The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is the fourth largest Protestant group in the U.S. with 5.3 million members. According to ReligiousTolerance.org, a website that "promotes religious diversity as a positive cultural value," ELCA is one of the most liberal denominations in the country.
In 2001 the Churchwide Assembly called for the development of a study on homosexuality, which is due in 2005. The purpose of the study is "to deal with the blessing of same-gender unions and the rostering of persons in committed gay or lesbian relationships."
A companion denominational study guide titled "Journey Together Faithfully" asks ELCA members "to consider how this church should respond to the requests to bless same-sex unions and to ordain, consecrate, or commission people in committed same-sex unions."
Meanwhile, the document A Message on Sexuality: Some Common Convictions, adopted by the Church Council in 1996, states: "Marriage is a lifelong covenant of faithfulness between a man and a woman."
The smaller Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, remains faithful in belief and practice to biblical teachings on marriage. A pastoral letter in March 2004 from Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick, president of The Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, states, "We are against [same-sex marriage] in no uncertain terms. The definition of marriage must always be what it always has been: the loving, permanent relationship between one man and one woman .... If it takes an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to preserve the timeless and holy definition of marriage in our country, then I am in favor of it."
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Rusty Benson, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is associate editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association. This article appeared in the May 2004 issue.
© 2004 Agape Press.
