Secrets of the City

As expected, a core of Lutheran leaders out there aren’t very happy about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s August decision to allow gay pastors to serve as clergy.

Lutheran CORE, a subgroup of the ELCA that has opposed letting gay pastors serve, held a news conference in New Brighton to voice their opposition and try to lure more ELCA congregations into a new church body. The reason, they say, “it contradicts Scripture.”  (Not according to Jerry Maniker.)

Last week, the Rev. Bill Bohline, leader of one of Minnesota’s largest Lutheran congregations, announced his Lakeville church plans to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America due to their gay clergy policy.

A week early, The Rev. Nate Bjorge quit his position with the First Lutheran Church in Little Falls after the church voted to remain a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

And about a month earlier, St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church voted (a 96-percent vote) to leave the denomination.

Of course, let’s not forget those that speak out in favor of gay clergy and marriage equality.

According to MPR, “The Minnesota Department of Education on Wednesday said it will fine a charter school $139,800 for employing teachers who didn’t hold valid teaching licenses.”

Sure the school has teachers without valid licenses. And sure, they’ve been given plenty of time to correct this. But, what the story fails to stress — leaving it for the last two paragraphs — is that the school, which caters to Muslim students, is actually being targeted for allegedly promoting the Muslim religion, which is unlawful as long as they receive state funding.

My question: why not address the real issues here? Why the sideways attack?

In January of last year, the ACLU sued the school for promoting Islamic culture. In January the school counter-sued. And in August the school threatened to sue the Minnesota Department of Education for defamation. This might sound extreme, but in a year-and-a half the department had already conducted 19 inquiries in the school. Excessive?

And come now, let’s face the facts: the Buffalo teacher who sent sexually explicit notes to a student probably has a license; the high school teacher who pleaded guilty to a plot against her stepmother probably had a license; and the Sleepy Eye Public High School teacher who was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old student probably had her license, too. As a former teacher without a license (and a good one at that), I have to wonder how important these darn licenses are to begin with.

The Matthew Shepard Act was recently signed into law. It expands the definitions of hate crimes and when the feds can prosecute them, but some locals aren’t happy. Specifically, Jan Markell of the Maple Grove–based Olive Tree Ministries:

“I think that Christians who dare to tell the truth — including this program — about the social, moral, spiritual and health consequences of illicit homosexual acts are accused of hate speech and intimated into silence with threats of fines or jail,”

By the way, the hate crime bill very clearly protects freedom of speech: the legislation has provisions that ensure that prosecution would be based only on violent acts based on bias.

The details are slender; I’ll add more as they come to light. But here’s the story so far: The imams’ attorney, Omar Mohammedi, said today that all sides agreed to the settlement at a conference Monday. But he said the details still need to be finalized and the settlement needs to be approved by a federal judge.

Despite the tornado, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is the largest Christian denomination in America, has voted to allow (but not require) pastors to bless same sex unions and to hire pastors who are in same sex unions.

As some of you may already know, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been debating the subject of gay pastors; in fact, yesterday they passed a statement saying, as the link paraphrases, “there is room in the church for differing views on homosexuality”; as the Strib points out, this vote also validated same-sex relatioships that are “chaste, monogamous and lifelong.” They will soon vote on lifting a ban on gay clergy, which has a chance of passing, as the statement required a supermajority and squeaked by with a single vote, but the vote on the ban requires only a sinple majority.

The convention is being hosted, in part, by the Central Lutheran Church downtown and takes place in the Convention Center, which are side by side, and were both struck by a tornado yesterday, snapping the spire of the church in half. Of course, you’d have to be some sort of idiot to think the two events were connected; after all, the tornado also hit the Electric Fetus, and for what? To protest the new Lucy Michelle album?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you exactly that idiot: The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction.

From Minnesota Independent: “What Would Jesus Do” if he owed money to a collection agency? That’s one of several questions raised by a lawsuit filed in a Minnesota court. A Monticello debt collection company is facing a federal class action lawsuit because it sent out collections notices with a WWJD header. The case pits the religious rights of a small business against the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act which prohibits harassing, oppressive or abusive communication in debt collection procedures.

Minnpost reports on Minnesotans who are blogging about their religion: The Engage Minnesota blog aims to include Muslims in the broader public discussion by giving them a larger voice in local media. The founders of the site say that since 9/11, the portrayal of Muslims in the media has been overwhelmingly negative.

Keith Ellison gets a shout out in President Obama’s speech in Cairo: And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers – Thomas Jefferson – kept in his personal library.

The speech on YouTube. Conervative responses to the speech. Left wing responses. Links via.

Local Chabad Rabbi Manis Friedman reponded to a question in Moment Magazine about how Jews should treat their Arab neighbors with a blistering rhetorical call to war (scroll down): The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).

These comments have, unsurprisingly, been met with outrage. Rabbi Friedman responds: some of the words I used in my brief comment were irresponsible, and I look forward to further clarifying them in a future issue.