God's Kindness - And Our Repentance
by David L. Tiede
No matter what I say, many of you may be upset, perhaps hurt or disappointed. But this is a time for testimony. The hurt and misunderstanding and anger will not go away among us by silence or talking only with people with whom we agree. This is a conference of Christian believers, of sinners of Christ's own redeeming. If your argument is with me, fine and good. But if your argument is with the testimony of the Scriptures, then you are up against the commands or the promises of God. Some of you will find the law of God too repressive and others may find the gospel too inclusive for your taste.
Let me begin with three convictions:
The Bible offers no judgment on "homosexuality" as an orientation or disposition, but it does condemn many sexual behaviors, reserving to marriage God's blessing on genital sexual intercourse.
The ELCA has taken the right course in setting boundaries for appropriate sexual behaviors for those to whom the public office of ministry may be entrusted. Furthermore, the law of the state and the moral standards of the community will both continue to require especially modest sexual behavior of the ordained, lest they cause scandal or present a danger to the vulnerable.
We have too long been on the defensive from those who insist that the issues are merely sexual rights or liberation from repression. The public good has been damaged by the attack on morality in our sexually exploitative and permissive culture.
Sexual behavior is fundamentally a matter of responsibility to one another; the welfare of the neighbor takes priority over my freedom.
The word homosexual is a modern diagnostic term. Sometimes such quasi-scientific terms seem to say more than they actually do. I have had people tell me, "I am a homosexual." Sometimes 1 have responded by saying, "Well I am a heterosexual." But in fact, most of us have had a host of surprising sexual feelings and predispositions overtake us ever since the endocrines started dumping into the bloodstream.
Of course the Biblical writers didn't know anything about the endocrine glands. They had never heard of Freud either. They had not even heard of anyone having a sexual identity.
The modem analytic categories of homosexual and heterosexual may be more confining and rigid than our own sexual responses. They certainly do not tell all that is to be said about any of us. A few years ago a very troubled student came to talk to me. After talking almost an hour, he blurted out, "Did you know I am a homosexual?" Taken aback, I said, "No, and tell me why I should know." I only knew what he had in mind when he said, "Well, are you going to get me thrown out?"
I said to him, "Did you know that I am a heterosexual?" He looked perplexed, so I added, "You probably are not very interested in my personal responses, nor need you be. But there are behaviors which would disqualify me from the ministry, and we both know what they are. Years ago, my supervising pastor said directly, "Keep your pants zipped and your hands where they belong."
God sees the heart, and Jesus warns against even the sin of looking at another person with lust on your mind. None of us is exempt. But those matters are for God, beyond the law of the community. There is no text of Scripture which calls for community sanctions against anyone's sexual identity or orientation. But many passages set firm boundaries for sexual relationships. Most of them focus on relationships between men and women, Some deal with same-sex relationships.
The Blessing of Sexuality
The testimony of Scripture begins with the hearty affirmation of bodily existence and the blessing of sexuality. So we read that God created humankind, male and female. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." Adam and Eve were in the blessed business of reproduction.
By the time this story was written down, Israel found herself surrounded by cultures and cultic practices which were preoccupied with fertility rituals and copulating gods and temple prostitutes. The Torah set Israel apart, cursing all idols of fecundity and phallic monuments. Israel'sGoddoesn'thavesex with people. The blessing of sexuality is for the blessing of families and the community.
Ted Koppel once said, "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, the tablets of stone contained the ten commandments, not the ten suggestions." The Jewish writer Dennis Praeger has described "Judaism's Sexual Revolution" implicitinthegivingoflhelaw. "The Torah's prohibition of non-marital sex made the creation of Western civilization possible...and began the arduous task of elevating the status of women." His argument is also a defense of the strong Jewish aversion to same-sex genital behavior. He concludes: "The Torah was simply too different from the rest of the world, too against man's nature, to have been soley man-made." (in Ultimate Issues, Apr-June 1990).
What is really important is to mark the close protection of the family as the central social unit within which sexual activity belongs.
The biblical understanding of human sexuality is that it is good for children. It normalizes both human reproduction and the nurture of children in the family. Husband and wife are given the blessing of becoming "one flesh."
Obedience to the Torah was unnatural to Israel's neighbors, Imagine their objections: "How can you make the crops grow if you don't participate in the fertility rituals?" "Why should mere slaves, children, animals and women be preserved from sexual usage?"
