Wheat and Chaff

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the ELCA voted down both of their pro-gay proposals. A brief hesitation in their slouch to Gommorah. But the fact that such things even reached the floor, let alone garnered the support of largish minorities, says plenty about the state of the church. I simply do not understand why all the pro-gay proponents don't just go off and join a like-minded denomination such as the UCC, instead of constantly causing schism and turmoil in their own denominations. Actually I'm pretty sure I do understand it. It's the same reason that they've progressed from not enforcing anti-sodomy laws, to "tolerance" movements, to anti-hate crime laws, to positive instruction on the gay lifestyle in our schools. They do not want simple tolerance. They won't be happy until every voice raised against them is silenced. But the voice they most want to silence of course never will be silenced. Their conscience, the voice of God's image within them, will continue to accuse and condemn them for their wickedness, and it doesn't matter how many denominations they wreck.

They always deny the slippery slope, but any denomination that ordains women to church office soon finds itself with no language to condemn any immorality. Having walked away from the authority of the Bible, we are left only with our own feelings and the popular consensus of the day. Those ELCA members who voted against the pro-gay movement ought to do some soul-searching about the "yes" votes they've cast in the past that allowed these abominations to gain such prominence in their churches.