Onward Gay Clergy

The Lutheran Church has become the third mainline Protestant denomination - and the largest one to date, at that - to eliminate bans on gays and lesbians serving as clergy.  Voting 559-451 this past week, delegates from the Lutheran Church approved a resolution that will allow gay and lesbian clergy in committed relationships to serve openly.  It was an historic move, and a decision that some theological scholars say could lead to religion being seen as more inclusive in the United States.

To be sure, the vote didn't occur without controversy.  Earlier this week a conservative pastor blamed bad weather in Minneapolis on the fact that the Lutheran Church was considering allowing gays and lesbians in commited relationships to serve as clergy.  Then, the Catholic Church even tried to get involved in the fray, with Archbishop Wilton Gregory, a former President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, sending a video message urging the Lutheran Church to keep banning gay and lesbian clergy.  Bishop Gregory even launched a subtle threat, saying that if the Lutheran Church decided to welcome gays and lesbians into the clergy fold, it could spell the end of relationships between the denomination and the Catholic Church.

Thankfully, the delegates of the Lutheran Church decided that blaming bad weather on gays and lesbians is not sound theology, and that instead of allowing the Catholic Church to run their religion, that Lutherans were the most capable people of determining the future of the Lutheran Church.

According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's (ELCA) "heavily Midwestern membership and the fact that it is generally seen as falling squarely in the middle of the theological milieu of mainline Protestantism imbues Friday's vote with added significance."  One religoius scholar, Wendy Cadge of Brandeis University, told the paper that to the extent that mainline Christian denominations are moving in the U.S., they are moving toward a more progressive direction concerning the involvement and participation of gays and lesbians in the faith.

That could mean that Methodists and Presbyterians start heading toward the direction of allowing gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve openly. Already, the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Episcopal Church welcome gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve openly as clergy.

But first, equal rights advocates are taking the opportunity to celebrate the Lutheran Church's decision to embrace its gay and lesbian members.  Lutherans Concerned, an LGBT organization dedicated toward increasing the role and participation of gays and lesbians within the denomination, celebrated the decision by church officials to allow openly gay and lesbian clergy to serve.

“Today I am proud to be a Lutheran," said Emily Eastwood, the Executive Director of Lutherans Concerned.  "Supporters and advocates of full inclusion have longed for this day since the inception of the ELCA, and for many of us what seemed like a lifetime. The ELCA has always had gay ministers, now those and all ministers are free to claim who they are and to have the love and support of a lifelong partner, regardless of orientation or gender identity."

That quote reaffirms something special about the Lutheran Church's decision yesterday.  While this was a decision about a hot button LGBT issue, this decision was more about coming to terms with a biblical understanding of love that embraces all than anything else.  As much as LGBT rights were reaffirmed, it was really the issue of love that the Lutheran Church voted on yesterday.

And that's something all of us, Lutheran or not, can take the time to celebrate.