But Israel was not merely against such practices. The Torah was for the preservation of all life as a trust from God. The religious taboos on human behaviors listed in Leviticus 18 set Israel off from the nations around her with carefully marked boundaries of holiness. Israel's identity as God's chosen was at stake.
Serving the Creature, Not the Creator
Now turn to Romans 1-2. Let me make three general observations. First, let me remind you where this passage fits in the Letter. The major theme has just been sounded in verse 16: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith." The major the me of the letter is the saving righteousness of God at work in the gospel. But the section we discuss is not about God's saving righteousness, but about God's wrath, about the consequences of sin, especially the sin of idolatry.
Second, Paul's argument about God's wrath is filled with traditional convictions from Hellenistic Judaism, most of which were even more emphatic in their denunciation of the sexual practices of the Greek world, including same-sex intercourse and pederasty. The Greek and Roman moralists were also fond of long lists of sexual abuses; it is sometimes difficult to tell whether they were bragging or complaining. Sexual excess has been selling books for centuries.
Third, Paul interprets this long list of moral offenses theologic ally. No one is especially singled out, and no one escapes the force of his argument that the moral decadence of the world is a symptom and indictment of idolatry. As in I Cor. 6, where the idolaters and greedy are classified with the sexually immoral (same-sex and opposite sexual preferences included) the point finally is that the law of God convicts all. Only the power of God's righteousness at work in the gospel will be able to save any of us, Jew and Greek.
Luther once described the difference between the theology of the cross and a theology of glory in terms of the temptation to call evil good and good evil. This is the serpent's way of saying to the man and the woman in the garden, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" Or remember his lying claim to Jesus that all the world is his, "and I give it to anyone I please." (Luke 4: 7-8).
"You can have it all. Put away all of that repressive sexuality which you learned in Sunday School. It is a sexist, racist, bourgeois plot to keep you in bondage. What the Judeo-Christian tradition calls evil is actually the key to self-transcendence, self-actualization. You shall be like gods."
Paul launches a frontal attack on those who twist the truth of the law of God, who exchanged the truth about God for a tie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator."
In the Church Too
Paul has not singled out a specific sexual practice, same-sex or opposite-sex. This is very helpful to all of us today since we need to discuss not merely homosexuality, but sexuality. I do not need to tell you that we are now, right now as a church, suffering the results of a generation of sexual misbehavior by our clergy. In Minnesota we have a new statute on the books (148a). It requires that every pastor and associate in ministry must be certified as free from a history of sexual impropriety before being hired to a new post in the church. Talk about repressive. 1 have had to fill out these documents of inquiry on some of the most modest women and men you can imagine. The burden of proof is on them. This is an injustice to them, wrought of the fact (hat we have hidden our dirty linen at the expense of vulnerable victims too long. Now we must play the stern rules of the state. The legal department of the ELCA is flooded with suits against clergy for sexual abuse, same-sex and opposite-sex. The law insists that vulnerable people have a right to be able to trust their pastor.
Paul moves beyond sexuality. The issue is idolatry, worship of the creature rather than the Creator. In our society it is narcissism, worship and adoration of the self – the classic definition of sin, "incurvatus se," to be turned in on oneself. "I am the center of the universe, the captain of my destiny." Or to quote Shirley McClaine, "I am god."
The new hedonism is a classic example of Paul's point, "claiming to be wise, they became fools." Never has a society existed where self-indulgence was so democratized, marketed, and possible for so many. And it is killing us. In the words of Deuteronomy, we have "chosen death rather than life" – and our children with us.
Paul moves into his discussion of what he calls "degrading passions" in verses 26-32. These are the effects of the sin of idolatry: obsessive sexual passion, covetousness, gossip, slander, boasting, rebellion toward parents, ruthlessness. In Romans 6 Paul will argue again that the wages of sin is death. But here he maintains that the consequence of worshiping the creature rather than the Creator is more sin – then death.
Paul emphasizes destructive, unnatural, unhealthy behaviors. He is documenting the depth of human depravity, of "shameless acts" and "consuming passion." His outcry cannot be discounted as mere phobia. The list of degrading passions is long, and the truth is told.
We too must tell the truth that the sexual freedom so eagerly touted in our society has become destructive in its excess. The law of God is given to direct us to life rather than death; it will also reveal when we have chosen the way of death rather than life. We too have worshiped the creature, ourselves, rather than the Creator, and we are now reaping a harvest of disease and death.
