Lutheran Deformation
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada Votes for Decline
by Brad Everett
In less than 24 hours, and the space of four votes, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) effectively set aside twenty centuries of Christian teaching and practice on marriage, the family, and the ordained ministry at its 2011 National Convention, held July 14–17, 2011, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
The sister church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the ELCIC is made up of approximately 145,400 baptized members in 594 congregations across Canada. The result of a merger of two Lutheran denominations in 1986, the ELCIC is the “liberal” group among Canadian Lutherans, which at one time meant endorsing practices such as the ordination of women. “Liberal” took on a new sense in the acceptance of the Social Statement on Human Sexuality and the passage of the three motions coming out of that statement, which allow for same-gender “marriage” (already permitted under Canadian law) and the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals in partnered relationships.
Scripture Evaded
This wasn’t the first time these issues had come up at the National Convention—in 2005 and 2007, motions permitting same-sex blessings were defeated. Those working to change the teaching and practice of the ELCIC, including some bishops and members of the National Church Council (NCC), said that those votes had not been decisive enough and needed to be revisited (although, oddly enough, at the 2005 convention, the National Bishop was elected by a narrower margin than the same-sex blessing motion was defeated by). Thus, in 2007 a Human Sexuality Task Force was commissioned by the National Church Council to write a new social statement on the issue.
The Social Statement (which, along with the motions, can be found at http://elcic.ca/Human-Sexuality/default.cfm) began in a place foreign to traditional Lutheran methodology. Martin Luther’s Reformation slogan sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) traditionally meant that, when considering any topic, Lutherans begin with Scripture. The Social Statement began with an assessment of the world we live in, moved into a section on the Bible and theology, and concluded with a section on what this means for practice.
Where you begin affects where you end up—and this statement proves it. For example, in the first section, one finds this sentence on the family: “Family is defined and lived in various ways by various people.” In the next section, which is supposed to be theological, one finds: “Ideally, families are places of love, care, support and the nurturing of faith.” There is no mention of the unique and particular roles and relationships of fathers, mothers, and children, let alone any mention of extended family. Thus, the statement thinks families are good, but it seems to have no idea of what exactly might constitute a family.
Concerning homoerotic behavior, the Old Testament prohibitions were dismissed with such lines as: “Old Testament laws were given for the good of the Israelites. Since then, many of them have been set aside (for example, the purity laws) because they no longer applied to the contemporary context.” Lines like this had both proponents and opponents of the Social Statement criticizing the lack of scriptural or theological basis for the changes being proposed.
Irregular Counting
The votes on the statement and motions, and the debate leading up to them, show that the ELCIC is deeply divided. The votes all passed by margins of 60 to 64 percent, short of a two-thirds majority, which had been requested but denied. (Under Bourinot’s Rules of Order, which the ELCIC uses, a two-thirds margin is not required. If it is requested in a separate motion, that motion needs to pass by two-thirds, which it didn’t.)
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