who lacked the courage, the resources and freedom to just “come out.”  We were slowly, excruciatingly, hampered, limited, excluded, rejected in ways just as secretive as our lives were.  We were eliminated from the lives and callings and jobs and relationships we thought we were so skillfully preserving by keeping our own personal agony secret.  This happened everywhere in society, but especially in the church. It was as if no one needed to confront us or say anything, because we should just understand the reasons we were being rejected.  I think it must have felt similar to what African-Americans felt when they were passed over for a job or an advancement, or denied housing, or avoided in social settings—that they were just supposed to understand why they were disliked or discriminated against.  We were all supposed to internalize the shame which society implicitly demanded of us.

The upshot of my loss of career was the personal decision—with the help of a competent therapist—that I would never again go back into a closet.

But I have mixed feelings about the man who spread the rumors that deprived me of 16 years of my life work.

Was this like the patriarch Joseph in the book of Genesis: hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, and because of false accusations went to prison before being vindicated by God?  In this (overlooked) story, Joseph finally confronts his hateful brothers with love and forgiveness:

“His brothers were so dumbfounded at finding themselves face to face with Joseph that they could not answer.  Then Joseph said to his brothers, . . . ‘I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt.  Now do not be distressed, do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here, since God sent me before you to preserve your lives.’”—Genesis 45:4–5

This elderly pastor and I were brothers in the family of God, so I should be respectful of his passing.  The circumstances of life sent us along very different paths, and he would never have had reason to fully understand me.  When he personally brought great harm to me, I confess, it took years to expunge the bitterness out of my life.  We never saw each other again. He went into retirement.  I went into another line of employment for sixteen years.

And now at his death what am I to feel?  I came out; I have never regretted that step, and will defend the necessity of coming out publicly, especially within the church of Jesus Christ.

Society has changed—in ways for which this elderly pastor would, I am sure, have felt contempt.  Increasingly there is safety for more and more LGBT people to be who we are, and to live without the shame that earlier generations forced upon us. We still may have to duck some homophobic slurs and even violence.  But more and more we will not internalize the homophobia that previous generations accepted as inevitable.  Perhaps, like ancient Joseph, it took me years of life experience to be able to let my bitterness go and to forgive the one who intended harm, because now I know that God intended it for good.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in LGBT Christian, Bible & Interpretation, Faith, Coming Out, Ministry, ELCA | Print | No Comments »

Church of Norway lifts the ban!

November 23, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

I am behind on news reporting here. How did I miss this? Thanks to Elizabeth Schmitz’ blog, “Schmitz Blitz”, Lutheran Church in Norway Lifts Ban on Gay Ministers, I see that the International Herald Tribune (for those of us who are linguistically challenged and don’t read near enough of the world’s press) reported recently published as Associated Press story that the Church of Norway has taken a step similar to that of the ELCA in allowing individual bishops to decide whether gay/partnered clergy can serve congregations.

Norway is certainly more than a step ahead of the ELCA. The decision on November 16, (approved by a vote of 50 to 34 with 2 abstentions) lifted a outright ban on gay clergy. In contrast, the ELCA’s action last August (see: http://indwellingspirit.org/2007/08/25/) did not drop the odious ban, but simply gave permission to individual bishops not to enforce it.

It is never wise to leave an un-enforced law on the books. On this, I would almost have to agree with the right-wing extremists in the Lutheran fold, who cried out after the Navy Pier decision that not to enforce a rule is essentially to kill the rule. So I argue, if the ELCA now says bishops don’t have to enforce the rule, then get rid of the rule and let all God’s people serve in accordance with their gifts and not in accord with human rules.

The Norwegian church’s Synod meeting was not without its “anguish” according to the Associated Press story. One bishop said this vote would create peace in the church. Another bishop said it was a sad day for the church, and may “lead to many feeling homeless in the church.”

Thank you, Bishop Ole Hagesaeter, for putting it in those terms. That is exactly how I have felt for decades, and millions like me – we have been surrounded with grace, beauty, love, forgiveness, and the promise of abundant life, yet really denied all those things because we are a minority that the majority didn’t care about.

Now, Ole— and may I call you by your baptismal name, instead of by your title?— what you are saying is that when the church finally opens its door to a small minority of persons who have been homeless (a fraction of gay people who are clergy, and a fraction of those who are partnered), that it will push the vast majority of people out. Yeah, right.

