Ind. Lutheran Church Votes to Leave Over Gay Issues

An Auburn, Indiana Lutheran church has decided to split from the mainstream faith rather than see committed gay and lesbian people of faith allowed to serve as clergy.

The church, St. Mark's, took a vote on July 4 and the majority opted to break away from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), reported KPC News.com on July 9. The reason for the split is the August, 2009 decision by the ECLA's leadership to allow openly gay and lesbian people who are in committed same-sex relationships to serve in a clerical capacity. The church's previous stance on gays was that they could only serve as clerics if they were celibate.

Such splits and divisions have roiled other faiths. The global Anglican church faces breakaway parishes, the creation of a parallel, anti-gay Anglican church in North America, and the possibility of full-fledged schism over the issue of what gays, lesbians, and--to a lesser degree--straight women may play in the church.

The ECLA's decision has already led to other parishes separating themselves from the faith's mainstream. EDGE reported in a Feb. 25 article that defections from the main body of the Lutheran church were taking place, with a new, anti-gay "North American Lutheran Church" having been proposed, to parallel the faith's mainstream.

Those objecting to the change in policy say that gays cannot be both in accordance with Biblical teaching and in a committed relationship with another person of the same gender. "We think it's inappropriate," Stephen Kummernuss, the pastor of St. Mark's, told KPC News.com. "It's not consistent with the Biblical witness." Added the pastor, "God loves all people, yes, but as for the requirements for ministry, we think this has to be the biblical model."

The vote to break away followed an earlier vote, two months ago, in which the requisite two-thirds majority was not attained. "We were short by four votes," Kummernuss related, going on to say, "At that point, we lost a good number of members." With the congregation shrinking--and its income falling to half its previous levels--the church was forced to reconsider the issue for its own fiscal health. Noted Kummernuss, "The congregation can survive, but staffing cuts would be needed if the lost membership--and revenue--could not be reclaimed. Eventually, the church voted once more on the issue. Kummernuss had reached out in the interim to tell congregants that voting to leave the ELCA over the issue of gay clergy would not mean that the church was "anti-gay," the article said.

"Many thought this was a referendum on homosexuality, and it's not; it's on biblical authority," Kummernuss told the news site. "It does not mean you're anti-gay." Former members who had left the congregation came back to cast their votes once again on July 4, the article noted, and the resolution to break away carried 161-25. Another vote must confirm the result in three months' time. Assuming the same outcome is the result, St. Mark's will leave the ELCA and join the emergent North American Lutheran Church, the article said.

The new North American Lutheran Church is the work of Lutheran CORE, a group of anti-gay Lutheran clergy. As of last February, fewer than 30 churches out of the ELCA's 10,000 churches had voted to leave, but Lutheran CORE leaders anticipated that a groundswell of breakaway churches would result over the gay clergy issue. Said Lutheran CORE director Rev. Mark Chavez, "I think [the ELCA] should be alarmed by these numbers... I don't think the wave has hit them yet."