By Jonathan Sorum
First Evangelical
Lutheran Church
Parkers Prairie, MN
Bishop
Chilstrom, you have asked three questions of us. I suspect that you intend them as rhetorical
questions, but I will take them as real questions and reply to them, one by
one.
“First,” you
ask, “what is it about sex that pushed you over the edge?” Bishop Chilstrom, we aren’t the ones who kept bringing up sex throughout the lifetime
of the ELCA. When you kept bringing it up, we were willing enough to talk about
it—even though you stacked the numbers so that only one traditionalist was on
the first sex task force and three on the second. But as soon as the conversation started, you
changed the subject. Instead of talking
about sex, suddenly you insisted on talking about identity. And identity is not discussable. If someone’s sexual feelings give them a
God-given “sexual identity,” then even to say
that expressing that identity is a sin is an act of oppression. So your side made sure that there never was a
conversation in this church about sex.
And then, when you ram through a change in church teaching and policy
(not, as you claim, a mere declaration of non-binding opinion) that overturns
the clear teachings of the Scriptures and the entire tradition of the church
and we object, you have the gall to turn around and accuse us of being obsessed by sex!
Bishop
Chilstrom, let me turn the question back on you: What is it about sex that pushed you over the edge? Sometime in the past you decided that the
final authority that defines who a person is and what a person ought to do
comes from within. Especially in matters
of sex, you decided that you would set aside God’s own gracious and life-giving
word in favor of each individual’s self-definition of their “sexual
identity.” Why? You have vowed to preach Christ alone. What is it about sex that led you to abandon
Christ and deliver people over to be slaves to their own desires?
For us it’s not about sex. It’s about
Jesus Christ. You accuse us of persecuting
people in same-sex relationships who “live peacefully, go to their jobs every
morning, pay their taxes, volunteer for good causes and, in many cases, worship
with us.” But we are not judging people. We know the log in our own eye and have no
standing to judge others. But since Jesus alone has saved us from bondage to
sin and death, we do insist that he alone,
as he speaks clearly and reliably in the whole Bible, has the authority to
determine the shape of our lives. I
repeat: it’s about Jesus Christ. People are leaving the ELCA because it has officially
renounced the lordship of Christ as he speaks in Holy Scripture. All of us in
resistance to the ELCA have been saying this, constantly, in many forums. If
the only reason you have heard for people leaving the ELCA is that the
homosexuality vote was ‘the last straw,” then you have not been listening.
“Second,”
you ask, “why are you organizing new churches?”
The answer is simple: As
congregations and individuals, we need to be connected to the larger church,
which will both support our
proclamation of the Word of God and hold us accountable
to the Word of God. The ELCA no longer does either. The larger church supports
our proclamation of the Word by providing us with such things as educational
and worship materials that are faithful to the Word, by training and certifying
pastors and ministers who will faithfully proclaim the Word, and by providing
ways to extend our ministry beyond our communities. But the education, worship
and other materials provided by the ELCA for use in congregations are shot
through with an alien agenda, most of the pastors and ministers it now trains
are not competent to preach the gospel, and its home and global missions are in
captivity to a false gospel. The larger
church holds us accountable to the Word by providing teaching that is in accord
with the Word and by disciplining pastors and congregations that veer from the
Word in their preaching or actions. But
the ELCA itself is committed to false teaching and immorality, so it cannot be
trusted anymore to hold us accountable to God’s Word. Far from supporting us in our ministry, the
ELCA undermines us at every turn. So we
have been forced to turn elsewhere for support and to create new church
institutions that will hold us accountable to God’s Word.
In doing
so, we are deeply aware of the support and prayers of many members of the other
Lutheran bodies you mention. But for the
most part, we have not found it possible to join them and you know very well
why. We represent the center of
Lutheranism in North America. We would gladly join with other Lutherans who
have maintained the substance of the faith, but they won’t have us except on
condition that we subscribe to a view of biblical inspiration at odds with the
Lutheran Confessions and the Bible itself.