We must never be surprised that inappropriate and often destructive sexual behaviors continue among us. But as a church we will honor healthy monogamous marriage as the setting for genital sexual intercourse.
God's Kindness and Repentance
Paul will surely tell us to confess our own sins instead of our neighbor's, as we see in Romans 2: "You have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others." God is inclusive. God shows no partiality. The wrath of God has plenty of justification for death and destruction for all of us.
Amazingly, Paul takes a second step. All of this indictment is already tinged with hope: "Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" Or as in Romans 6: "The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." That's the gospel truth of the power of God's righteousness at work in our behalf.
I believe this is the fundamental testimony which all of this talk about degrading passions is for. This is all a divine strategy of mercy, once again showing what God's determined purpose is for every one, I know that my righteousness, and especially my self-righteousness, is a garment of rags. So is yours. God invites you and me to anticipate the cloak of divine righteousness bestowed in Christ. Paul leads us to shed our preoccupation with ourselves, our needs, our righteousness, our rights, and to be saved and transformed by the self-giving righteousness of God, perfected to the point of death and life in Christ Jesus. Thanks be to God.
*This article is excerpted by permission from President Tiede's address to the Sierra Pacific Synod workshop on human sexuality, given at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, June 1, 1991. Dr. Tiede is president of Luther-Northwestern Theological Seminary, St. Paul, MN.
F.O.C.L. SYMPOSIUM
OUR SAVIOR'S LUTHERAN CHURCH,
1035 Carol Lane
June 13, 1992 – 10 a.m. to Noon
In keeping with its Mission Statement to provide "a source of information sharing and educational opportunities," the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans will sponsor a symposium on the recently released document of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) Commission for Church and Society, "Human Sexuality and the Christian Faith." The Commission has asked for responses to this unofficial but watershed study document. Please prepare yourself to attend our symposium, by reading the booklet beforehand. (Copies are available for $1.00 from the ELCA Distribution Service, 426 S. 5th St., Minneapolis, MN 55440). The meeting will address such questions as:
1) What are the valuable contributions this booklet can make to promoting discussion of vital subjects?
2) Does this document reflect the ELCA's conviction that the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are "the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith and life" (ELCA Constitution 2.03.)?
3) Does this document's substitution of the media-fashionable term "ongoing committed relationship" in place of the word "marriage" only help undercut further our society's fragile network of families, who have been upheld by what Luther called the "divine ordinance" of marriage?
4) What theological doctrine of the Church is reflected in this study? Is the church nothing more than the sum of its members and their changing theological and social opinions? If so, what about that biblical and disciplined community, called to be salt and light in a world needing seasoning and illumination?
5) Is the RESPONSE GUIDE that is provided with the study adequate to evaluate this document, and the questions it raises?
6) Must we agree with the ELCA Conference of Bishops which has already raised a "warning flag" about the document? According to the Ijitheran magazine, the conference registers "major reservations" that discussion inspired by the document "will be ideologically skew and scripturally indefensible in ways radically inconsistent and contradicting to comparable statements of the predecessor church bodies and comparable statements of sister Lutheran churches around the world."
The bishops are concerned about "confessional credibility of the final product."
F.O.C.L. plans to provide those who attend with three or four paragraphs, based on these and other issues, which would be the "rough draft" of the RESPONSE which F.O.C.L will mail to the
Condom Crusaders
by Chuck Colson
The adroitness of the "Father of Lies, "as Jesus calls him, is surpassing in its cunning. Consider the incredible spectacle of a present-day sports hero admitting to upwards of 2500 heterosexual encounters, and thereby contracting the HIV virus, Withpreposterous media hype he is now promoted as an shining example for American youth to follow, because he is now advocating "sqfesex." Would, as least, that alt our church leaders might hear the "rest of the story" as it is offered to us in this article.
– The Editors.
A pencil-thin man with piercing eyes looks straight at you from the video screen. The young man is a prisoner, and he's dying from AIDS.
"I want you to listen to me because I don't have much longer," he says. His message: Don't engage in homosexual sex. It's not worth it. Ail it earns you is "an early ticket to the grave."
This video is being used in Florida prisons. It's an excellent tool for educating people on the risks of AIDS. But AIDS activists object. It's moralizing, they say, Besides, it won't work: Prisoners are going to have sex regardless, so the only solution is to give them condoms.
Safe sex, they call it.
