Unintended Consequences

by Larry Beane

God's Word and the avowed confession of our synod and its members notwithstanding, I believe we will see the next generation of LCMS pastors and laypeople overwhelmingly support the world's evolving definition of marriage and the mainstream Protestant church's requirements for admission to the pastoral office. 

I think it is absolutely inevitable (and these two issues are intertwined, actually the same issue).

I believe that when this occurs, at most, 20% of the pastors and congregations of the LCMS will leave the synod and form one or more new synodical associations. Some conservatives who remain in the LCMS will grouse about it, but they will try to fight within the synod rather than leave. They may try some form of "a state of confession" - but the tide of time and culture will wash over them fairly quickly, and the leadership of the synod will eventually deal harshly with them.

I believe within the lifetime of my son, there will be openly gay pastors and district presidents. There will be a lady president of one of our seminaries. I firmly believe this. She may well defend the Genesis account of creation and reject the higher critical method of biblical hermeneutics, and will thus be considered a "conservative" and may even see opposition from the more liberal element within the LCMS.

This path (like the one that has now seen the Boy Scouts accept homosexuality within their ranks) is the result of a "normalization" that comes with something that was once unthinkable simply becoming commonplace through the passage of time and by routine exposure. This process of normalization is undeniable and over time drives what is acceptable in our secular and ecclesiastical cultures. A simple comparison of television programming over the past few decades illustrates this point. You may like it or not like it, but that is the trajectory we are on.

I also believe we will eventually see churches that "discriminate" based on "gender" (whether in ordination, employment, or marriage rites) will lose their tax exempt status from the IRS - especially if the Roman Catholic Church were to capitulate on these issues. Right now, the sheer size and power of the Roman Catholic Church would make such a move difficult - and even now, we see the Roman Catholic Church beginning to be challenged by the state and pressured to conform to secular standards.

And in accordance with Luther's explanation to the 8th commandment, I believe this to be the unintended consequence of very well-meaning people.

Welcome to the New Breed

By Larry Beane

HT: Dr. William Tighe

Welcome to the "New Breed of Catholicism."

Our Lord warned "do not give dogs what is holy" (Matt 7:6).  One can only imagine how little one must actually believe in the holiness of the sacramental elements to (literally) feed the Lord's body to a dog.

Such behavior may be couched in love of animals and inclusiveness, but what it really demonstrates is a hatred of God and an exclusiveness against His Word.  For to show such contempt toward the Sacrament is nothing other than contempt for the Word - the Word Inscribed and the Word Incarnate.

Such a desecration is completely consistent with the arrogance inherent in having lay people preach and having women step into the roles of liturgists, preachers, pastors, and deacons.  Couched in equality and social justice, it is really a sense of inequality (the belief that somehow a "hearer" is less of a child of God than a "preacher") and of injustice against women - refusing to protect them from the seductive whisper of Satan: "Did God actually say...?" (Gen 3:1).

Same sin different day.

And lest we fall into our old habits of patting ourselves on the backs for being The True Visible Church On Earth!™, let us not forget our own shameful recent history of placing lay people into such roles - especially now that the door to allowing women preachers in the LCMS is standing ajar.

Maybe we're on the cusp of a New Breed of LCMS Lutheranism?

Deacon Deborah Gnad's Commissioning on December 12
  

Dog pastor?

From the Now-I've-Seen-Everything department comes this story published in the Herald-Enterprise out of Goldonda, Illinois, October 12, 2011. The first line of the story under the photo, in case you can't quite make it out, says, "Loveland Elise Wilkerson [that's the dog in the picture] is a Certified Therapy Dog and also assists as a youth pastor at the Golconda United Methodist Church. She also recently presented lap blankets and a walker bag to the Pope County Care Center . . ."

Hm, "she"?

HT: Rev. Michael Henson.