Lutheran Student Movement – USA
78-1 Position Paper on Homosexuals in the Church
In His parting words to His disciples our Savior, Jesus Christ, commanded, “…go, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…”, thus placing upon His followers, for all time, the awesome responsibility of teaching all nations and of studying and knowing all that the Lord has taught. It is this responsibility that the Christian is faced with in our modern society by virtue of our baptisms into the Community of Christ. However, it is becoming clearly evident that the Church has not in the past and is not presently carrying out the command of our Savior in many area of concern. Because of this inadequacy inherent in the present system, it is our duty as students and as Christians to study and to react to basic ethical and moral questions of the day.
We, as Christians, are called upon to live our lives in the manner in which the Gospel compels us to live. This “lifestyle” bears witness to the world as much as the witness through verbal proclamation. It is through this lifestyle, based on the Good News of Jesus Christ, that we witness and minister to the world of today.
All that we have or experience comes about through the grace of God as gifts to an undeserving people. Through our good stewardship of our gifts we minister to and with the world.
One of these gifts, given to us by God, is our sexuality. This great gift is given for the expression of love and/or for procreation. As with every good gift, it is subject to the abuses which could cause suffering and debasement. However, as good stewards in the Body of Christ, we are expected to make use of our gifts in the greatest and most useful way in our relationships with other people, ourselves, and our God. The gift of our sexuality and/or our sexual roles is no exception to this rule.
As members of the “Priesthood of Believers”, and as Lutheran Christians, we are called to the ministry of reconciliation. Furthermore, we hold central to our faith the affirmations of Saint Paul when he says to the Romans (3:22b-25a): “There is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they [and we] are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an example by His blood, to be received by faith.”
Therefore, we must be concerned for all people. In our concern we must accept all people as equals. We must affirm and accept all members of the church (not just a select few) as being sinners who are assured of life eternal as promised by our living Savior. It is only through the love and care of all God’s children that we can expect to even begin to observe all that Christ has taught.
There are many members of the Church who are involved in a modern day persecution of our brothers and sisters of the faith. As a community called to the ministry of reconciliation it is our duty, our responsibly, to stand together boldly against such attacks. For it is only through the unity of the Community that the church has prevailed though the years. “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, through they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the Body is not one member but many. …there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care of one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice.”
As the Priesthood of Believers we are to be deeply concerned for all people. But at times we must take special consideration for certain, specific groups within the priesthood. In these instances the Church must become involved. As a community, we are troubled and concerned for the many homosexual persons who are our neighbors, associates, church members, and our friends. The Church must be troubled and concerned. For though its silence and apathetic attitudes the Church has been deeply implicated in the fostering of attitudes hostile to gay people. Both “on the basis of our understanding of Scripture and our own personal experiences with homosexual persons within and without our churches, we have found that it is necessary to re-evaluate our traditional Christian assumptions about homosexuality.”
It must be noted that we are concerned about all people, not just homosexuals. It is absolutely paramount that we, the Church, begin to view the oppressed of the Church first as an individual, second as a Christian, and finally as a homosexual (singled, minority, woman, man, etc.). We are concerned that all people come to know and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The full range of civil rights for all people must be protected. We must be concerned about their health and wholeness, that they find meaning, fulfillment, and acceptance as individuals, as groups in the community.
It is time for the Church to reassess its attitudes toward homosexuality in the larger context of the full range of issues relating to human sexuality. In our reconciliatory ministry we must sharpen our awareness and concern that we so not bring pain and oppression to anyone but that we are instead, agents of love and acceptance and healing in a troubled world. This means that regardless of our individual or the Church’s traditional theological position on the issue of homosexuality, we believe that the priestly imperative is to be present with, to bring grace to, to be supportive of, to love and refrain from judging people in any group or category.
As students, ministers and leader of the church today, there are four basic aspects, initiated through the Gospel, which should be considered when we re-evaluate our traditional and personal view, attitudes and teachings about homosexuality.
First, Saint Paul makes it extremely clear that diversity in the Church was an obvious result of the presence of the Spirit. The Spirit did not only give one gift but many. The usual distinctions between people—society no longer counted in the community of the faithful. It should be noted here that Saint Paul, in many cases, found it hard to apply his own insight, because of the cultural context of the day. The Church today has similar experiences.
Secondly, in fear of the rapid growth of legalism in the Church in his day, Saint Paul placed a great deal of emphasis on freedom as a very special facet of the Christian behavior. In the belief of this freedom it is clear that self-indulgence should never have dominance over love, which is to be the dominant factor in all behavior. (Matt. 22:34-40)
Saint Paul of course, was merely driving home the teachings of Jesus Christ, which brings us to the third aspect of consideration. Christ insisted that the love of God and neighbor was the new law. This law of love was taught to be the fulfillment of the old Law of Moses.
And finally, we must consider how our Lord and Savior had communion with the so-called “marginal” people of his day. We serve a master who condemned the self-righteous and the super pretests of his day, while dining with the lepers, women, foreigners, tax collectors, and other “sinners”.
The position of the Lutheran Student Movement-USA is one of love and acceptance, not just of homosexual persons, but of the entire Community of Christ. This position means that our love and concerns do not stop at a national, regional, or local level of the movement, nor does it mean that we delegate it to a governing council, but that each and every one of us must accept our call of being reconcilers in the peacemakers rather than crusading inquisitors. It is also our responsibility to speak to the Church at large regarding the urgency involved in meeting the needs of the homosexual persons so that the rule of the majority is no longer a rule of oppression. At the same time me must also be patient in our concern for the Church at large while fulfilling our responsibilities stated here.
And finally, in adopting the positions stated here, of love and acceptance of all people, we are reminded and we remind others in the Communion of Saints of the words contained in the Latin Liturgy for Holy Thursday: Ubi, caritas et amor, ibi Deus: Where Loving care and self giving are found, there God is present. Let us pray for the continuing presence of God with the Church today.
Submitted by national committee; Mr. Christopher Berry, Concord, NC chairperson.