Why don't more churches follow the lead?
While I'm not about to say my faith has been restored, at least the church I once attended has taken a positive step toward embracing basic human rights:
Lutherans Vote to Approve Gay Clergy
By Julie Bolcer
Lutherans Vote to Approve Gay Clergy
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination, voted on Friday to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, lifting a restriction that had required gay and lesbian ministers to remain celibate, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune .
Church delegates voted 559-451 to remove the ban during their biennial conference in Minneapolis. The vote makes the ELCA, which claims nearly 5 million members, the largest denomination in the country to allow non-celibate gay and lesbian ministers.
Last month, the leaders of the U.S. Episcopal Church voted to lift a similar restriction on non-celibate gay and lesbian bishops. The votes are considered likely to influence the debate over gay clergy in other large Protestant denominations, such as the Presbyterian and Methodist churches.
The resolution approved by the ELCA does not force individual congregations to select gay and lesbian ministers, but allows them to pick the candidates if they wish to do so.
On Friday, delegates also voted 619 to 402 to approve a resolution allowing individual congregations to recognize same-sex unions in the way they see fit.
The vote to approve gay and lesbian ministers occurred after a Baptist minister on Wednesday blamed a tornado that damaged a Lutheran church in Minneapolis on the impending policy change.
We can only hope other churches will follow this example.