Since you used the world “homeless,” Ole, let’s stay with that metaphor. If a homeless person is given a home, does that mean that all the people in town who have homes now must become homeless and go out into the snow? Are you saying that there is an incompatibility so profound that the love of God cannot possibly encompass both, and bridge our differences?

Or is it a human problem? Are you suggesting that the many people simply will never make peace with the fact that we are, that we are different, and that we also claim the grace of God like everyone else.

With all due respect to your office, Ole, get over it! And while you’re at it, since this decision by your churchbody focused on employment, perhaps reading Matthew 20 again would refresh your memory of how Jesus answered a very similar employment question. The owner of the vineyard says to one who was filled with resentment that the late-hires received equal wages,

“Friend, I am doing you no wrong: did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:13–15)This speech, which Jesus intends to represent the thinking of God Almighty, completely trumps our human efforts to qualify for grace and thereby exclude others who do not qualify (under the standards we set to qualify ourselves).God is generous and gracious. The reason the church must and should and will welcome all people, including partnered lesbian and gay people, and include them in all aspects of its life of discipleship, is because none of us meets God’s qualifications (Romans 3:23), but all of us are accepted because God is generous and gracious. “For by grace you have been saved through faith,” Ole, “and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8). Get it, Ole?

Posted in Bible & Interpretation, Ecumenical Issues, Living by Grace, Ministry, ELCA | Print | No Comments »

You go, Pastor Jen!

November 17, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

I would have loved to be there! Today, my colleague Jennette Rude was ordained into the Lutheran ministry to serve Resurrection Lutheran Church in Chicago. Her father and grandfather, also Lutheran pastors, were there to share in the joy.   Read the full news story here.

Today was another of those days — they do not come often enough — when I am exceedingly proud of my faith tradition. They did the right things for the right reason in ordaining Jen, an out-Lesbian (can there be any other kind?) Who is grounded in the faith we all hold dear, a faith of grace, compassion, hopefulness and acceptance.

Today Jesus must also be proud of this small corner of his church. Yes, Jesus—the same Jesus who did not condemn, who welcomed with compassion, who constantly taught forgiveness, and who had little to nothing to say against those things which seemed to scandalize religious people.

Where he taught love and welcome, encouragement and reconciliation, are we to think that only those specific people o situations that the Gospels mention are to be included? When he included women, foreigners, Samaritans, the poor and the prisoner, are we supposed to limit our inclusiveness only to those specific Jewish women, or Syro-Phoenecians, Samaritans, etc., who are mentioned? Or was his a ministry of inclusion and grace which sets a pattern, a precedent to remind his followers to drop all distinctions, all prejudices, all signs of being scandalized by the presence of those who are different from themselves?

I am proud too of newly-elected Bishop Wayne Miller for his forthright and simple explanation of his position on this ordination extra ordinemi.

According to the Chicago Tribune story tonight,

“Chicago’s bishop, Wayne Miller, who took office in September, said he met with the congregation in October to discuss potential consequences should the national church choose to enforce the policy in the future. The congregation could be expelled from the denomination for calling Rude to serve.”‘This does not imply any bitterness or any hostility. It’s simply where we are right now,’ Miller said in an interview last week. ‘My goal is to keep people in the conversation, and I do not see this as an issue that should be dividing the church. I think it’s one of the many places where difference of opinion can make the church stronger and healthier, as long as people stay at the table and keep talking.’”

Miller had spoken with equal forthrightness after his election as Bishop last spring, saying that he believes the rules against gay and lesbian clergy should be changed. Miller, and also his predecessor Landahl, can be counted on to defend the work of the Holy Spirit to move the church forward. Especially truth-ful and grace-ful is his remark, “I do not see this as an issue that should be dividing the church.”

For those of us doing our own ministries all over the church, and who also do not stand within the ordinary policies of the church, we don’t see why there should be division either, except for the unwarranted histrionics of conservatives who cannot bear the thought of sharing the heavenly banquet with homosexuals.

I wonder if they could have tolerated the presence of the Beloved Disciple at the Last Supper, either. No matter. I believe that both Jesus and his Beloved would be very proud today as Pastor Jen Rude celebrated the Holy Supper at Resurrection Lutheran. You go, Jen! And may the Spirit go with you!

