January 2018
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My wife and I are taking a break from the Church. This note briefly explains why.
By “taking a break” we mean that we will be visiting other churches in the area that may be a better fit to our religious beliefs. We don’t know when or if we will make a formal change in church membership, but we’ve decided not to end our membership at this time.
In 2013 we moved here from Dallas. I decided to regularly attend church again, after being basically non-religious for many years. My wife has been Lutheran for her whole life, and so we soon found this Church and began attending services.
The congregation was (and is) very welcoming, and we quickly felt at home. Although I was raised a Catholic, I became comfortable with the worship services, resembling as they do the Catholic Mass I remembered from years ago. I knew that the Church was a member church of the ELCA, but that didn’t mean much to me at the time.
Last year when the Pastor proposed conducting same-sex marriages in the church, my wife and I were surprised at first, but the documentation Pastor provided made it clear that the ELCA is fully-supportive of same-sex marriage. This led me to research the ELCA more closely, quite honestly something I should have done back in 2013 (better late than never). At the same time, I also studied the matter of same-sex marriage and Christian faith.
We realize that the congregation is split on the issue of same-sex marriage, so what follows will be read by some as the result of study and prayerful reflection and by others as judgmental and bigoted: We have concluded that same-sex marriage in the church is contrary to the laws that God has set down for us.
We don’t fault the Pastor for bringing this issue to the church, as she is being completely consistent with the policies of the ELCA. In hindsight, had I done more research years earlier it’s likely we would not have joined an ELCA church in the first place. We find several important aspects of the ELCA completely contrary to our understanding of Christian faith. These include universal salvation (perhaps best illustrated by the words of Presiding Bishop Eaton, who when asked if there is a hell, replied, “There may be, but I think it is empty”), abortion, Biblical authority, and of course, same-sex marriage.
We have benefited personally and spiritually from our association with the Church, and we are very grateful for the kind support we’ve received over the years. We’ve also gained many valued friends in Christ whom we hope to keep for the rest of our lives.
May God bless and keep you,
<names omitted>
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My wife and I are taking a break from the Church. This note briefly explains why.
By “taking a break” we mean that we will be visiting other churches in the area that may be a better fit to our religious beliefs. We don’t know when or if we will make a formal change in church membership, but we’ve decided not to end our membership at this time.
In 2013 we moved here from Dallas. I decided to regularly attend church again, after being basically non-religious for many years. My wife has been Lutheran for her whole life, and so we soon found this Church and began attending services.
The congregation was (and is) very welcoming, and we quickly felt at home. Although I was raised a Catholic, I became comfortable with the worship services, resembling as they do the Catholic Mass I remembered from years ago. I knew that the Church was a member church of the ELCA, but that didn’t mean much to me at the time.
Last year when the Pastor proposed conducting same-sex marriages in the church, my wife and I were surprised at first, but the documentation Pastor provided made it clear that the ELCA is fully-supportive of same-sex marriage. This led me to research the ELCA more closely, quite honestly something I should have done back in 2013 (better late than never). At the same time, I also studied the matter of same-sex marriage and Christian faith.
We realize that the congregation is split on the issue of same-sex marriage, so what follows will be read by some as the result of study and prayerful reflection and by others as judgmental and bigoted: We have concluded that same-sex marriage in the church is contrary to the laws that God has set down for us.
We don’t fault the Pastor for bringing this issue to the church, as she is being completely consistent with the policies of the ELCA. In hindsight, had I done more research years earlier it’s likely we would not have joined an ELCA church in the first place. We find several important aspects of the ELCA completely contrary to our understanding of Christian faith. These include universal salvation (perhaps best illustrated by the words of Presiding Bishop Eaton, who when asked if there is a hell, replied, “There may be, but I think it is empty”), abortion, Biblical authority, and of course, same-sex marriage.
We have benefited personally and spiritually from our association with the Church, and we are very grateful for the kind support we’ve received over the years. We’ve also gained many valued friends in Christ whom we hope to keep for the rest of our lives.
May God bless and keep you,
<names omitted>