Diversity Week

By Rev. Eric Feig

Pastor Eric Feig is an ELCA pastor in Lake City, Minnesota, a reserve chaplain in the National Guard and as you will read, an alumnus of Luther College. Writing of his recent experience on campus, we get a behind the scenes look at the discussion of human sexuality that is currently happening on one of our ELCA campuses.
Diversity, as Webster’s Collegiate dictionary defines it, is the condition of being diverse (composed of distinct or unlike elements or qualities). From what I experienced, Luther College, Decorah Iowa, is not able to understand Webster’s definition of diversity.
Luther College celebrated ADiversity Week 2002: Race, gender, class and sexuality in community@ Sept 29 B Oct 5, 2002. Information on this event is available at (www.publicinformation.luther.edu/diversityweek2002.html). More than 25 ADiversity Week@ lectures, films, workshops and celebrations were designed to stimulate discussion and engender dialogue around humankind's many differences and unique histories.
One of the displays that caught my attention was the critically acclaimed photo-text exhibit "Love Makes a Family: Portraits of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People and their Families," which was displayed in Preus Library, Marty's CyberCafe, and the Oneota Coffee Shop during Diversity Week.
I asked myself how would this exhibit was used to support the ELCA’s current position and their statement on human sexuality, marriage, and family? Jesus said, ask and it shall be given unto you, so I asked! I inquired at the Public Information Office at Luther who was the leader of Diversity Week, because I had a few questions I wanted answered. I was given Professor Kimberly Powell’s name, so I asked her how Diversity Week would be used to support the ELCA’s current position of sexuality. She chose not to answer, but referred my questions to Luther’s Dean, Dr. William Craft.
I wondered why I was being passed around so quickly and no one wanted to answer my questions straight up. Dr. Craft answered my questions concerning the exibit with, A=The Love Makes a Family= exhibit was not brought on campus with the explicit intent of supporting the current ELCA statement on Human Sexuality. However, its presence does contribute to the effort of the church to address openly the difficult issue of the place that gay and lesbian children of God will have within the body of Christ and within church related institutions.
I decided to check the exhibit in person for myself. I wanted to see the exhibit and hear the presentations. I was curious why nobody official wanted to dialogue with me about it. The public was invited to join the students and faculty in a series of Brown Bag luncheons held during Diversity Week. I went to participate in the luncheon with the topic, ‘Sexual Orientation.’
Here’s where Diversity began to narrow! The hour-long luncheon was held in a packed meeting room at Luther, and was led by GLBT students at Luther. During the discussion it became clear that their understanding of human sexuality and sexual expression was not confined to one man and one woman within the context of the lifelong commitment of marriage. In fact, if that was what you believed, then you’ve had a lot to learn about life and God too! Over and over again, it was stated that God loves and approves of the many different ways of sexual expression, especially those with a GLBT orientation. As long as there was love and commitment, God approved. No sin. No right or wrong. It was proclaimed that there is only a message of love and acceptance from God. In fact , the sin that abounds was to be found in those people who didn’t approve of GLBT lifestyles. They were the ones on the outside and not right with God! So much for the traditional view in the church, at least at Luther, an ELCA college.
At the luncheon, I heard that the greatest sermon ever preached had been given earlier during morning chapel (October 1, 2002). The preacher was Jim Martin-Schram. He is an Associate Professor of Religion at Luther. He has a B.A. from Pacific Lutheran University; received his M.Div. from Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary; and a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary.
Since I was unable to attend chapel in person, I requested an audio transcript of the service. I wanted to hear the greatest sermon ever for myself! I should have known better. The greatest sermon ever given vilified the traditional view of sexuality and family, and uplifted GLBT lifestyles as normal and blessed by God. Experience, you see, was to be the guide for our lives. The biblical writers did not experience sexuality the way that we do now, so, they couldn’t possibly write anything other than what they knew from their experience. The Biblical writers were not writing the Word of God. What they were writing was based upon what they experienced. Because experiences have changed, so does the view of scripture and our use of it. We do not condemn our GLBT brothers and sisters as Paul did. We now welcome them and bless them. Just to give you an understanding of the new way of looking at things, as presented in this greatest sermon ever given, here’s how the sermon ends: Christians who have experienced and benefited from the righteousness of gay, lesbian, by-sexual and trans-gendered friends and family members want to change the view of the church with regard to the issue of homosexuality. Many of us all want our communities to be places where people like Dan (his friend, whose experience colors this sermon) are fully welcomed and given the same opportunities and moral responsibilities as the rest of us. We want our communities to be places where diversity is appreciated and celebrated within the context of our unity in the body of Christ. Where there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, where we are all one in Christ Jesus. In these communities we have a term for a man that loves another man. We call that man a Christian. In these communities, we have a term for a woman who loves another woman, we call that woman a sister in Christ and a child of God. Amen.
Was this the Greatest sermon ever? Where was the balance of Law and Gospel? Where were sin and redemption proclaimed? Not a chance! At least, I couldn’t hear anything Lutheran in what was said.
I then went to look for myself at the exhibit "Love Makes a Family: Portraits of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People and their Families." I toured the various sites on campus where the exhibit was displayed. The message of acceptance, tolerance and love for GLBT families was the continuous theme of the exhibit. Natural and normal are words used to describe the pictures of children being raised in GLBT homes. Was there anything that would hint of a sinful lifestyle? Not on your life. Not in this exhibit!
I was three for three, so I thought I’d express my surprise and disgust with the Campus Pastors. Surely they would provide some balance to the perceived one-sided view of Diversity Week I received. I met with Pastor Deanna Langle and we discussed the issues of Diversity Week, sexuality, and the ELCA’s study of the issue. To my surprise, from her perspective, I was the one with the problem. Luther’s Chapel is a Reconciled in Christ congregation. The campus Pastors there fully supported the positions given during Diversity Week and the sermon preached by Jim Martin-Schram. In fact, it was the pastors who arranged the special chapel speakers for Diversity Week! From her perspective, the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was loud and strong from the office of Campus Pastor at Luther. Perplexed, I realized that it just didn’t fit anything remotely associated with a traditional view.
It seems as though I struck out, trying to find balance. Diversity at Luther meant a singular view, with no opportunity for dialogue or discussion if your view is traditional. It seems that if, on a churchwide level, you can’t persuade the people of God to believe in a non-traditional view of sexuality, then start educating the young. If you give the impression that the church supports this new understanding, without any balance of the longstanding traditional Scriptural view of sexuality, what is one to believe about balance and dialog? What was presented at Luther during Diversity Week seems to be what is desired as the standard for how we view sexuality and embrace it within the church. My impression was that they were saying, we should get them young, give them only one view, and tell them it’s the only way a true Lutheran Christian sees God’s gift of sexuality and sexual expression. It’s a great scam and our future church leaders are being molded in this understanding.
My conversations with the professors and pastors at Luther were brought to an abrupt end when I inquired about meeting with them. Don’t ask, don’t tell, seems to be the policy there. I was once excited about the college and it’s ministries. After all, I’m an alumnus! How can I continue to be supportive of the school I once attended when they are no longer interested in upholding what is the current ELCA policy? How can I continue to support them when they won’t even heed the ELCA’s intent to discuss sexuality? It seems they are more interested in one-sided promotion of their already determined conclusion to any discussions about sexuality the church may currently be having. A conclusion that is hostile to our traditional Scriptural view of one man and one woman in a lifetime committed marriage relationship.
Diversity Week was diverse and didn’t have room for me. Diversity Week didn’t have room for a traditional Scriptural viewpoint. Diversity Week wasn’t diverse at all.