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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What an Extraordinary day!

October 31, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

Well, today is Reformation Day in the Lutheran Calendar — the other fun thing to observe besides Halloween festivities. On October 31, 1517 our intrepid and brash leader, Dr. Martin Luther touched off a firestorm in Europe by daring to challenge local church officials to debate him over the matter of selling indulgences. Using the church door as a bulletin board (the custom of the day), Luther posted 95 theses or points for debate.

Sounds like no big deal, except that to church authorities it was a sign of a major confrontation. And, with the printing press having been invented only a few years before, Luther’s ideas spread all over Europe almost instantly.

Fast forward to the 490^th Anniversary of the Reformation. Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries is born, the love-child of Lutheran Lesbian & Gay Ministries and the Extraordinary Candidacy Project. These two pieces of the movement to open the Lutheran churches in the U.S. to the full participation of LGBT people–not only in the pews but in the pulpits–decided last February that they could be more effective if they combined their witness and resources. 

So today ELM is born, by “virtually” nailing its theological statement to the door of the internet. How Luther-an can you get?  (Go ahead:  knock on the red door.)

News of this audacious step will travel all over the Lutheran church and be picked up by people who watch the continuing conflict between Christians and sexual minorities. How it plays out is in the hands of the Holy Spirit, of course (Acts 5:38–39).

Cynics may take this as a step toward breaking with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, after it’s churchwide assembly failed last August to revise or liberalize its anti-gay personnel policies. The compromise measure which passed that Assembly was to urge synods and bishops to refrain or at least restrain their discipline against congregations which choose to knowingly call (hire) a non-celibate gay or lesbian pastor, or act to official ordain them.

But Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries is not a separatist movement like that racking the Episcopal Church and the world-wide Anglican communion. ELM is a consolidation of ongoing efforts not to break from the church but to be the church by raising funds to do real ministry, and calling qualified and committed individuals to carry out specific ministries.

If anything, it will be the homophobic, right-wing ultra-conservatives who will attempt to pick up their marbles and leave the game, but not the LGBT Lutherans. This is not because we, or “the liberals” have taken over the ELCA. Far from it, as the August Assembly votes clearly reveal. No, the LGBT Lutherans are “staying put” within the larger church for very clear reasons.

Being ultra-conservative is, after all, a matter of choice. Being homophobic is under one’s willful control. One chooses to fear and hate gay and lesbian people. One chooses to read scripture in a rejective, punitive way, rather than in a reconciling, healing and compassionate way. But for millions of gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, one’s sexuality is not a choice. It’s a given. It is discerned over time, discovered and wrestled with until each person learns self-esteem, and makes peace with the emotional, physical and spiritual dimensions of his or her God-given personhood. The reason that LGBT people are “staying put” in this churchbody is that we are most often born into it, grow up in its graceful embrace, are nurtured by its proclamation of Gospel not laced with shame or hatred, and respond to the invitation of Christ to lay down our heavy burdens (Matthew 11:28–30).

Many conservatives at the Chicago ELCA Assembly hoped that, if discipline is being refrained from or restrained during this period of discernment (the ELCA’s Social Statement on human Sexuality is due out in less than 2 years), the “liberal” wing of the church would also refrain from calling and ordaining more LGBT candidates to ministry. This is the same issue which the ultra-conservatives in the Anglican communion (led by African fundamentalist power-brokers such as Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria) have tried to force on the Episcopal Church in the U.S.: don’t consecrate any more gay bishops!! Or else!!

We await the response of the ELCA and other Lutheran church bodies in the U.S. and around the world about the birth of ELM. There might be some “or else” conditions, but they cannot fall upon ELM itself or those of us who are on its professional Roster as pastors and candidates for ministry. The immediate reason is that the big bad churchbody had already kicked out many of the pastors who are rostered with ELM, or foreclosed ordination for seminarians who came out as lesbian/gay, bisexual or transgender.

But the bigger reason is grounded in the Word. Martin Luther and his movement defended themselves before the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 by staying grounded in the Word.

 

And Peter and John defended the brash actions which they and Jesus’ other disciples were taking by laying it out just as clear to their critics: “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to bey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19–20)

Posted in LGBT Christian, Fundamentalism, Living by Grace, History, Ministry, Coming Out, ELCA | Print | 1 Comment »

What’s so extraordinary?