So, in contrast to Florida, the Washington, D,C. government is considering distributing condoms in its jails. In spite of the fact that sodomy is illegal under D.C. law, public health experts are lining up with AIDS activists in support. Other corrections systems are experimenting with the condom solution as well.
But what does this say to inmatesjand to others? That it's okay to break the law. Go ahead; we'll make it safe.
That's not only a dangerous idea, it's a reckless abandonment of political responsibility. The idea that condoms stop AIDS depends on two dubious assumptions The first is that prisoners would usú them; the second is that they work.
Despite the soppy rhetoric of gay rights groups about loving relationships, most homosexual acts in prison are forced. Many are violent rapes,
Some of the victims are just kids. Kids like Timja shy, self-conscious teenager who tried to be one of the "in crowd" in high school by dealing marijuana. Police caught him forging checks to pay for the drugs and he was sent to prison.
Tim’s mother tried desperately to prevent it. "He was one day over 18 years old", she said. "He was a pretty boy. I knew what would happen to him in prison."
And it did. Tim was raped and beaten mercilessly by a gang of older inmates.
So what about the condom solution? Let's be serious! Do we really expect men who rape teenage boys to pause beforehand and put on a condom? Not likely.
Of course, consensual sex happens in prison too. But giving out condoms is no solution there either. It only condones the behavior, What a bitter irony if pri sons deny inmates conjugal visits (as most do) but sanction homosexual sex. It's a policy favoring perversion.
The second assumption, that condoms give protection from AIDS, is even more dangerous. Because it's a lie. For decades, condoms were regarded as one of the kasi effective methods of birth control. But now suddenly they are touted as a marvelously effective method of disease control.
The truth is, condoms are not foolproof. The federal government knows this. In 1988 government officials cancelled a $2.6 million study of condom use by homosexual men when they learned that the slippage and breakage rate of condoms put the participants at too high anskof acquiring HTV, the virus that causes AIDS. Condoms aren't made for this unnatural act any more than people are.
To lead the public to believe there is such a thing as safe sex is more than false advertising; it is criminal negligence.
Whether or not condoms work is only the immediate issue. Beyond it is a more important issue: distributing condoms in prison is a form of moral surrender. It's an admission that we can't maintain the rule of lawjeven in prisons. With their watchful guards and tight regimentation, prisons should be one place where laws against sexual assault can be enforced.
Paradoxical, isn't it? Inmates are sent to prison to teach them respect for law, and once there they see officials winking at the law, What kind of rehabilitation is that?
Handing out condoms creates ripples far beyond prison walls. What message does government send to the wider community when it provides protection for an act it has already defined as both illegal and dangerous? A double message that condemns while it enables. It undermines government's credibility and robs laws of their moral authority.
If handing out condoms is not the answer to AIDS in prison, what is? Inmates don't need the false sense of security provided by acondom dispenser in every hall. They need education on the real danger of AIDS. They need protection from sexual violence. They need screening and close supervision of inmates carrying the deadly AIDS virus.
As for prisoners who already have AIDS, they don't need activist groups promoting their "freedom" to continue homosexual relations. They need care from people who can prepare them compassionately for death.
I have sat in isolation cells with inmates dying of AIDS. I have embraced them, prayed with them, and offered them the Good News. I know only too welt that for many in prison, AIDS has become their death sentence, imposed without jury or judge or hope of reprieve.
For government to participate in imposing that sentence by promoting the lie of safe sex is a bitter betrayal of their trustjand a betrayal of the public trust as well.
*From Jubilee, October 1991, Copyright 1991, Reprinted with permission of Prison Fellowship, P.O. Bex 17500, Washington DC. 22041.
On Sex Relationships
David Tlede: "[The] biblical rejection of same sex and extramarital genital sexual relationships arises from a positive conviction about the blessing of sexuality for the family and community. The Bibledoes not have a phobia about sex, but aeon vtetion. This means a confidence and comfort with many kinds of "caring and mutual relationships between consenting adults", same sex and opposite sex: but genital sexual behavior outside of marriage is consistently excluded."–PLTS lecture, 6/1/91
Richard B Hays: "[St. Paul in Romans 1] portrays homosexual activity as a vivid and shameful sign of humanity's confusion and rebellion against God,"–Journal of Religious Ethics: 14, p. 215
Joan Beck: "In 1990, when 40,000 Americansdiedof AIDS.federal spending on the disease totaled $1.6 billion. By comparison, cancer research, for a disease with an annual death toll of about 500,000 people, received $1.5 billion and heart disease, despite 730,000 annual deaths, got less than $1 billion" S. F. Examiner, 1991
Unidentified High School Student at Los Angeles Board of Education hearing to pass out free condoms to students (later approved, as also in San Francisco): "Won't you please spend your money on textbooks for us, instead of on condoms?"– Televised.
