Lutherans to allow pastors in gay relationships

Sat Aug 11, 2:00 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Homosexual Lutheran clergy who are in sexual relationships will be able to serve as pastors, the largest U.S. Lutheran body said on Saturday.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in "faithful committed same-gender relationships."

The resolution passed by a vote of 538-431.

"The Church ... has just said 'Do not do punishments'," said Phil Soucy, spokesman for Lutherans Concerned, a gay-lesbian rights group within the church. "That is huge."

The ELCA, which has 4.8 million members, had previously allowed gays to serve as pastors so long as they abstained from sexual relations.

My comments:
When I read the above Reuters story, I thought what a perfect example of postmodern thinking. We don't want to punish the wicked, because we can't say what they are doing is wrong anymore.

We must wonder why it is all right to perform an act of fornication just because the fornicators are in a "faithful, committed same-gender relationship"? If a pastor were living with a different gender person in a faithful committed relationship (but without the benefit of marriage), would it still not be fornication (a damnable sin according to Galatians 5:19-21)?

We do not understand what changes the fornication from sinful to sanctioned. Whether one is promiscuous with many or with only one, it is still sinful fornication.

Phil