Confusing and heartbreaking summer
What a confusing and heartbreaking summer it has been for Lutherans. It must be true that you cannot allow two Lutherans to talk theology for more than a few moments because an argument will surely break out.
One group, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, elected a presiding bishop and set off on a new, progressive and evangelical path into the future.
Another group, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, elected a new president and got mired deeper into name-calling and isolated theology.
In the case of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the 5.1 million-member church body elected the Rev. Mark Hanson, bishop of the St. Paul Area Synod, to replace the Rev. H. George Anderson, 68, who served six years as the presiding bishop.
Hanson, 54, is a rare combination. He is a complete evangelical who senses the church on earth must reach out to unchurched people or suffer through years of weakness and frailty.
Yet he is also a progressive social activist who has encouraged believers in St. Paul to thoroughly discuss divisive issues such as the ordination of gay men and lesbians.
This past spring, one congregation in Hanson's synod, St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church, defied church rules and ordained a lesbian who lives in a committed relationship with a woman. Hanson's response was to discipline the congregation but continue talking with those concerned about the issue.
Hanson may have a tougher time convincing believers they should reach out to their neighbors and become earnest evangelists for Lutheranism. After all, most mainline denominations have spent the past five decades lollygagging around the sanctuary as if there were no mandate to baptize and teach the multitudes. So Lutheran membership has declined steadily since 1968 and the ELCA lost 200,000 members in about 13 years.
In the 1940s, mainline Protestants were so euphoric over the military victory in Europe and the Pacific that people simply stopped thinking about evangelism as a priority. In the 1950s, Protestant churches set off on a building spree that left the U.S. landscape dotted with beautiful buildings. Then in the 1960s, everything got turned upside down, and moralists, theologians and preachers tried to drag the country into thinking ethically about the role of women, the environment, war and sexuality.
Not everyone was convinced by the protests and the fervent demonstration of concern. But in theological circles, in seminaries and Bible schools where preachers are trained, a subtle shift began to take place. By the time the new crop of pastors entered the churches in the late 1960s and early 1970s, evangelism was virtually a thing of the past. And that mentality has continued through the materialistic 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s and into the new century.
Today the thought of evangelizing one's neighbors is an odd concept, miles from the self-indulgent thinking of the current generation. So, it will be a challenge for leaders of any mainline church to convince believers that speaking the Gospel to friends and neighbors is a part of Christian heritage and duty.
Meanwhile, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, a conservative church body with about 2 million members, decided during its summer convention to tell the larger ELCA that it is no longer considered an "orthodox church body."
The Missouri Synod's new president, the Rev. Gerald B. Kieschnick, told the delegates after the vote that he hoped members of the ELCA would not read into the resolution "any sense of smugness or self-righteousness on the part of the (Missouri) Synod." But, of course, the resolution was dripping with smugness and self-righteousness, and ELCA officials could only shake their heads and say the rebuke made them sad.
Clark D. Morphew
9-8-01
