ELCA Task Force Focuses on Science, Theology

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Studies on Sexuality Task Force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) called together theologians and behavioral and social scientists to gather information, opinion and theological perspective on research regarding sexual orientation when it met here April 25-27. The task force also reviewed study materials to guide the church's 5.1 million members talking about blessing same-gender relationships and whether or not to accept ministers in such relationships.
At the direction of the 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the church is conducting a comprehensive four-year study on homosexuality and a six-year study on human sexuality. Current ELCA policy expects ministers to refrain from all sexual relations outside of marriage; there is no official policy on blessing same-gender relationships, precluding ministers in such relationships from ordained ministry.
The 2001 assembly called for a progress report to the 2003 assembly and for a final report with recommendations at the 2005 Churchwide Assembly. It also asked the Division for Church in Society to prepare a social statement on human sexuality.
The task force, assembled by the ELCA Division for Ministry and Division for Church in Society in May 2002, assists the divisions in developing study materials and recommendations regarding the assembly mandates. The first of the study materials was distributed that summer. It was based on "A Message on Sexuality: Some Common Convictions," which the ELCA Church Council adopted in 1996.
The second part of the church's study will focus on homosexuality. The study guide, to be available for ELCA congregations by the end of this summer, will deal with baptismal identity, vocation of the "priesthood of all believers," moral deliberation, reflections on options for mission, interpretation of Scripture and more. The overall theme for the church's study is "Journey Together Faithfully."

FIRST SCIENCE PANEL
The task force met with Drs. Marshall and Pamela Tessnear, clinical psychologists and members of Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, Blacksburg, Va., and Dr. William R. Stayton, professor of education and coordinator of the Human Sexuality Program, Widener University, Chester, Pa.
On the "possibility of choice" -- do people choose sexual orientation -- the "American Psychological Association has taken the position that orientation is not a choice, it cannot be changed, efforts to attempt to modify it may even be harmful, and that psychologists doing such therapy may be violating professional ethics. Our clinical experience leads us to the same conclusion," the Tessnears stated in a paper prepared for the task force.
"Invitations to worship, blessings of unions and the ordination of ministers are of course not addressed by empirical and clinical evidence, and are rightfully the responsibility of the church," they said.
According to Stayton, there is a "broad spectrum" of sexual orientation. He cited the "Kinsey Scale" to illustrate the notion that sexual orientation is not "bipolar" -- not just heterosexual or homosexual.
The Kinsey Scale illustrates a seven-point continuum based on the degree of sexual responsiveness people have to members of the same or opposite gender -- zero represents exclusively heterosexual and six represents exclusively homosexual.
"God or nature's intention is to produce a zero on the Kinsey Scale, zero being completely heterosexual," Stayton said, although "through years of study no research has yielded that nature's intention is to produce zero. We are born neutral. Dynamics vary on the degree to which culture is repressed."
Stayton said no more than 10 percent of the population is at either end of the continuum in the United States. Eighty percent of the population are between one and five. Many heterosexuals would fall somewhere between zero and three because they occasionally think about sexual activities with the same gender, he said.
"If we assume that orientation across the spectrum is a given, then questions regarding ethics would turn on whether or not we regard certain actions as wrong. If, on the one hand, we say that there's nothing inherently wrong in living one's homosexual orientation, then the ethical question is whether or not the relationships involved are characterized by mutual love and fidelity. On the other hand, if we determine that certain relationships are inherently unhealthy and morally unacceptable, then the ethical question is one of choosing abstinence," asked the Rev. James M. Childs, Jr., director, ELCA Studies on Sexuality. "The question is whether or not certain relationships are inherently unhealthy and what determines that on what grounds."

SECOND SCIENCE PANEL
The task force met with the Rev. Merton P. Strommen, research psychologist and founder of the Search Institute, Minneapolis; Dr. Thomas J. Kiresuk, research methodologist, Minneapolis; and Dr. Alcuin Johnson, clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Children's Healthcare, Atlanta.
"I have two concerns" regarding scientific research, said Strommen. They are "the use and abuse of research, and the use of research as a church." He said the church has a "capability to carry out a level of study that is not available" on the topic of sexuality.
"I don't think I've ever seen a perfect study," said Kiresuk. "It's not like Lutherans keep looking for a rock on which to base beliefs on certain topics. You are not going to find it in science. Science is a process with a method of rules. It is a constant evolution and challenge."
Task force members asked the panel to comment on whether or not sexual orientation is a social learned construction or is sexual identity "a fixed thing?"
"My guess is that there are quantitative genetic predispositions to orientation," said Kiresuk. "They will have a chance to express themselves or not, depending on environment."
Johnson said there are some adolescents who are ambivalent about their sexual identity, while others "are very clear about their sexual identity. That is not an issue for them, but how do we get family to acknowledge or accept how they see themselves." Johnson said he meets with adolescents because some parents "suggest that their kids need to see someone."
Studies designed to illustrate that people are created with a particular sexual orientation have failed, Strommen said. "The whole statement of the genetic connection must be thrown out. I keep hearing that assumption because it's a convenient way of thinking."
"Although science is not presently certain as to the origins of homosexuality, it is nonetheless true that a certain percentage of the population experiences itself as gay or lesbian not as a choice but as a given and a positive," said Childs.

THEOLOGIANS PANEL
The task force met with Dr. Robert D. Benne, Roanoke College, Salem, Va.; the Rev. Ralph W. Klein, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago; the Rev. Craig R. Koester, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.; and Dr. Martha Ellen Stortz, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif.
"We're facing a subject on which the Bible says very little, and whatever is said must be read with conditioning factors," said Klein. "I am impressed that we are asking questions that were not asked in the same way by our biblical forebears. Society has come a long way on questions about sexuality," he said.
"Theologically and practically the current [ELCA] policy recognizes that we say 'yes' to certain forms of sexual relationships and 'no' to others," said Koester.
"None of us, I think, would be willing to say that every form of sexual relationship is acceptable and all of us, I assume, would agree that we should say 'yes' to some relationships and 'no' to others. There