The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

Congratulations to Ms. Debby Rieselman!

Her inane Letter to the Editor in the Cincinnati Enquirer wins my coveted "Totally missing the point" award. It starts off with a cutesy headline ("Lutherans' opening up to gays a loving act") and goes downhill from there with quote after quote that shows an utter ignorance of the Bible and Christianity...

It's a little murky, but reformation, as Lutherans know, is always murky. As the leader of the Protestant Reformation nearly 500 years ago, the Lutheran church claims a tradition of "always reforming itself."... It wasn't easy. Some delegates wanted to delay the vote for two years until a church task force made more progress. Others uttered the words of our founder Martin Luther: "How soon 'not now' becomes 'never.' "

The Reformation that Luther in large part started, and that has continued throughout the centuries is not about "tolerance" or "acceptance". It is about a continual concern with and return to Biblical fidelity. The idea of an openly homosexual man (or woman) standing in a pulpit with their homosexual partner gazing on lovingly from the pews would be abhorrent to Luther.

Her final comment is an ominous one...

This was a compromise. And it was only a first step. But it was a loving step.

This is but the first step towards a goal of complete tolerance. The goal is not about minor steps but complete capitulation of the Bible to the whims and perversions of the day. This has never been about acceptance, but has always been about the submission of the Word of God to the sin of the day, remaking God into an idol of our own image. Churches like the ELCA frankly, and this sounds harsh but the truth often is, either need to repent of their sins or stop calling themselves Christian churches. I know I don't get to dictate who is or is not a Christian, but Christ does and the actions of the ELCA have put them directly at odds with the revealed Word of God and therefore against Christ Himself.

Ms. Rieselman's bio describes her as follows:

Debby Rieselman is a lifelong Lutheran, a member of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Crestview Hills, and a lay leader in many areas of her local church, as well as the synodical and national levels of Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

One would think that someone in a position of leadership such as hers would have a better grasp of the totality of the Biblical witness, rather than a mere sentimentalism that sees all sinners as inherently good and God as obligated to save them despite their rebellion and sin.

What would truly be a loving act would be for Lutherans to call homosexuals in their midst to Biblical repentance, calling on them to turn from their sinful lifestyle and "sin no more". But that might strike some as "intolerant"...