Manual for Junior High School Luther Leaguers, instruction on "Aids Education", issued by a Sierra Pacific Synod-related organization, for use in the synod's congregations: Inflate a condom and toss it around the circle so the participants are not embarrassed by feeling it. Also: organize a "treasure hunt" and have on the list the securing of a box of condoms from Ihe local drugstore, so the participants will not feel embarrassed in purchasing the same.j On public display at the Oakland Sierra Pacific Assembly meeting, 1989.
CHRIST AND THE AIRLINE TERRORIST*
[Editor's Note: Inour battle to keep and honor God's Word as the only guide and norm for out faith and life, we sometimes become discouraged at the indifference or active hostility which so often meets us. Here is a true story to put steel into our backbone. It reminds us of the utter power of the Gospel]
In late 1987, the world was stunned to learn that an explosion aboard a Korean Airlines flight, which claimed the lives of 115 people, had been the work of two North Korean agents. Both attempted suicide, but the woman, Hytrn Hee Kim, survived and was sentenced to death.
During her imprisonment, she met the Lord. Eventually, she was given apardonandnow shares her testimony in churches across South Korea.
From the time I could barely speak as a small child, I learned to say, "Thank you, Great Leader Kim n Sung" [North Korea's president]. The entire Communist Party and people are organized, controlled and trained lo lift Kim E Sung up like a god and know nothing but the greatness of his philosophy.
I was trained to despise religion through school studies and propaganda movies. When I heard the word "religion" it conjured up all kinds of fear and foreboding.
After planting the bomb on the KAL airlinerjan incident which I had beer, taught wouldcontribute to the reunification of the countryj my partner and I were trapped in Abu Dabai. God blocked our return to North Korea by sending a worker into the Abu Dabai airport who took our tickets and passports for processing. We had never heard of an airline thai did such things, and were completely at a loss what to do. Because of the delay, our false passports were eventually exposed and we were held by the police.
We took poison capsules to conceal North Korea's monstrous secret; they bring instant death when crushed in your mouth. I don't know how it happened, but I awoke three days later in the hospital. The Lord God did not give up on me by permitting me to die so conveniently, but saved my life that I might ultimately give testimony to that heinous act I had committed.
Back in South Korea, I did not understand the meaning of my spared life. But ray Lord saw my despair and conveyed His Word through those who were atmy side from the Investigation Department. Those who were guarding me were Christians. They gave me a copy of God's Word and encouraged me to read it.
I had never read any book other than the Books of the Revolution and those concerning the philosophy of Kim II Sung. When I read God's Word, my heart was truly stirred and surprised, God sent a wonderful pastor to help me understand it. At first, I could not bring myself to believe what he said; everything sounded like fables of the past. But as I continued to listen, I found that the Lord's Word brought change to my heart.
"God showed His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). At this passage, I wept with the realization of Jesus' love that took Him to the cross to die for all of our sins. I opened my heart to Him and received Him as my Lord and Savior.
The Lord has given sal valion to this horrible sinner. I want to serve Him with diligence. I realize that I must testify of God's work and miracles to those who still do not know. Oh my Lord God, sincerely I thank you!
* Reprinted by permission from Open Doors with Brother Andrew Newt Rrief. March 1991.
Church in Society Commission, to all bishops of the ELCA and to the Lutheran magazine.
SPIRITUAL NUGGETS*
God is lovejbut love is not God.
Most people are far-sighted when it comes to sin – They see others' sin, but not their own.
God's help is only a prayer away.
Do you have a burden for the lost; or have you lost your burden?
You can have tons of religion without an ounce of salvation. The sins we excuse will return to accuse.
We need the Gospel not only in books but also in boots. You don't need to know where you are going if God is leading.
If you would win some, you must be winsome. It's good to be a Christian and know it; it's better to be a Christian and show it.
We lose interest in worship when we have nothing invested.
What happens to us is not nearly so important as what happens in us.
When the Christian keeps his mind on Christ, he develops a wonderful "calmplex."
