ELCA Assembly Begins Work on "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust"

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust" -- a proposed social statement on human sexuality -- was formally introduced to the 1,045 voting members of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Aug. 18.
The Rev. Peter Strommen introduced the statement which, if approved by the assembly, will become the 10th social statement of the ELCA. Strommen chairs the Task Force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality, which developed the proposed document under the directive of the 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 17-23 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. About 2,000 people are participating, including voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "God's work. Our hands."
Strommen likened the statement to the construction of a bridge. "When a great deal of traffic flows on a critical social issue, the church inevitably finds itself wrestling with how to best understand, teach and articulate the meeting of faith and life's realities, which undergirds a response," he said.
"If we are first and foremost witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and instruments of God's peace in the world, we must ask about bridge-building. And bridge design matters even if, like most infrastructure, it's not what one usually notices," Strommen said.
Social statements assist Lutherans in their moral deliberation, govern the ELCA's institutional policies and guide the church's advocacy work. The proposed statement addresses a spectrum of concerns relevant to human sexuality from a Lutheran perspective.
While Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust does not offer once-and-for-all answers to contemporary questions about sexuality, it "seeks to tap the deep roots of Scripture and the Lutheran theological tradition" for Lutherans to discern what is "responsible and faithful action," according to the proposed statement.
Not all ELCA members are expected to agree with all parts of a social statement, Strommen told the assembly.
"Although there are clear differences of opinion among its members we share, along with task force advisors, a common faith in Jesus Christ," he said. "This has been of primary importance for us, for in truth the deep disagreements in this church have weighed very heavily upon us all."
Strommen said there is no single Lutheran approach to matters of ethics. He identified several considerations that led to the task force's approach in developing the proposed social statement.
"We can no longer assume that people in our society, or even many in the church for that matter, hold a shared understanding of Christianity's core beliefs, let alone those of Lutheran ethics," he said.
"As important as issues over human sexuality might be, the first order of business for the ELCA is its missional challenge," Strommen said. "We cannot afford to be inarticulate about what is most important in regard to our faith."
Strommen also stressed two principles important in the social statement. The first is the concept of trust, which is understood as "a fundamental character of right relationship." Second is the concept of bound conscience.
The Rev. Timothy Wengert, a member of the task force, unpacked the concept of bound conscience. He said one of the greatest legacies that early Lutheran reformers bestowed on the entire Christian church is what we are calling "respect for the bound conscience of the neighbor."
"Respect for the bound conscience does not mean that one can simply declare one's conscience to be bound to a particular interpretation of Scripture, and then make everybody else deal with it," Wengert told the assembly.
"Instead, it means that the very people who hold different, opposing viewpoints on a particular moral issue based upon their understanding of Scripture, tradition and reason must recognize the bound conscience of other, of their neighbor who disagrees with them, and then work in such ways as not to cause that other person to reject the faith and fellowship in Word and sacrament," Wengert said.
- - -
Information about the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found at http://www.elca.org/assembly on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog