Lutherans May Permit Noncelibate Gay Pastors

New York Times-

Leaders of the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination began a civil but tense debate here on Thursday on whether to ordain gay men and lesbians, an issue that is likely to come to a vote on Friday.

The denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is considering lifting a ban on noncelibate gay and lesbian pastors, permitting the ordination of people in committed same-sex relationships.

At issue is how the Bible should inform policy, how the denomination can best serve its mission, and how a vote to ordain gay men and lesbians would affect the church’s relationships with the broader Christian community. Fears of a schism have been fueled by recent turmoil in the Episcopal Church, which voted in July to permit the ordination of openly gay bishops. The issue has cost the Episcopal Church about 100,000 members, who have left to join a new, more conservative entity called the Anglican Church in North America.

Although an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America task force proposed a “structured flexibility” clause that ultimately would leave gay ordination up to each congregation, a sense of division looms. Some delegates here are cloaked in shawls distributed by a Lutheran organization endorsing gay ordination, while others are wearing buttons from an opposing Lutheran organization.

“It feels like a high school football rivalry, where you’ve got two camps like that,” said Chelsea Mathis, a delegate from Monroe, Mich.

The scriptural framework of the debate only feeds those divisions, Ms. Mathis said. “There are dueling Bible verses when the microphone is open to people,” she said.

Ms. Mathis said she had friends who were “at their wits’ ends with the church” and might leave if it does not accept gay ministers, but she is also aware that, “for some people, it’s almost too much to be able to acknowledge that there is homosexuality.” Bridging that gap among 1,045 delegates and the 65 synods they represent can feel impossible, she said.

More here-

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/us/21lutheran.html