MINNEAPOLIS — Two smaller, more conservative U.S.-based Lutheran denominations are expressing disappointment in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's decision to open a wider door to gay clergy.
The ELCA voted last week to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers. Under the change, congregations will now be allowed to hire homosexuals in committed relationships as clergy. Before, gays and lesbians had to remain celibate to serve as pastors.
The 4.7 million-member denomination, which took the actions in Minneapolis at its biennial meeting, became the largest U.S. denomination to take that step.
The Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, president of the 2.4 million-member Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, said the decision ignores biblical teaching on human sexuality, and threatens to further harm relations between the two church bodies.
"The current division between our churches threatens to become a chasm," he said.
The Rev. Mark Schroeder, president of the 390,000-member Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, based in Milwaukee, issued a statement expressing regret about the move.
"To view same-sex relationships as acceptable to God is to place cultural viewpoint and human opinions above the clear Word of God," he wrote.
- The Associated Press
Can't fund religion,
activists warn state SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Illinois should move carefully when awarding $40 million or more in state funds to religious organizations, two national activist groups warned.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Anti-Defamation League told state officials that they've identified at least 97 religious organizations that would get the money from the capital construction bill signed into law last month.
They argued in a letter to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity that the constitution forbids using tax dollars to promote religion and that the grants carry no restrictions.
Department spokesman Marcelyn Love said the organizations scheduled for grants must develop agreements with the agency on how they will spend the money. That process reveals specifics about the projects and allows the agency to evaluate each one.
Gov. Pat Quinn signed a $31 billion infrastructure improvement plan last month aimed at improving roads and bridges, but also included millions in grants to local organizations.
- The Associated Press
Lawyers negotiating case of slain eagle
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - The lawyer for a Northern Arapaho man who killed a bald eagle for use in his tribe's Sun Dance four years ago says he's working with federal prosecutors to resolve the case ahead of a scheduled October trial date.
Winslow Friday has acknowledged that he shot and killed a bald eagle without a permit on the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming in March 2005.
But the question of whether Friday should be prosecuted for killing the iconic bird has spawned a legal dispute that has gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined earlier this year to review his case.
Friday, now in his mid-20s, could possibly face up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine if convicted.
Jim Barrett, Friday's attorney, said he's negotiating with federal prosecutors to reach a disposition of the case.
Kelly Rankin, U.S. Attorney for Wyoming, declined comment.
- The Associated Press
Religion, Pages 14 on 08/29/2009