Lutheran Lesbian "Bishop"

Swedish Lutheran church elects bishop in lesbian partnership
ENI-09-0436

Uppsala, Sweden, 29 May (ENI)--The newly-elected Lutheran bishop of Stockholm says that being a lesbian means she wants to stand alongside people who feel powerless.

"I know what it is to be called into question," Eva Brunne said in an article on the Web site of the Church of Sweden (www.svenskakyrkan.se) after her 26 May election. "I am in the lucky situation that I have power and I can use it for the benefit of those who have no power," said Brunne, currently dean of the diocese of Stockholm.

Is this really news? Is it likely Ms. Brunne even believes the Creed? Certainly not the Bible. Maybe she's an atheist. Would it matter?

Comments

[The young fogey]

Look for a huge religious revival in the country and an uptick in weekly attendance at and financial contributions to the vibrant, forward-thinking Church of Sweden... not.

[Benighted Savage]

"...being a lesbian means she wants to stand alongside people who feel powerless."

So THAT'S what being a lesbian means. I'd always wondered.

[Truth Unites... and Divides]

James Kushiner: "Is it likely Ms. Brunne even believes the Creed? Certainly not the Bible.

The newly-elected Lutheran bishop of Stockholm ...."

James, you should also fire salvos at those who elected her. Eg., "Is it likely that the electors of Ms. Brunne even believe the Creed? Certainly not the Bible."

Look at the enablers too. They are morally culpable as well.

[Rob Buechler]

Very sad. Some of these same arguments are used by this woman's compatriots in the ELCA and ELCIC to change ministry standards and Biblical sexual norms. One wonders if the Lutheran south will rise up as the Anglican south did. The witness and courage are needed.

Peace in the Lord!
Rob Buechler, Pastor (formerly ELCA)
Trinity-Bergen Lutheran Church

[Maria in Stockholm]

Well, we like her. This it what we believe God told us. This is what we read in the good book. God gave each person - not just one or a few - an intellect and a heart to use. What are you going to do about it? Send the pope? Write some more on the internet on how bad it is that people use their minds and their hearts in relation to God? If it makes you feel better - why don't you go right ahead. You people seem like you need it.

[Daniel Hychuck]

Maria:

This it what we believe God told us. This is what we read in the good book.

Could you expand on this? What do you believe God told you? What did you read in the Bible?

[David Gray.]

>This is what we read in the good book.

Odd, given that the "good book" doesn't say that...

[Tony Esolen]

I would like it if the apologists for homosexuality would explain to me just what things still do violate the commandment against adultery. Evidently not fornication -- otherwise how do you define yourself as a homosexual? Or, rather, what exactly, as they see it, or as they read it in the Bible, constitutes the virtue of chastity?

[Kamilla]

Oh well, I guess if you like her that makes everything ok.

And I just love the implication *we* are the ones not using our intellects . . .

Kamilla

[Benighted Savage]

Here's a link to a more complete version of the article:

http://www.pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=18182

Hey Maria, the article concludes by noting that

"The Church of Sweden, which offers a special blessing for same-sex couples, has faced criticism from some other Lutheran churches, particularly those in African countries."

It seems that some Lutheran churches don't approve of the COS's blessing of same-sex unions (which would include Eva Brunne's lesbian "relationship" with priest Gunilla Linden). I doubt these same churches would approve of Ms. Brunne of becoming a Lutheran bishop. What do you make of this?

[Steve]

"Is this really news? Is it likely Ms. Brunne even believes the Creed? Certainly not the Bible. Maybe she's an atheist. Would it matter?"

No, this is the only question I'm asking: "There are still Lutherans in Sweden?!"

[R.C.]

Everyone knows that, even if one takes a Sola Scriptura approach to the Bible, the opposition therein to mutual masturbation between same-gendered persons is powerful, obvious, and unqualified.

No intellectually honest person doubts that St. Paul expected all Christians, if they previously had indulged in homosexual dalliances while pagans, to cease doing so upon conversion. Or, if they honestly doubt, it is because they are relying on implausible theories proposed by other ignorant or dishonest persons in whom they've placed ill-advised trust.

The certainty that homosexual acts are incompatible with Christian obedience is magnified yet farther if one merely asks the question, "When, if ever, did any Christian interpret these passages by Paul (or those in the Old Testament) as *permitting* homosexual acts?"

This question takes us to the Church Fathers and other ancient writers, and, there again, we see that in every age before ours, a Christian has, and has always had, only two licit options: (1.) Marriage to an opposite-gendered person with complete sexual fidelity; and (2.) Celibacy.

Willful, unrepented violations of these rules, in the early Church, usually resulted in excommunication and (it was generally assumed) eternal damnation if one died before repenting. A penitent who wished to be readmitted to the Church might be required to wait for months or years before receiving communion again.

Everyone who has investigated the facts of history knows this; it is not in historical doubt.

Therefore the ordaining of openly gay "bishops" demonstrates that the church performing that ordination, though it is admittedly a church of a belief system which *mentions* Christ and His apostles, is not a church of the "faith delivered once for all to the apostles."

I do not say that those who remain within the Swedish Lutheran church uniformly aren't Christians. They are...by virtue of Trinitarian baptism at least! And there are surely devout souls who're in anguish that their church, which led them to the knowledge of the love of Christ, has gone so far astray. They are Christ-followers: But their organization has divorced itself from Christ.

To whatever extent that true members of the mystical body of Christ remain in that organization, they will increasingly feel like strangers, like foreigners, within it, for it is not Christ's body. They seek orthodoxy because they desire to be -- were intended to be -- in Christ's body. But they are stuck instead in this other body like mistakenly-transplanted limbs; and as the Swedish Lutheran church rejects their orthodoxy and shoves them to the side, a sort of organ-rejection is occurring.

It's sad, but it keeps on happening. (Ask the poor Episcopalians.) When your church becomes heretical, it becomes incumbent on you to ask, "have the gates of hell prevailed against the Church? Or is the problem that, simply, this never was the Church?"

Whatever the truth of that question might be -- and those who know their Bible will be able to exclude certain possibilities -- one thing is certain. For the people of God to drink the water of life, they'll have to go elsewhere than this cracked cistern.

[David Buck]

There are still many faithful Lutherans in Sweden. Check out the pastoral letter on marriage by the bishops of the Mission Province: "Male and Female He Created Them" at www.scandhouse.org

(Pastor) David Buck
Lutheran Church of Australia

[David Buck]

I should also add that the bishops and adherents of the Mission Province have been disowned by the Church of Sweden. (Please don't call it the Swedish Lutheran Church!) The first of the three bishops, Arne Olsson, was consecrated in 2003 by Bp Walter Obare Omwansa of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya