Conservative Group Amplifies Voice of Protestant Orthodoxy

[Da Lone-Warrior]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/22/national/22CONS.html?ex=1086243971&ei=1&en=a64e10c78f6f61ff

In each denomination, the flashpoint is homosexuality, but
there is another common denominator as well. In each case,
the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a small
organization based in Washington, has helped incubate
traditionalist insurrections against the liberal politics
of the denomination's leaders.

With financing from a handful of conservative donors,
including the Scaife family foundations, the Bradley and
Olin Foundations and Howard and Roberta Ahmanson's
Fieldstead & Company, the 23-year-old institute is now
playing a pivotal role in the biggest battle over the
future of American Protestantism since churches split over
slavery at the time of the Civil War.

...


More liberal Protestants argue that the institute's
financial backers are interfering with the theological
disputes mainly for broader, secular political reasons.
"The mainline denominations are a strategic piece on the
chess board that the right wing is trying to dominate,"
said Alfred F. Ross, president and founder of the Institute
for Democracy Studies, a liberal New York-based think tank
which produced a research report in 2000 on the Institute's
influence in the Presbyterian Church.

dlw:It seems that our inability to come to terms with certain facts has led to the ongoing exacerbation of the cultural wars, which are threatening to split many churches.

dlw

[elysian]

Here's what I see within my own national church body (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or ELCA.) There is a very liberal faction and many of the extreme liberals have found their way into leadership - many were political activists in the 1960's. There is also a moderate to conservative faction who are primarily rank and file, the people who come to church and fill the pews: the boomer era people's parents and many people GenX or younger (basically people like me, and people old enough to be my grandparents.) The "Boomer" generation is defining our leadership, but the elderly are more conservative and the "under 45's" are even more conservative than many of the older people.

As some of the younger moderates and conservatives are moving into leadership positions this creates an "us versus them" type mentality: the moderates and conservatives have the overwhelming support of the rank and file but the leaders who have been entrenched for decades don't like it. Yet slowly I think that in the dialogue both sides are seeing the need to "norm" each other and find an acceptable center. IMO this would mean to get back to Scripture as the defining norm and standard for living.

There is an ongoing dialogue in the ELCA also about homosexuality, whether or not we should recognize gay partnerships and/or ordain gay people. Some of the older rank and file have cut off their benevolence giving (giving to the larger church in addition to giving to the local congregation) as a way to send a message. Some believe as I do that while we should welcome all people because we are all sinners and hypocrites, we should not condone a lifestyle and a set of behaviors that Scripture always condemns as sin. Gay marriage being recognized and affirmed or worse, done in the church, is nothing less than blasphemy. We cannot bless what God condemns. Pastors are supposed to be shepherds, leaders and examples, and IMO actively and openly pursuing homosexual relations is not appropriate for one who is called to leadership in the church. We don't allow (and I believe rightly so, and yes I am divorced and remarried myself) divorced people who have remarried to be Pastors because it is against Scripture (1 Timothy 3:2, 12 and Titus 1:6) so why would we allow a person to become a Pastor who is a part of an unnatural relationship? Others believe "why not" or believe that science overrides Scripture. (the "they're born that way and can't change their orientation view.") I do not agree with this opinion, and many other conservatives do not as well.

I struggle with this dialogue as well. I am a confessional Lutheran, meaning that I interpret Scripture according to the Lutheran Confessions as found in the Book of Concord. I have been so intensely and marvellously blessed by God in my home church and I have no disagreement with my local church even though we are quite the motley crew. But ordaining homosexuals may leave me no choice but to join the Missouri Synod.