So THAT is what Paul meant

More on the normalization of sin in the ELCA

This is the sort of thinking that has taken hold of the ELCA....

The Rev. Katrina Foster, pastor at Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church in The Bronx, N.Y., said Lutherans heard similar warnings about flouting Scripture when they made past changes that are now seen as successful — chiefly, the ordination of women.

"We can learn not to define ourselves by negation," said Foster, a lesbian. "By not only saying what we are against, which always seems to be the same — against gay people. We should be against poverty. I wish we were as zealous about that."

Past changes that are seen as successful? Successful? In what way? Certainly not in terms of numbers as numbers have been declining precipitously in the ELCA for years. Certainly not in terms of Gospel witness and faithfulness as exhibited in their wholesale abandonment of Scripture. Nor in terms of uniting the ELCA which clearly is on the way to schism like the Episcopalian church is going through. The only success here is from those who deny Christ successfully remaking a denomination in their own image, an image designed only for the purpose of providing them with a veneer of religiosity to cover their own shameful behavior.

If you want to know what Southern Baptists think, you talk to Al Mohler. Apparently if you want to know what the ELCA thinks, Ms. Foster (pictured above) seems as good a voice as any. I took the liberty of checking out her blog and even in my wildest imagination I could hardly have envisioned this sort of flaunting and twisting of the Scripture mixed in with posts about "Hair: Spiked or non-spiked?".

However, when I saw persons from Exodus International at the entrance to the dining hall yesterday, my ability to keep my mind on Jesus was deeply challenged. Prayer, electric shock therpy, constant shame and internalized hatered can have dramatic effect, even moving people to committ to living out their sexuality in ways that are foreign and unnatural. Exactly in a way that St. Paul wrote & preached against in Romans 1. (spelling errors in original)

Read that last line again: Exactly in a way that St. Paul wrote & preached against in Romans 1. Ah, so that is what Paul was talking about. He was referencing people going through same-gender attraction counseling, not the abomination that is homosexuality. How could I be so blind, it is so obvious from the text...

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. (Rom 1:24-28)

Or maybe not. The ability of sin to delude the mind is incredible. Apparently under the leadership of people like Ms. Foster, the only sin in the ELCA is speaking about Biblical sin. The only thing shameful is to say someone should be ashamed of their perversions. The only thing one needs to be forgiven of is intolerance of deviant behavior.