Church Drops ‘Lutheran’ From Name after Pro-Homosexual Vote

By The Christian Post on August 25th, 2009

imagesbannerscp_120x1201Reprinted by permission of the Christian Post

By Charles Boyd
Christian Today Reporter
Tue, Aug. 25 2009 02:09 PM EDT

The sign outside the church would usually read St. Timothy Lutheran Church. But the word “Lutheran” has been covered over and now simply reads St. Timothy Church.

The minister of the Charleston, W.V., church, the Rev. Richard Mahan, explained his actions to his congregation during service on Sunday.

“I asked that be done because I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed of what the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has done to a church I’ve loved for 40 years,” he said.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Last week, ELCA’s highest legislative body voted to lift the denomination’s ban on noncelibate gay and lesbian clergy.

On Sunday, Mahan used his sermon to teach his congregants, which typically numbers 300 to 400 each Sunday, about homosexuality. He told them, “We welcome the sinner, but we do not welcome the sin. All are welcome, but the sin is not.”

“We have always welcomed gays and lesbians to our church, but according to the word of God, we do not believe they are to be ordained,” he said, according to the Charleston Daily Mail. “I am not speaking out against the gay and lesbian community, but I am speaking out against the ordination of gays and lesbians as pastors and bishops and leaders of the church – and the blessing of same-sex marriages.”

Mahan’s stance was widely supported by his congregation, who gave him a standing ovation during the service.

The pastor urged the congregation to pray about what they should do next in response to the vote. He reassured them, however, that nothing would change regarding the church’s mission in the mean time.

“Let me assure you, nothing is going to change here at St Timothy. Jesus is still the same. The Bible is still the divinely inspired word of God.”

Mahan believes that the vote will split the church and may see a number of individual congregations choose to abandon the ELCA.

Explaining his own convictions, he said, “I love everyone. I love all people. This is just completely contradictory to the word of God. I love homosexuals, have ministered to them, and had homosexuals in my congregation. Nowhere in the Bible does it say you can have same-sex marriage.”

Copyright 2009 The Christian Post. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Categories: News
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  • Norman
    Bigotry is ugly, DCM-turning your back on gays or judging that their relationships are less than yours is discrimination and against God-deep shame on you.
    Why do sheep think the 4 or 5 biblical passages about gays are inspired from God when other passages such as selling your daughter into slavery, not eating shellfish and not trimming your bangs were "just for the priests"?
    God is about love-He would never create gay people then turn his back on them-this is foolish and evil.
    God has left this church and will leave others if they turn their backs on His people. Gays are here to test you.
    Ralph-you poor, ignotrant fool-Read about the Council of Nicaea-it explains how man doctored and pieced together the Bible hundreds of years ago.
    The bIble is meant to guide-not as any final word from God.
    God is in in your heart, not in a book, silly fools.
    cast away your hatred ande embrace yoru gay brothers and sisters.
    I will pray for you.
  • DCM
    Norman: Wow - You're assuming some very incorrect things about the people you're judging. I do not "turn my back on gays." I consider myself, as a recovering porn addict, to be very much equivalent to them, and have done what little to help them that I've been given opportunity to. Gays may indeed be used as a test as people's love; and if you could ask my gay friend who died of AIDS at 33 (still living as gay but forcefully advising young people not to follow his path), he'd say I passed with flying colors.

    God did not create people to have any particular temptation -- they have it because they're born fallen in a fallen world. He gives everyone a way out, and it takes as much leaving behind of pride and "identity" for anyone to take that path as it does for the homosexual. He doesn't expect a recovering gay to jump right into a normal relationship, much less lust after multiple women (which society mistakes for "normal" heterosexuality); he does expect them to learn and grow and get increasingly farther from their drive to sin, just like he desires for everyone.

    Like many people you confuse time-sensitive culturally-based Old Testament specifics with the timeless command to keep sexuality where it belongs. The New Testament speaks of people leaving behind homosexuality, as does the experience of many people today -- people you no doubt pretend don't exist.

    And don't ask me to hate gay people by telling them, in the name of false "love", that their dysfunction is OK when it's not.
  • Norman, it is you who is in serious need of prayer. You are spiritually and factually deluded.

    The Bible is overwhelmingly clear that homosexual behavior is a violation of God's design for human sexuality, and is strongly condemned in both Old and New Testament. Only someone spiritually calloused could miss this.

    God loves everyone--including homosexuals--to much to leave them mired in their sins. That is why God so strongly warns people not to engage in this physically and spiritually destructive behavior. To say that God created people to act in a manner he clearly disapproves of is an insult to God and his character.

    I strongly suggest that if you place any faith whatsoever in the Bible that you get back into it, study what it has to say on the subject of homosexual behavior, human sexuality, the devastating cost of sin, and it's complete reliability. If you have no faith in the Bible, then you have no hope anyway. But you desperately need to consider placing your faith in God's inerrant word before you pass into eternity.
  • ralph
    When Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic church, it was because the Catholics were
    adding things that were not part of Jesus's teachings, like having to pay to have sins erased.
    What the ELCA just did was exactly that, stating that these types of activity are not sins,
    even though it is explicitly stated in the Bible that that behavior are terrible in God's eyes.
    This decree and it's forced moral implication is like the forced moral implication of being
    raped in prison. The Bible does not get modified by what is politically correct, but stands
    as a solid standard of morality upon which other actions can be calibrated against. I have
    heard the Lutherans are coming out with a new version of the Bible. You have to wonder if the
    applicable sections are modified to be aligned with this statement. That would be a real tragedy.
    What is next? Are the Lutherans going to have a statement about long term relations approved
    for beastiality, or child molestation? A lutheran might thing about only giving a quarter of
    their normal offering, and redirecting the rest toward another organization like the Red Cross,
    or the American Cancer Society, until this action is reversed.
  • DCM
    No doubt this church's action will be spun as "hatred," "discrimination," being "un-Christian," etc. And such spin will ignore the same facts about homosexuality are usually ignored.

    Like so many things -- even things that are detrimental (physical disabilities) or meaningless (race or national origin) -- homosexuality becomes part of the identity of those it applies to; part of what sets them apart from others. People don't respond well to perceived attacks on their identity; I understand that. But homosexuality is still possible to leave behind, still unhealthy, etc. And unfortunately it takes more courage to face the truth than most people have.
  • ChrisJ89
    I agree with you for the most part -- many members of the LGBT community may see this as an attack and may act accordingly, without properly researching the issue.

    However, I disagree that one can leave homosexuality -- I am a homosexual man, and thankfully I've had friends who were there for me when I came out. Others, on the contrary, have not been so lucky. Those that have told their parents and were sent to "ex-gay camps" and claim they are now heterosexual are merely denying their true selves. Furthermore, the therapy used has been shown to be detrimental to the individual's mental health, and, in most cases, the individual attempts -- and usually succeeds -- suicide.

    I also want to add this: Jesus preached about love, and accepting others; however, as a religion, I find that Christianity, and some of its sects, don't do that. Instead, they pick and choose verses out of context from the Bible that support their reasoning for discriminating against homosexuals, and other groups.

    Just a tid bit to think about.
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