I'm tired of hearing all this talk in mainline churches about 'unity', as if it were the greatest and most precious gift of God to the church. The church has never experienced unity in it's two thousand year history, if by unity we mean conformity of thought and practice.
Yet once again we hear self-congratulation and clerical mumbo jumbo about the supreme importance of unity over love - this time from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America after they voted today to continue tolerating gays and lesbians as less than full members of the body of Christ.
In the first resolution, adopted by a vote of 851-127, the ELCA stated that “its members, congregations, synods, churchwide organization, and agencies and institutions -- be urged to concentrate on finding ways to live together faithfully in the midst of disagreements, recognizing the God-given mission and communion that we share as members of the body of Christ.”
In other words, the invitation to 'journey together faitfully' essentially means affirming the status quo (where the marriages and/or holy callings of GLBT members of the body of Christ are not recognized as such by the church) -- and semantically reducing the profound struggle for justice and love to one of 'disagreements over controversial issues'. As if we were talking about obscure and academic theological disputes, and not the lives and life struggles of real people who continue to be oppressed every day by institutional religion.
Here we have the same old platitudes about everyone just getting along, legitimized by the roll-out of a token (and quite invisible) lesbian whom we are told (but must accept on faith) is comfortable with preserving the status quo:
Stephanie M. Quigg, voting member, ELCA Southeastern Minnesota Synod, told the assembly, “I have a close family member who is lesbian, and when I told her I would plan to vote against any change in the church -- even though we are in different sexual places -- we still were able to live together and have a very close relationship in spite of our differences.” She felt the church should be able to do the same.
I'd like to meet Stephanie's 'close family member' and ask her how she feels about it herself. At least one conservative voting member recognized the spiritual poverty inherent in scheduling a vote on unity amidst a crisis of faithfulness and justice in the church:
Louis Hesse, voting member, ELCA Eastern Washington-Idaho Synod, questioned the appropriateness of an assembly vote on unity. “The surest sign of disunity is scheduling a vote on unity,” he said. “Unity is a gift of God. It either is or is not.” Hesse concluded, “The issue of unity should not even be coming before this assembly.”
Conservative or not, Louis knew a crock when he saw one.
I was struggling the past couple of days trying to grasp why so many people fall for this unity mumbo jumbo, forgetting the words of Jesus to his disciples that he came “not to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). The following excerpts from the NYT article sums things up for me:
New Jersey Synod Bishop Roy Riley, president of the ELCA's Council of Bishops, said the vote was a good indicator of how the entire church was thinking. ''This church is not ready to make major changes in its ordination practices,'' Riley said. ''That was the crux, really.''
Lutheran gay advocates were angered. A coalition called Goodsoil accused the church of ''sacrificing (gays) on the altar of a false and ephemeral sense of unity.'' ...
But the Rev. G. Scott Cady of the New England Synod said rejecting gays who feel a call to ministry was tantamount to questioning the will of God.
''We have vacant pulpits and altars in congregations all over this country, We have people crying out for pastoral care,'' Cady said. ''The Holy Spirit has said, `All right, here they are. Here they are.' Are we going to now say, `Thanks Holy Spirit, but we prefer something else.'''
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