Title: St. Olaf Conference Addresses ELCA Studies on Sexuality
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 21, 2003

ST. OLAF CONFERENCE ADDRESSES ELCA STUDIES ON SEXUALITY
03-086-JH*

     NORTHFIELD, Minn. (ELCA) -- People who are gay or lesbian must
be welcomed by the church without reservation, say two former bishops
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  The
denomination should make every effort to find a way to do so without
causing division among its members, they added.
     The Rev. Herbert W. Chilstrom, St. Peter, Minn., a retired ELCA
pastor who was the church's first presiding bishop, and the Rev.
Lowell O. Erdahl, retired pastor from Roseville, Minn., and former
bishop of the ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod, spoke at a conference April
4-6 at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., one of 28 ELCA colleges
and universities.  The conference, "Sexuality, Spirituality and the
Church" drew more than 240 registered participants, and focused
largely on issues of ordaining people who are gay or lesbian and
blessings of same-gender relationships.
     "I do not want to do anything to destroy the unity of our
ELCA," Chilstrom told the participants.  "So that raises the question
for some: 'Why would you spend time trying to open minds in an area
where you know there is going to be division and disunity and even
potential for schism?' The only answer I can give to that question
is: justice.  Slowly but surely I came to the conclusion that there
were significant numbers of people in the ELCA who were being pushed
aside, ignored and in some cases deliberately discriminated against."
     Scripture and science must be handled carefully in church
discussions regarding homosexuality, Erdahl said.  Pointing to
passages in both the New and Old Testaments, he said, "I don't think
those texts say anything about homosexuality as we understand it
today." In particular, he added, the Bible seems not to address the
issue of people who are gay or lesbian in committed relationships.
     Erdahl also discounted the value of  "balanced" viewpoints in
scientific discussions on homosexuality.  "If there were a medical
conference held on the treatment of diabetes, I don't think the
planners would require that equal time be given to discussion of
practices that were common before the discovery of insulin," he said.
"The medical profession has learned a great deal about diabetes in
the last hundred years." Likewise, he said, scientific views on
homosexuality have shifted considerably in the last century.
     The conference -- which included lectures, panel discussions,
two worship services and a screening of  "THIS obedience," a
documentary film chronicling a recent ordination in St. Paul, Minn.
-- was funded with a grant from the Philip N. Knutson Endowment.
     The conference drew Lutheran clergy, laypeople and non-
Lutherans.  Students from several ELCA colleges attended the
conference.
     "There are no positive role models in the church for young gay
people today," said Jonathan Welch, a 20-year-old student at
Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., an ELCA higher education
institution.
     He said he was surprised at the number of parents attending the
conference who eagerly showed him pictures of their gay sons and
lesbian daughters.  "It gives me hope" for the church, Welch said.
     But Valerie Veo, a St. Olaf sophomore from Litchfield, Minn.,
who wore a "Straight But Not Narrow" button, said she was concerned
that the ELCA's approach to studying sexuality was "clinical and too
abstract."
     "We lose sight of what it really means and that it has
ramifications for real people and real lives," she said.
     The Rev. Barbara K. Lundblad, associate professor, Union
Theological Seminary, New York, and conference speaker, said the
church has always had difficulty talking about sexuality of any
stripe.  "We've had to check our bodies at the door for centuries,"
she said, citing the influence of gnostic dualism on early Christian
teachings.  "So it's hard to know how to talk about sex in the
context of spirituality."
     Several conference speakers argued that committed relationships
among people who are gay or lesbian should be encouraged and blessed
by the church.  Lundblad took issue with the idea that recognizing
gay relationships could lead to the degradation of marriage.  "A lot
of things ruin marriages, but homosexuality is hardly ever on the
list," she said.  "Alcohol, economics, abuse, family difficulties,
religious quarrels  -- we could probably name 50 things that are
really damaging to marriage, but homosexuality is rarely the
problem."
     The ordination of people who are gay or lesbian in committed
relationships was another theme that surfaced repeatedly during the
conference.  Chilstrom noted that the ELCA has no ban on homosexuals
in committed relationships serving as organists, Sunday school
teachers and even lay ministers in the church, yet it denies them
pastoral appointments.  Anita Hill, who is in a committed
relationship and serves at St. Paul Reformation Church, St. Paul,
Minn., spoke about her long and persistent effort to become ordained.
Called to serve as a pastor by St. Paul Lutheran Church and installed
in 2001, she is not in compliance with the ELCA's expectations for
clergy, and her ordination is not recognized by the ELCA.
     Hill, whose story is the subject of the video documentary "THIS
obedience," indicated she sometimes grew skeptical about the ELCA's
ability to reconcile matters of ordination of people who are gay or
lesbian, and blessings.
     "But God's love is too powerful for doubts to win the day," she
added.
     The Rev. James M. Childs Jr., professor at Trinity Lutheran
Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and director for the ELCA Studies on
Sexuality, also addressed the conference.  Childs and a task force
are charged with executing two actions mandated by the 2001
Churchwide Assembly.  The first is to lead a churchwide dialogue on
the blessing of same-gender relationships and the ordination of
people who are gay and lesbian and are in committed relationships.
The second is to lead the development of a social statement on
sexuality.  Upcoming ELCA churchwide assemblies are scheduled to take
up these matters in 2005 and 2007 respectively.
     Childs said the task force has received letters and e-mails
from roughly 1,000 people since the studies began.  "The important
thing is for people to share their opinions on these issues," Childs
said, "rather than forcing any congregation to take a vote."
-- -- --
     The ELCA maintains information about its studies on sexuality at
http://www.elca.org/faithfuljourney/ on the Web.

*Joel Hoekstra is a freelance writer living in Minneapolis.

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