Schnekloth believes he is a Lutheran, the best kind of Lutheran, not one who hails from a movement but one who is on the forefront of the movement -- where Lutheranism ought to be going. Nowhere is this more true than with the issues that ultimately split the ELCA after its 2009 embrace of all things LGBTQ+. He is finished with patience and no longer wishes to wait while others catch up to where he and other progressive/liberal voices in the ELCA are now and where they are going in the future. This is the issue over which a schism is not acceptable but laudable. The time has come, in his eyes, to force the final card. You are either with us or against us -- don't sit on the fence or dawdle. You either need to catch up or hit the door.
On the wrong side of history, inattentive to the weightier matters of justice, frustratingly out of touch with how the church might actually love their neighbors.
We are no longer in a moment when we can in good faith say that we are simply of differing minds but one in Christ. We are no longer in a moment when we can say people just need time to adjust.
Our nation, our culture, the majority of Americans, all have recognized we got this one wrong. It’s time for the church to catch up, and also ask itself why it hasn’t been leading.
It’s time to stop celebrating mealy-mouthed unity and call it what it is: stubborn commitment to bigotry under the guise of religiosity.
Let me say that I do agree with him on one point -- this is church dividing and the faithful ought to be headed out the door with their pastors leading them. Some have. Not enough. According to Schnekloth, you dare not be on the wrong side of history. But that is the curious and dangerous idea. It is wrong and unacceptable and church dividing to be on the wrong side of history, but not on the wrong side of God. In other words, you can depart from Scripture, Creed, and Confession with impunity and you are good but if you depart from the accepted social norm for diversity, justice, equity, sex, and gender, that is simply unacceptable.
According to Schnekloth, I’d just like to make very clear: I know where I stand, and who I stand with. I stand with the queer community. Did you see any mention of standing with Christ or upon the clear word of Scripture? Yeah, neither did I. Because that is the point. Support for this cause must be invented because it cannot be found in the Word of God or the moral tradition that has proceeded from the Word throughout the Judea-Christian era -- at least until the last couple of generations or so. We know better than God, know better than Christ, and know better than the orthodox teachers who went before us that rock upon which the Church stands or falls. Who knew? It was never about sin or
forgiveness, never about death or life, but simply about desire without constraint or judgment. Gosh, what a wasted effort over the centuries! We did not need to convert Rome, we could just embrace Rome.
If the antichristian rantings of the XXXA's Clint Schnekloth don't convince you that "apostasy" is too mild a word to describe such a satanic cult, then just listen to the pastrix and members of XXXA's Edina Community Lutheran [sic] Church [sic] in Edina, MN, confess their faith in The Sparkle Creed.
ReplyDeleteThe ECLC website states: "AT ECLC WE HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF EMBRACING SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES INCLUDING LGBTQIA+ INCLUSION, RACIAL JUSTICE, IMMIGRATION, AND ECOFAITH."
Pastor,
ReplyDeleteI'm sincerely interested in your guidance here.
It is odd to me to speak of this as Church dividing. What does it take to just say, "they are not part of the Church"? Why keep up the pretense that they are part of the Church? Is it because we still allow their pastors to teach our pastors and laity on the contemporary application of our confessions? What makes them any more different in relation to us than the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, etc.? Like these other groups, the ELCA fundamentally doesn't worship the same god as us. Is it really just, unlike the Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists, they mouth the words to give the pretense that they do worship Jesus?
For my part, I simply don't want to refer to the ELCA as Christian anymore than I would others that don't worship the same God. And yes, this means I would presume that any member of an ELCA congregation is also not a Christian absent evidence to the contrary. Is that not an acceptable approach? I understand that some would say there may be congregations that for one reason or another remain affiliated with the ELCA where there are Christians present, so I reluctantly want to leave open the door of there being ELCA members who are Christian, but even that seems to be more charitable than is warranted at this point.
Am I judging where I should not be? It is simply saddening to see what appears to be the hardening of their hearts as they push further into their sins.