October 11, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

20th Anniversary:  National Coming Out Day

For the past 5 years I have been a member of the Extraordinary Candidacy Project (ECP) Roster — a list of clergy and wannabees either removed from the clergy roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) or denied access to that roster by reason of our relationships to our life partners.

At present the ELCA still has an oppressive policy that categorically excludes from ordained service anyone who will not promise a lifetime of sexual celibacy—even though the policy itself is in violation of the historic Lutheran Confessions of the 16^th century which rejected clerical celibacy as a requirement, and against the writings of blessed Martin Luther.

It is not the first time that an individual or a group of people have been excluded from a Christian roster of priests and ministers. Sometimes it is done for clear moral failure. (People want to make that case against us, too.) Most often it is for the underlying violation of an authoritative decision. Luther himself was excommunicated from the church for a variety of reasons, chief of which was that he dared to talk back to the church hierarchy and so undermine their “authority.” The Pope continues to do this to people in the 21^st century as a way of silencing dissent. (More later.)

There is little doubt that the framers of the current ELCA policy excluding gay and lesbian pastors (see Section III. of “Vision and Expectations”) was also a cynical attempt to silence dissent. The generation of highly-placed church-crats which wrote the policy in 1990 were old enough to remember when even the threat of exposure of a lesbian or homosexual was enough to silence them—intimidate them, shame them, and chase them back where they came from (a closet).

To remove an ordained priest or pastor pretty much silences them. They lose their pulpit, their soap box, their career and livelihood. It’s over, folks, for most of them. They move on to other “day jobs.” Many lose faith in the Church entirely.

Only about a century before Luther inflamed a reforming spirit all over Europe, Other would-be reformers were effectively silenced by being disciplined, then stripped of their clerical rank, condemned as heretics, turned over to the secular authorities, and burned at the stake. This happened to William Tyndale and John Hus for the high crime of translating the Holy Scriptures into the language of the people, and encouraging ordinary people to read and understand (interpret) the Scriptures for themselves. As I mentioned in a sermon September 30, I still find it amazing that church “authority” could become so evil as to commit murder for translating the scriptures into the ordinary language of the people when St. Jerome did exactly the same thing 1,000 years earlier by translating the Hebrew and Greek into the “Vulgate” – the common Latin of the time.

Luther, however, survived being silenced. He publically burned the Papal Bull (a fitting image for our time) condemning him, along with the entire code of canon law, and went right on teaching, preaching, and writing. He was and remains extraordinary 500 years later.

What makes our clergy roster in the Extraordinary Candidacy Project extraordinary is that we belong to the generation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christian clergy who like Luther before us refuse to be silenced. Being dropped, or excluded from the ELCA’s Roster has not gotten rid of us. We’re still here, we’re queer. Get used to it.

Officially, of course, the “extraordinary” word means that we have been ordained extra ordinem, beyond the “ordinary” procedure for calling and ordaining Lutheran pastors with the blessing (the signature on a letter of call) from a Bishop. As of 2007, ELCA Bishops are still not in a position to sign letters of call for LGBT pastors without risking their own removal or discipline. To their credit, some 20 of our 65 bishops showed up at the August 8 eucharist in Chicago at which the Rev. Bradley Schmeling presided and more than 650 people sang, prayed, and called upon the Holy Spirit to bring change to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Change is coming, but we continue ordinations extra ordinem through the authority of Lutheran congregations to call and ordain their own pastors, an inherent right which Luther himself vigorously defended in the 16^th century.

The July 2 decision of a Committee on Appeals of the ELCA to remove Pastor Schmeling from the roster of the church —without ever meeting him or hearing a single word of testimony on his behalf—was a crass and cynical gesture meant to silence him and get him off the pages of our daily newspapers. It isn’t working. Pastor Schmeling is still serving as the beloved pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta.