If absence makes the heart grow fonder, how some people must love tbeir church!
To escape sin's curse, come under the cross.
The trials of life are intended to make us better, not bitter.
We may give without loving; but we cannot love without giving.
When troubles call on you – call on God.
Cross-bearing precedes crown-wearing.
Conversion of a soul takes but a moment; Growth of a saint takes a lifetime.
The most important part about Christmas is the first six letters.
No Jesus – no peace; Know Jesus – know peace.
God is our authority – not the majority.
Satan always uses a lure; don't take the bait.
God gives his very best to those who leave the choice with Him.
If you value Eternity, make good use of Time,
Success is failure turned inside out. To the Christian, life's incidents are no coincidence.
If you've left the path, turn to the Right. Christian homes don't just happen – they're built.
* Reprinted by permission from Our Dally Bread. Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, MI.
Mission Statement
READER RESPONSES
Editor's Note: We invite reader responses to FOCL concerns. Letters may be abridged and will be edited for space requirements.
Dear Editor:
I have just received a copy of FOCL-POINT, and noticed you are one of the editors. I am in total agreement with the positions and statements expressed therein about our ELCA. I am not very happy at what I perceive is a strong drift toward the 'social gospel' and away from the basics which I found in our former ALC. I am alarmed and saddened at this trend.
Dr. Richard Morton, Lodi. CA.
[Ed. Note- emeritus President of Dana College and Trinity Lutheran Seminary.]
Dear Editor:
Enclosed is a check for $10.00 for a membership in the publication of the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans.
After serving overseas for 34 and 44 years as missionaries in Ethiopia, India and Hong Kong and with Lutheran World Federation in Lebanon and Geneva, we are very concerned with the "cultural accommodation" and many decisions of the ELCA.
We continue to work and pray for the church and for this country.
Mrs Trudy [and Dr. Herbert] Schaefer. Redding, CA. [Ed. Note: pioneer and founding missionaries of the Mekane Yesus Lutheran Church in Ethiopia.!
Dear Editor:
Thanks for including me on your mailing list for FOCL-POINT. I appreciate the doctrinal stance and the quality of the articles. I am enclosing my personal check for S25.0O to include the next year's subscription. I have also sent copies of the two issues Ihave to my three brothers. They may ormay not decide to subscribe. Keep up the good work; promote the true faith; and God bless your effort!
Norman C Johnshoy, (pastor emeritus (ELCA), Fresno, CA
Dear Editor
The Fall 1991 copy of FOCI.-POINT has arrived and is much appreciated. It is most refreshing to read and share.
I receive a number of church house organs. I began this practice while on active duty as a Chaplain with the US. Air Force. I think that I receive the house organ of every Lutheran entity in the US. Some are worth only a skim arid are tossed into the round file.
I am the editor of a newsletter for retired officers in Calif., and consequently receive about 50 newsletters a month. The references by these lay officers to the need for a confessional (my word) stance is most enlightening.
I have taken a stand on the doctrine and practice of our Lutheran Church. I stood on this for 23 years of active duty and saw no reason to change when assuming the pastorate in a local civilian parish.
The present system of discipline in the ELCA is exercised only on those who are not politically correct. I am thankful unto the Lord for being able to be trained at Luther Seminary, 1949-52. The trumpet call was clear – then.
Enclosed is the suggested donation of S 10.00 which I feel is a small price for a well designed and edited publication.
The blessing of the Lord and the guidance of the Holy Spirit be yours in your ministry to our ELCA.
Pastor Francis E Jeffery, San Jose, CA.
Editor's Note: We appreciate the courage and insight of these servants of the Church. They have devoted a life-lime to keeping Christ's bride, the Church, loyal to his Word alone. They have invested too much of their lives to see Cod's people now stumble and fall on their faces, being led astray by sociological cliches and unbiblicalphilosophies about humanity and its supposedly outmoded obligation to the Scriptures.
These brave co-workers for Christ know only too well that calling people back to the Church's theolog icalfoundalions is a thankless task inanyage. As children of Martin Luther and custodians of the Holy Scriptures, they are fully aware that prophets and apostles likewise suffered ridicule and exclusion from the ranks of those whose "itching ears" insist on "some other Gospel" than the one for which the Apostles lived and died.
We can expect retired clergy and church workers to continue to be the first to rally around the ensign of THE WORD ALONE. They can do so by personally supporting F.O.C.L as their network for prayer and common conviction.