by Pastor Hal Mayer
On July 25, seven openly gay pastors were ordained to the Evangelical Lutheran ministry in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco. It was the first of several such ceremonies planned since the denomination voted to allow noncelibate gay ministers in “committed relationships” to serve as pastors.
“The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, known as the E.L.C.A., with 4.6 million members, is now the largest Protestant church in the United States to permit noncelibate gay ministers to serve in the ranks of its clergy — an issue that has caused wrenching divisions for it as well as for many other denominations.”
“Since the church voted last summer to allow noncelibate gay clergy members to serve, 185 congregations have taken the two consecutive votes required to leave the denomination…” There are 10,396 congregations nationwide.”
“The Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ also allow gay ministers. And the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s general assembly voted at its convention earlier [in July] to do so, though the vote will become church law only if is ratified by a majority of the church’s 173 regional presbyteries. Two smaller Lutheran denominations, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, do not ordain ministers in same-sex relationships.”
“The seven ministers welcomed at the ceremony on Sunday had already been ordained and have been serving at churches or outreach ministries in the San Francisco Bay Area, but they had not been officially recognized on the clergy roster.”‘Three more gay pastors will be welcomed at ceremonies in September and October, two in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area and one in Chicago,’ Ms. Cooper said.
“Some who opposed it are now poised to leave. The Rev. Mark Chavez, director of Lutheran CORE, a coalition of theologically conservative Lutheran churches, said his group expected to form a new denomination, the North American Lutheran Church, in August. He said of the ceremony on Sunday, “It’s just another steady step taken by the E.L.C.A. to move the denomination further and further away from most Lutheran churches around the world and from the whole Christian church, unfortunately.”
“Before the ceremony, one of the gay pastors, the Rev. Megan M. Rohrer, said it had been a long journey… [to be] finally welcomed as a minister in the Lutheran church.
Note that the E.L.C.A ordains women as well as gay clergy. There is a consistent pattern that develops when a church moves away from bible teaching and ordains women to the ministry. Inevitably, it is followed by approval to ordain practicing gay pastors.
In the last days, Jesus said we would be faced with a situation very similar to the days in which Lot lived in Sodom. Sodom was destroyed for its pervasive gay culture and violence. Keep the Faith Ministry NY Times Article
NOTE: The world has become a second Sodom, but regardless of the opinions and mindset of the world today, God still reigns and His requirements have not changed one iota. According to His word, homosexuality is an abomination in His sight. Many denominations now ordaining gay clergy is fulfilling those prophetic words in Revelation 18, that Babylon would "become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."
The Bible could not be more clear, they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. It is not love to excuse or rationalize sodomy. It is cruelty to say to the homosexual "ye shall not not surely died." No, it is the truth that sets one free. "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." In this faithless age, it may seem like a near impossibility to be delivered from homosexual passion, but Christ is just as willing to deliver from such passions today as when He visibly walked among men.
"Church members need to fast and pray, striving earnestly to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Not one particle of Sodomitish impurity will escape the wrath of God at the execution of the judgment. Those who do not repent of and forsake all uncleanness will fall with the wicked. Those who become members of the royal family and form God's kingdom in the earth made new, will be saints, not sinners. Isaiah 30:1-3, 8-16." TSB 119.
Our very time is described in Testimonies, volume 5, pages 209 and 210. We must not be among those who "try to throw a cloak over the existing evil, and excuse the great wickedness everywhere prevalent." We must be God's humble, peculiar people, who truly love and care about souls, who have "a soul anguish, which is expressed in lamentation and weeping, reproofs and warnings. . .those who have a zeal for God's honor and a love for souls will not hold their peace to obtain favor of any. Their righteous souls are vexed day by day with the unholy works and conversation of the unrighteous. They are powerless to stop the rushing torrent of iniquity, and hence they are filled with grief and alarm."
"Our only safety is to stand as God's peculiar people. We must not yield one inch to the customs and fashions of this degenerate age, but stand in moral independence, making no compromise with its corrupt and idolatrous practices." CG 449.
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