Lutherans debate gay clergy

So I’m technically a Lutheran. I say technically because I was baptized in a Lutheran church when I was an infant, I’m a believer in Jesus Christ and a follower of His church, but I’m not particularly devoted to any denomination. When I do go to church, it’s to a Lutheran church, though. I’m not a good Christian, in the sense that I don’t go to church very often, I don’t tithe, I don’t love God perfectly. I’m a foul sinner who will spend my life trying to be a good person, but always knowing that I’ll never be perfect, but that God loves me anyway. Just like everybody else.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is meeting this week, and one of the topics they’re debating is whether to allow individual congregations to decide if they want to allow homosexuals in committed relationships to be pastors of their church.

First off, I admire the church’s strategy on this: if there’s going to be a change in policy (and again, it hasn’t yet been voted on), let the change happen at the individual congregational level. Push the decision down to the people who are directly affected by it. It’s a very republican way of handling things. Having said that, I would hope that the individual congregations that face this decision reject it.

If the church has decided that homosexuality is a sin, then it must be treated like any other sin. The best analogy I’ve been able to come up with is this: would a pastor who shoplifts and doesn’t renounce shoplifting and acknowledges that he will openly continue to shoplift and expect "tolerance" for his shoplifting keep his job for very long?

My conclusion: I doubt it.

So is homosexuality a sin or isn’t it? That’s really where the rubber meets the road. I don’t expect my pastor to be superhuman. He or she is a human, just like me. What I DO expect is for my pastor to denounce sin in every form, set a clear standard for appropriate behavior, do his best to live by it, and if he fails, as we all do, to ask God for forgiveness and recommit himself to a life free from sin. A pastor cannot simultaneously denounce sin and unapologetically and continuously engage in behavior that his own theology understand to be sinful.

One of the arguments that religious homosexuals make is that there are two New Testament commandments that must be followed. First, love God. Second, love your neighbor as yourself. They say if you do that, you’re good to go. But what does it mean to "love God?" Theologically, it seems to mean living a righteous life. How do you lead a righteous life? By following God’s word. And how do you know God’s word? It’s in the Bible. And the Bible is pretty clear about this stuff. Male homosexuality, female homosexuality, pederasty, adultery, incest, even effeminacy, it’s all sin.

I’m aware that this all puts an extraordinary burden on homosexuals of faith who want to be part of a church and a community. I would never, ever presume to say that someone can’t be part of a church because of any kind of sin. But if there’s not a common, objective understanding of morality among members of a church, and especially among the church’s leaders, then I’m really at a loss to explain what the purpose of the church is.