LOVE AS REVOLUTION

  The denomination of my seminary,   the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America   is having their national assembly next week and it is going to be intense.   Fully 10 of the ELCA’s 65 synods have submitted resolutions to force the national leadership to rewrite the constitution, and they are focused and organized . In a standard move, the national leadership published a response to the resolutions that included vague acknowledgement with a pre-emptive bill for such a reconstitution process: up to   $4 million   – and our author has something to say about it.   Please read, comment, and share! —————————————— Jesus said: Do not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give the realm to you. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Be dressed for ac...

Like all the best spiritual memoirs, Rev. Emmy Kegler’s debut book One Coin Found: How God’s Love Stretches to the Margins is a marvelous chain of moving personal stories and what they have taught her about God. There is much to comment on, but as a teacher - someone deeply concerned about how study can complement Christian devotion as to make us more powerful believers and attentive leaders - I found this book particularly wonderful because there are so many ‘class-settings’ where it could potentially be put to use. For example: If you are leading a seminar for anyone concerned about LGBTQAI+ youth – or a retreat for queer youth themselves: This book should be given to every registered attendee.   Pastor Emmy shares touching and relatable anecdotes, like how she got caught “writing anonymous love notes... four-line rhyming poems to every girl in class... slipping them into their desks when we left for gym” (30). Anecdotes like this are excellent sparks for meaningfu...

The Problem: As the US reeled from yet another eruption of racist violence, the summer’s usually fleet flow slowed to a leaden crawl after Charleston. And as the darkest truth came to light – that not only had two of the nine victims been alumni of the ELCA’s Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (Mother Emanuel's Senior Pastor Rev. Clementa Pinckney and Associate Pastor Rev. Daniel Simmons) but that even the shooter, Dylann Storm Roof, was an ELCA member – that already heavy burden began burning to the touch. Bishop Eaton's pastoral epistle , released the day after the attacks, gave a sobering summation of the feelings of many in the ELCA: “All of a sudden and for all of us this is an intensely personal tragedy. One of our own is alleged to have shot and killed two who adopted us as their own.” The Response: But as the white leaders of our overwhelmingly white denomination (nearly 94.8% by ELCA internal estimates, 96% according to the recent Pew study ) struggled...