September 23, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

It is high wedding season for the lesbian and gay couples in California. We’ve had several months now to get weddings planned and guests invited. So I am very busy, doing several weddings per week from now until election day November 4. (Do I need to remind anyone to vote NO on Proposition 8?)

But our national churchbody, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is apparently rattling its sabers about gay marriage. The word has leaked out that the top national official who is responsible for interpreting the ELCA’s constitution between biennial churchwide assemblies is saying that ELCA pastors in California (and Massachusetts I presume) should not be performing the legal ceremonies even if they preside over “blessings.” He (it always seems to be a he) is interpreting the rules by making a real stretch of logic that because our pre-existing guiding social statements about marriage and family see a marriage as two of opposite genders that pastors, who have pledged to obey the rules should not be presiding over gay and lesbian marriages. According to sources I heard yesterday, he is even suggesting that a pastor who performs a gay or lesbian wedding could be subject to disciplinary charges — even to the extent of being removed from the professional roster.

It is a stretch because the pre-existing documents did not even contemplate the possibility of legalized same-sex marriage. It is a stretch because he is suggesting that broad social statements must control and limit every individual pastoral act on the local level. It is a stretch because he leaves no wiggle room for the individual’s conscience. It is a stretch because he is trying to keep his juridical rubber-band around a world which is rapidly changing.

It is beyond me why he would want to take the ELCA down the road which is so rocky and pitted and filled with land-mines that have endangered the United Methodist Church, the United Presbyterian Church and the Episcopal Church.

Why he would want to take the path of conservative control, when the ELCA is in very close and significant agreements with the United Church of Christ, is equally beyond me. The United Church of Christ is much more open-minded about gay/lesbian marriage and the presence of gay and lesbian people in its membership and professional ministry. In recent years that national body has produced and broadcast some amazing television ads that use the slogan ”God is Still Speaking.”

In other words, the book is not closed on the will of God.  God speaks in our changing world. We should be listening to and discerning what the word of God is for our changing world.

But apparently high-ranking ELCA officials believe that God is not still speaking, or that the pre-existing documents written more than 20 years ago have the last word. I think it may be closer to the truth that the ELCA is not listening, but God is still speaking.

In the meantime, I am conducting marriages, invoking the blessing of Almighty God with confidence that God is present wherever love is lifted up and where commitments are made and kept.

On Sunday afternoon, I presided over the wedding ceremony for two men who have been partnered for 16 years. One of them is in a wheel chair now, and could not even stand to recite his vow of love and fidelity for life to the younger man who had pushed him down the aisle and whose tears streamed down his cheek. So that partner knelt beside the wheel chair for them to exchange their vows in front of the altar of our church.

Go ahead, mister high-ranking official: Try to tell God not to be present in that sacred moment. Try to tell me that I should not announce the unconditional love and blessing of God on these two brave men. Try to tell me I am in violation of 20 year-old documents which I pledged to uphold, or that I could be subject to discipline for signing a document which certifies that these two men have freely and without coercion decided to accept responsibility for one another for the rest of their lives. But while you are trying to tell me this stuff, I can scarcely hear you, because I am listening for a voice which is louder than yours. God is still speaking.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Ecumenical Issues, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs, Ministry, ELCA | Print | No Comments »

September 21, 2008 by Dan Hooper.

I was recently invited to another event intended to bring together conservative and inclusive churches over the issues of GLBT sexuality and the Christian message. One of the sponsoring conservative organizations has on its web site a statement about “the authority and power of the Bible.”

I would probably use the phrase “authority and applicability” to discuss the Scriptures in terms of most contemporary issues. While we like to hold to the idea that the Bible is eternally valid and timeless, it has been almost two thousand years since the writers’ ink was dry, and let’s face it, much of the Scriptures seem irrelevant to the world. I spend a huge portion of my Bible Study teaching time simply trying to explain the context, language, history, culture and curiosities of the Bible so that people are not completely lost or baffled.

But it is easy to get snared in all that stuff to the extent that people are still not fed spiritually because year after year the Jewish and Christian scriptures slip further into history. Dedicated scholars — God bless ‘em— devote their lives to unearthing and bringing forward that both the details and the divine message in the Bible. But there are millions of people on this planet who will never give the Bible that kind of attention, and if we quibble and quarrel over every last word of it we are still failing to communicate God’s message to all humanity.

Then there is the problem of human sexuality which doesn’t fit the picture of either sexuality or love portrayed in either Testament. Christians are dividing from other Christians over issues of human sexuality, when all that should truly unite us is our trust and faith in God’s promises.

I always insert the term “applicability” into conversations about “authority” and “infallibility.” The Bible has the highest authority, but not every word is useful to us today. the best example is that much of the Hebrews scriptures are written to address the terms of the covenant between God and the Hebrew people as an ancient nation. None of us—not even the Jewish people—today are part of that nation. Can we therefore insist that every Christian must recognize every word of the Hebrew Scriptures as authoritative for us today? That would mean that we would have to require circumcision, and also take rebellious teenagers and stone them to death.

The list is long of things which no Christian today would in his or her right mind say is applicable to our life in Christ. Obviously there are different lists which we all maintain. But to flatly insist in the totality of the Scripture being authoritative is untruthful, and to reject other Christians because they will not obediently sign on to this view is disingenuous and itself disobedient to Christ who commanded us to love one another and to abide in his love.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Sex, Doctrine, Bible & Interpretation, Fundamentalism, LGBT Christian | Print | No Comments »

September 7, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

At a special congregational meeting convened today, September 7, the voting members of Hollywood Lutheran Church unanimously approved a motion to endorse the No on 8 campaign, adding its public voice against the ballot measure that would eliminate marriage rights for same-sex couples.The congregation received and discussed information about all 12 measures on the November 2008 general election ballot, as well as information about taking positions on matters of public policy from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Office of Public Policy in Sacramento, and other faith and justice organizations.

Posted in Hollywood, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, History, Public Affairs, ELCA | Print | No Comments »