Policies of Christian faith groups about gays, lesbians, & bisexuals

Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA)

Background:

There is a very active debate within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) concerning equality of treatment of its LGBT members (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and occasionally transgender individuals).

As with other mainline Christian faith groups, there exist two solitudes within the ELCA between traditionally minded and progressive members. The former solitude condemns all same-sex sexual behavior; the latter condemns discrimination against LGBT members. Since the national body has been able to reach a compromise on the matter of same-sex marriage, the ELCA has authorixed individual congregations to decide the matter for themsselves. There is a widely held belief that the denomination will shortly change its policy to accept marriage equality

Topics covered in this section:

Introduction to the ELCA

Overview of the lesbian/gay/bisexual issue

List of developments from mid-1977 to 2009:

1974 to 1999

2000 to 2002

2003 & 2004

2005 & 2006

2007 & 2008

The 2009 Churchwide Assembly (CWA):

Overview of CWA activities

The social statement on sexuality: ₁

Events leading up to the 2009 CWA

Approval of the social statement on sexuality

Reactions to the approval:

	By various groups
	By delegates and the media
	God's responses as interpreted by observers

Individual cases of church discipline of gay and lesbian clergy:

Reference used:

"Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, A social statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church," Pages 1 to 20," 2009-AUG-19, Final version, at: http://www.elca.org/ This is a PDF file.

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Copyright � 1998 to 2009 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2009-AUG-24
Author: B.A. Robinson