Archive for July, 2007

Jesus Says: Don’t Be A Dick

Friday, July 13th, 2007

Via Andrew Sullivan, some Christians apparently aren’t big fans of the Constitution:

Ante Pavkovic, Kathy Pavkovic, and Kristen Sugar were all arrested in the chambers of the United States Senate as that chamber was violated by a false Hindu god. The Senate was opened with a Hindu prayer placing the false god of Hinduism on a level playing field with the One True God, Jesus Christ.

In response, John Scalzi tells us “Jesus Says: Don’t Be A Dick”:

Some people really and truly believe that what Jesus wants is for them to be dicks to everyone who isn’t their particular, mushy-headed stripe of Christian…I think it’s fair to remind them of a number of things:

1. Whatever the rationale, they’re being dicks.

2. At no point in the Bible does Jesus say “be a dick in My name.”

3. Lots of other Christians seem to get through life without feeling called upon to be a dick in the service of Christ.

4. Indeed, when many of these Christians discover to their dismay that they’ve been a dick about something, they will frequently fall to their knees and say, “Forgive me, Lord, for I have been a total dick.”

5. And He does.

6. That’s a hint.

Read the whole thing — it’s hilarious, and it has a rather poignant theological point. Classic.

Posted in The Christian Right | 1,349 Comments »

What Would Luther Do?

Friday, July 13th, 2007

Every once in a while, USA Today comes out with something that belies its reputation for only delivering “McNews”. An editorial in today’s issue is one of those pieces. Mary Zeiss Stange asks a simple question regarding the debate over gay clergy in Protestant denominations: what would Luther do?

Like his role model Paul, [Martin] Luther was a product of the social prejudices of his time and culture: a time when the concepts of homosexuality as an “orientation” or a “lifestyle” were still unheard of. But would the man whose break from Roman Catholicism involved a revolutionary rethinking of the role of sexuality in human relationships take such a negative view of homosexuality today? Most probably, given the way his theological mind worked, he would not.

Very timely given the latest in the ELCA.

Posted in Gays in the Church | 94 Comments »

Understatement of the Month Award

Friday, July 13th, 2007

From the Washington Post:

The Vatican said Tuesday that Christian denominations outside the Roman Catholic Church were not full churches of Jesus Christ. Some Protestant leaders responded that this would hurt interdenominational dialogue.

Ya think?

(h/t.)

Posted in The Christian Right | 463 Comments »

Pastor Schmeling Forced Out

Friday, July 6th, 2007

Some bad news, I’m afraid. From the Reuters report:

An appeals panel in the largest U.S. Lutheran body has ordered a gay pastor removed from his ministry because he is in a sexual relationship with another man, officials said on Thursday.

The decision from the Committee on Appeals of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is final in the case of Pastor Bradley Schmeling of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta.

[...]

That policy will likely be challenged and could be revised at the church’s annual meeting in Chicago next month, but even if it is changed Schmeling would not automatically be reinstated since that usually requires a separate process that can take up to five years, a church spokesman said.

[...]

A disciplinary committee which presided over Schmeling’s trial earlier this year ruled that he should be allowed to remain on the clergy roster until after the August meeting to see if the church changes its policy.

That same panel said the policy of allowing gays as pastors but forbidding them to have sexual relations is “at least bad policy, and may very well violate the constitution and bylaws of this church.”

But the Committee on Appeals in a decision made public on Thursday ruled that the disciplinary panel did not have the power to keep Schmeling on the roster pending the convention, and ordered him removed immediately.

Pretty cold to over-rule the disciplinary committee and remove him immediately. So now the Churchwide Assembly next month has a choice — change the bylaws of the church to allow gay clergy, or tell a congregation that they may not call the pastor of their choice and remain in the ELCA. Hopefully this will bring the assembly to see the error of its vote in 2005.

More at Lutherans Concerned.

Posted in Gays in the Church | 74 Comments »