ELCA Passes Statement on Human Sexuality

August 19, 2009 in Church,Culturally Relevant with 4 Comments

As of 6pm CST on Wednesday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed the proposed statement on human sexuality with the narrowest margin of 66.6% to 33.3%.

Directly from the ELCA’s website:

The 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, meeting in Indianapolis, asked for a social statement on human sexuality. Social statements are theological and teaching documents on significant issues of social importance and form the basis for social policy in the ELCA. If adopted “Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust” becomes the 10th ELCA social statement.

The proposed social statement was drafted by a task force. An initial draft was released in 2008. Following discussion and comments from throughout the church, the draft was revised and a proposed social statement was released in February 2009. The document was reviewed by church leaders and transmitted by the ELCA Church Council to the Churchwide Assembly. A two-thirds majority is required to adopt social statements in the ELCA.

“Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust” addresses key Lutheran principles about living faithfully in a complex world, social structures, trust in relationships, cohabitation, sexual exploitation, abuses of the ministerial office and healthy workplaces.

This means that the ELCA now will ordain people in open and committed same-sex relationships. This is a big deal. Here’s the moment captured by the one, the only, Jake Bouma:

The policies will be voted on this Friday. To the best of my understanding, the proposed policies are how the statement will be enacted throughout the denomination. The what was voted on today, that being the statement on sexuality, “Gift & Trust“.

BeDeviant.com runs on the Standard Theme

Standard Theme

The Standard Theme is a premium WordPress theme. Standard is a meticulously crafted and coded personal and professional blogging theme built with industry standards in mind.


With out-of-the-box solutions for social sharing, SEO optimization, advertising and social networks, The Standard Theme will set you up for blogging success. It does all the heavy lifting for you, whether you're a blogging beginner or seasoned pro. Check out The Standard Theme now and get started on your hassle-free blogging adventure!

4 Responses to “ELCA Passes Statement on Human Sexuality”

  1. lightenupgear August 20, 2009 at 2:06 pm #

    Did you happen to read John Piper's post this morning?

    http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1965_the_tornado_…

    He also posted a link to this:

    http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicI…

  2. Justin Wise August 20, 2009 at 3:01 pm #

    Yeah. It will be part of my post today, actually.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks:

  1. Fresh From Twitter « JustinWise.net - August 20, 2009

    [...] BeDeviant.com :: ELCA Passes Statement on Human Sexuality http://bit.ly/10Mm5ghttp://twitpic.com/eis56 Picture of the results of the social statement vote #ELCA #CWA09 (via [...]
  2. Faux Unity Trumps Orthodoxy | Caffeinated Thoughts - August 22, 2009

    [...] in “open and committed” same-sex relationships.  This will be decided tomorrow.  Justin Wise wrote, “To the best of my understanding, the proposed policies are how the statement will be enacted [...]