I attend a baptist church but have admired Martin Luther for having the courage to stand up to a very corrupt power. One of the biggest powers of that day which made His life very miserable. Nevertheless he conformed his will to Bible teaching and said, "here I stand I can do no other." That is how everyone who claim Christ's name should comport themselves. Conscious means nothing if it doesn't reflect the correct.

I write as a lifelong Lutheran, who as an adult, found myself also in a lifelong committed loving relationship with another woman. I was learning through the world, and liberal ELCA that is was ok because of "grace". But as I turned 50, felt need for serving Lord, and rededicated myself to Him, my story is archived at Wordalone under title God Did Call Sinners, But He Did Call Us Not To Sin.
Through Holy Spirits power and my personal choice to be accountable, there are others who have held me up through prayer and counseling as I have learned to walk in obedience, as my conscience is bound to Scripture, not making scripture be bound to my conscience.I still love the woman I was involved with, but cannot be in relationship with.To do that I needed church family that was true to the word, that had arms to hold when I cried, that prayed with me when I couldn't, and that I have needed, or would fall. This is a walk that needs strong teaching, loving fellowship, and God's truth John 17:17!

So well-written, thought out, and helpful. I grew up Missouri Synod Lutheran and witnessed churches leaving to go ELCA. Hearing more on bound-conscience speaks to our continued need to respect, accept, and defer to the inspired Word of God than yielding to our consciences. Would love to and need to hear more on what the Bible-based, loving response is to sin, especially when the sin is committed by family and friends. This also causes us to fall. As one example, we don't want to and don't know how to rebuke, respond to and relate to our gay family member. They are so like us in many ways and we don't want to completely end fellowship with them. So we rely on theories like bound-conscience to rationalize how we plan to move forward. We also need a loving message, based on God's word, to go along with the condemnatory message that we have down very well on the sin of practicing homosexuality. It would win us more converts and keep more from falling. Thank you again.