Ecumenical Dialogs

One of the harder realities of the GLBT presence in the church---any church---is the line we seem to draw in the sand for so many people. Questions about GLBT full participation quickly creates a "for" and an "against" camp, with a small camp of undecided.

There has been some concern expressed about how full participation of GLBT folk in the ELCA will affect ecumenical dialogs. The ELCA has long been an active participant, often instigator of discussions with other church bodies. Here in the U.S.A., I'm not convinced that this is a huge concern. Most churches likely to engage in dialog with us are also struggling with the issue---call me optimistic, but we might be leaders for other such denominations. Two bodies with whom we are in full communion, the United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church, are already ordaining openly GLBT folk. There is controversy there, to be sure, but it's already happening (in which case, we would be following their leadership). I have to express some real doubt that ordaining GLBT folk will have little effect on ecumenical dialogs with churches like Roman Catholic Church or the Orthodox Churches. Neither really fully recognizes anyone but their own kind and things like our ordination of women are already stumbling blocks between us. That we have any kind of friendly relationship with them is a grace, but I don't think there's much use in pretending that, short of our entire denomination turning to Rome or one of the Orthodox bishops, we're not likely to be in full communion with them anytime soon anyway. And as for other American Lutheran bodies, we might share a few social services in some parts of the country---and I that is significant cooperation---but we can't worship together, can't even share a prayer meeting together, and I don't believe that refraining from ordaining GLBT folk will improve those relationships anytime soon, either.

The place that is troubling for ecumenical relations in regard to GLBT folk is internationally. One of the most troubling things I read in Gene Robinson's book, In the Eye of the Storm, is that he was told (in what country, I don't recall just now) that Gene Robinson was equal to George W. Bush---arrogant Americans just doing whatever they pleased no matter what anyone else thought. In a discussion with my pastor, he pointed out that there would be strains on relationships with some Lutheran bodies in Africa and Asia, where Christianity often takes a hard line on many social topics.

These are more than just troubling to me. They grieve me. As I've said more than once, just in these blog entries, it doesn't make sense to me that I (and it's hard not to take it personally) am a divisive presence in the church.

At the same time, I don't know how to just simply say, okay, for the sake of unity, I'll be a second class participant in this church. Actually, I'm rather capable of doing that to myself---but I cannot say it for everyone, certainly not for the qualified candidates for ministry whose only detractor is that they're attracted to people of their own sex. I cannot say it for the next generation of GLBT Lutherans who will grow up in a church that doesn't regard them as worthy of full church participation. In fact, I have to say loudly, if with all the respect that I can muster, that for the sake of Asian and African GLBT youth, there needs to be a church somewhere in the world that models full acceptance.

Because there are GLBT youth in Africa and Asia, in the Lutheran churches in Africa and Asia, and if the ELCA's acceptance of GLBT folk into the ministry rosters damages relationships with those Lutheran churches, then at least there is a Lutheran witness for the youth (and maybe not so youthful) of those churches.

Because I'm sure most any gathering of GLBT folk will contain stories of teenage depression if not suicide attempts because they felt God did not love them, because they felt condemned by the church, because there were not voices in the world to say "you're okay, God loves you, God wants you." The ELCA might be very far from these churches in Asia and Africa and whatever other setbacks there might be in relationships with them, I'm optimistic enought to think we can be a light of hope to individuals in those churches until such a time that those churches might come around to full acceptance of GLBT folk.

Is this an arrogant American, doing what he wants, regardless of what anyone else thinks? I hope not. That's not my intention. (Hey, I was in Daley Square in Chicago the week before we invaded Iraq, saying with thousands of others that we don't want to be that sort of American!) But if God is calling us forward to full inclusion of GLBT folk in the life of the church, we have to move forward with humility and awareness that this will cause some trouble among church bodies---but do so with the hope and intention (and the work that has to go behind those hopes and intentions) that we are bringing Good News to the world.