So now that you and others have hijacked our denomination for your
agenda, we in the Lutheran center have been rendered institutionally
homeless. If we want to continue the Lutheran
traditions that carried the gospel to us, we have no choice but to start over
with new denominational institutions. You
mock our efforts, but your jibe about the ordination of women inadvertently reveals
what we used to have in our churches and have now lost. You remind us that Lutherans “fought
intensely” over this issue. Yes, we used
to be able to engage one another on the basis of the Scriptures, in the light
of Christian tradition. We even “fought”
each other “intensely” because we used to believe that what the Scriptures said
really mattered and was worth fighting for.
Would that such a thing could happen in the ELCA now! Perhaps it will surprise you to know that we
who are in resistance to the ELCA don’t agree on everything. However, among us truly theological discussion can proceed because we all stand on the same
foundation of Jesus Christ and confession of the Triune God and all acknowledge
that the Holy Scriptures are the one source and norm of our faith and
life. Among us, you will find the true
freedom of the gospel and real diversity, not the soul-numbing ideological conformity
that is now the norm in the ELCA.
Finally,
you ask us, “[W]hat will you say to your sons and daughters, sisters and
brothers and others in your church when they tell you that they are
homosexual?” To begin with, moral truth
isn’t determined by majority votes, even by a 95 percent majority of “professionals
in the field.” Nor will we accept anyone’s
verdict that they “are” homosexual. Who
they “are” is not determined by what is within
them, but by what God’s Word says to
them. According to God’s Word, they are,
like all of us, human beings, created in God’s image but turned in on
themselves in sin. They are among those
for whom Christ died and for whom he broke the grave and they are destined for
life with him in God’s eternal kingdom. It
may also be true that, in our present fallen condition, they experience sexual
desire primarily toward those of the same sex and that this is not something
they have chosen. But these feelings do
not constitute an identity, to which they must conform. Instead, Jesus gives them their true identity
as children of his Father and shows them the way of life in his Word. Perhaps that way will include sufficient
healing for marriage to be possible. But
if they must go the single way, then Jesus will be enough and more than enough
for them and will fill their lives with love and every good gift. Sex, after all, is not the end-all and be-all
of life.
Which
brings me back to your first and last question:
What is it about sex that pushed you over the edge? Why this virtual worship of sex, as if our
sexual desires (of all things!) were a pure and unadulterated revelation of
God’s will for our lives, trumping even the Word of God, and having the kind of
sex we want with the kind of partner we want were the ultimate fulfillment of
life, for which everything that stands in the way—spouse, children, parents,
society, friends, even the Bible, even Christ himself—must be sacrificed? Why, Bishop Chilstrom, have you fallen for
one of the oldest idols in the Book?
You are
glad to get rid of us. Now, you say, you
can get on with your “primary mission of telling everyone—everyone--`Jesus
loves you. You are welcome in this
church.’” Precisely! This is the false gospel you have chosen for
yourself. In this gospel there is no
repentance or new birth. We don’t need
Jesus (to use your word, he is one of the “non-essentials”), because we are
basically good and don’t need a Savior.
We only need to accept ourselves, as God accepts us. And we don’t need to receive the Holy Spirit,
because we all already have the Holy Spirit within us, speaking through our own
deepest sense of who we are. Nor do we need
preaching, because once we know we are welcome, that’s all we need to
know. The church, too, is dispensable
because everyone is in principle already included and people don’t really have
any reason to gather except to celebrate themselves and they can do that in
many contexts using many different symbols and images—the goddess, the Buddha,
the divine that is within us, whatever.
Yes, in the so-called church that you have helped fashion, everybody is
included.
Except
us. You have no room in your new church
for self-confessed sinners who want to listen to Jesus Christ alone. So we have
no choice but to go on, grieving for the wreck of our church, but joyful
because we have Jesus and filled with hope because his Spirit always goes
before us and creates a new future for his people. We can admit that we, too,
have a feeling of relief when we find ourselves in God’s church, where we feel
ourselves supported in confessing the gospel and not undermined at every
turn. But that you and so many others
have turned aside to go your own way is in no way a relief. It is an unmitigated sorrow. We will never release you. We will continue to call you to Christ and to
pray for you, urgently beseeching God that you may turn and live.
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