But perhaps even more extraordinary is that members of the ECP roster aren’t sitting around either grousing about this terrible church policy, or waiting for the policy to change (even though every two years it gets closer to the “tipping point” when it will. This roster of extraordinary pastors is extraordinary because we have gone on with our ministries — with serving people, preaching, teaching, presiding over the sacraments of the church, ministering to those in nursing homes and hospitals and prisons. Many of us reach out to and serve an entire population of wounded or alienated believers whom the larger church has completely ignored. And, we’re raising our own funds, through organizations like Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries, Lutherans Concerned and Wingspan Ministries in Minnesota, to carry on this work.

I am reminded of the saying attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.” The Extraordinary Candidacy Project and Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries made the joint decision this past winter to organically join forces, becoming an entity which pulls together at the same pace and in the same direction, to preach the Gospel with or without words. The new entity —not to be seen as a separate church body, but an expression or a movement of the Holy Spirit at work—will be known as “Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries.”

And extraordinary they are. We are not a club representing and protecting the “sanctus quo,” but striving with God’s help to be faithful to a calling which we recognize and validate in one another, and which we pray will one day be understood and validated by the larger church. In the meantime, the ECP pastors jumped the gun on National Coming Out Day (October 11) by taking their “next step” in August when 82 of us came out publicly. Many of these people were gathered prayerfully with the voting members of the ELCA’s “Churchwide Assembly” in Chicago when the photo below was taken.

Photo: Paul Nixdorf

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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Evangelical demagogues: two down, two to go!

September 11, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

After writing about the death of Rev. D. James Kennedy yesterday, I begun musing about the passing of the generation of homophobic evangelical leaders. Two of the four heavy hitting homophobes are left: Pat Robertson and James Dobson. Robertson renounced his ministerial status in order to run for President in 1988. Dobson is not and never has been a Christian minister of any kind. Yet the two control much of what America hears about the Christian faith.

Although Robertson is on record with the most outlandish views about virtually everything in the world (examples:  in 2005 he publicly called for the United States to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez; in 2001 he concurred with Falwell that the September 11 attack by Saudi terrorists wa brought on by the ACLU, feminists, abortionists and homosexuals with God’s permission), James Dobson is probably the scarier of the two surviving septuagenarians. He sounds more reasonable to middle Americans and conservative Christians. Dobson is a licensed psychologist, not a minister, but comes from a long line of ordained Nazarenes. (The current Wikipedia article on him seems to be balanced.) Backed by a $150 million annual budget (nearly twice that of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s $82 million), Dobson runs a veritable publication and broadcast empire to disseminate his opinions.

Because of his unfettered access to Republican leaders and to broadcast media, he pontificates on virtually everything in American society, including whom he would support for President of the United States. How does he keep his tax exempt status? See, for example, this article in Reason Online from last May in which columnist Jeff Taylor calls Dobson a “small tent Republican.”

(Dobson, you will remember, was once the employer of John Paulk, the “ex-gay” poster-child who, with an “ex-Lesbian” wife at home, backslid his the way into a well-known homosexual bar in Washington, DC., was photographed by TWO’s Wayne Besen and, after this hit the media was finally pushed out of Focus on the Family’s employment.)

Dobson has also espoused views that border on the edge of incredulity, such as saying two years ago on his radio broadcast that legalizing same-gender marriage would set the table for polygamy, lead to daddies marrying little girls and a man marrying his donkey. (That idea from Dobson at least might be a good idea, since it would mean that human beings of similar intelligence would not have to be born out of wedlock.) According to this, Dobson has said: “Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy Earth. ”

 

In his own words: http://mediamatters.org/static/audio/dobson-200510070004.mp3

His thesis (in his book Marriage Under Fire) is that when a judge may rule on the basis of civil rights, it is a flimsier ground on which to base marriage than what Dobson gives as it’s historic grounds: tradition, legal precedent, theology and an overwhelming support of the people. In short, He doesn’t know the history of marriage, let alone Christian marriage and, IMHO, doesn’t want to or need to.  In fact, James Dobson is not qualified as a historian, lawyer, thoelogian or public pollster, yet he uses his non-profit pulpit, Focus on the Family, to take aim against our rights, our relationships, our lives.

But if you really want to be scared, read John W. Whitehead’s interview of Chris Hedges, “Is the Christian Right a Fascist Movement?” You thought you knew how bad it was, but Hedges will show you it is far worse than any of us imagined.                                  

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in LGBT Rights, Ecumenical Issues, History, Public Affairs, Ex-Gay, ELCA | Print | No Comments »