8.13.2005 | 503-490

The "Evangelical" Lutheran Church in America narrowly missed the opportunity to spit in the eye of Scripture. Hence the scare quotes around "evangelical." According to this story in the ever-so-sympathetic Washington Post,

A national meeting of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America rejected a proposal Friday that would have allowed gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy under certain conditions.

The measure would have affirmed the church ban on ordaining sexually active gays and lesbians, but would have allowed bishops and church districts called synods to seek an exception for a particular candidate - if that person was in a long-term relationship and met other restrictions.

The vote? 503-490 against; a near tie. Although a two-thirds majority would be required to overturn the current ban on openly gay clergy, it is striking that almost half of the delegates at an allegedly evangelical church would think to overturn Scripture and 2,000 years of church tradition.

But so-called mainline, liberal Protestant denominations have wandered so far afield from Scripture that the following statement from the Post story could be written without even a trace of irony:

All the proposals - the product of three years' work by a special church task force - were meant as a compromise that would satisfy both those who support gay clergy and those who regard gay sex as sinful. (emphasis added)

The road to hell is surely paved with compromises with sin. Oh, and those who "regard gay sex as sinful" must include any and all who adhere to sola scriptura. It is almost definitional for who is an evangelical Christian - we can argue for weeks and months about free will, and dispensationalism, and all of the other issues. But there can be no argument that an evangelical Protestant Christian must adhere to at least two principles: sola scriptura and sola fide. May I also suggest that those who accept these two, must, of necessity, also accept solus Christus and know that it is all soli Deo gloria.

In coming so close to rejecting Scripture by accepting sin, these ELCA Lutherans demonstrate that they have careened far, far from the righteous path set by their namesake.

| technorati tag | Christianity|