Resolution #1: Memorial to Rescind is on the Floor

Eastern Washington-Idaho Synod Assembly 2013
Resolution 1
Memorial to Rescind Actions on Ministry Policies

Whereas the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted resolutions on ministry policies that included a commitment to “finding ways for people in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as rostered leaders of this church” [CA09.05.26] and also included a process of “structured flexibility” that would eliminate the prohibition on rostered service by individuals in such relationships while not imposing such service on any expression of this church [CA09.05.27]; and

Whereas Jesus affirms that marriage is instituted by God and is between one man and one woman (e.g. 8 Matt 19:4-6); and

Whereas sexual intercourse outside of marriage is forbidden (e.g. 1 Cor 6:9-20, 1 Thes 4:3-8); and

Whereas same gender intercourse is repeatedly forbidden in both Testaments of Scripture, with a complete lack of positive reference to it (e.g. Lev 19:22, Rom 1:26-27); and

Whereas the ancient world was not unfamiliar with same gender sexual relationships (e.g. Sappho, the Spartan military), so the claim that Paul was forbidding only prostitution, cultic practices or promiscuity is baseless; and

Whereas the Church through the millennium has affirmed this reading of Scripture as does the vast majority of Christians around the globe today, so to part company with such a cloud of witnesses puts us in danger of being schismatic; and

Whereas the Bible reminds us that the Church has repeatedly gone astray, with church leaders often leading the way in unfaithfulness, even when they are sincere and well intentioned (e.g. Jer 5:5, Mark 25 7:8);

RESOLVED that the EWAID Synod memorialize the 2013 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as follows: (1) to rescind actions CA09.05.26 and CA09.05.27 of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly; and (2) to direct the appropriate churchwide units and offices to prepare, the Committee on Appeals to make, and the ELCA Church Council to approve and adopt, appropriate amendments to the policy documents, which were revised in response to those prior actions, in order to reestablish the prohibition of rostered service by non-celibate homosexual persons and restore the requirement for rostered persons that sexual intimacy take place only in the  context of heterosexual marriage.

Submitted by Larry Veith
February 19, 2013
Lutheran-Presbyterian Parish of Potlatch, Ida