"If according to some I am going to be in err for supporting this... Let me err on the side of mercy, grace, justice, and love of neighbor. Let me err on the side of gospel, which makes all things new." Alan Wold of the Northern Illinois [Synod Lutherans accept clergy in 'lifelong' same-sex relationships, CNN, Aug 22, 2009]

(Isa 52:8-10 NKJV) Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, With their voices they shall sing together; For they shall see eye to eye When the LORD brings back Zion.Break forth into joy, sing together, You waste places of Jerusalem! For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God.

After 8 years of deliberation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) voted 559 to 451, on 21 Aug 2009 to allow non celibate gay clergy to serve in its church of 4.8 million nationwide making it the largest Christian denomination in America to truly welcome gays. The ELCA later voted 676 to 338 on the sexuality statement acknowledges the validity of same-sex relationships that are "chaste, monogamous and lifelong." Amazingly, it passed by the exact minimum requirement of 66.67% of the votes for a church social statement, so close that the presiding Bishop Mark Hanson hesitated to announce the outcome.

Our God is indeed a God of just in time, no more, no less. The traditionalist who opposed the ruling has said that it "overturn(s) the clear teaching of the Bible as believed and confessed by Christians for nearly 2,000 years." However the New Testament type Churches was grappling against the legalistic Judaist, and the strong idol worship in Corinth, and Rome rather than preoccupied with Gays. The NT church type of churches once independent based on different regions effectively existed no more by AD 440, institutionalized and absorbed into the Roman Government, culture, religions and papal authority. It is a fallen church with its law focused fallen nature that is against Homosexuality, for the NT church championed grace instead of the Law.

When Christians in Singapore claims that they are simply affirming the bible stand on homosexuality as sin (Christian Post Article “Smaller Lutheran Church Bodies Reaffirm Bible's Stance on Homosexuality” dated 26 Aug 09), it is rather their skewed interpretation rationalized by saying that the bible says so. This impacts the authority of the bible as reflection of any ultimate truth pertaining to the revelation of Christ as Savior. Christians are destroying the credibility of the bible when they interpret in inconsistently and deliberately ignore the religious and cultural context. It is blasphemy when we cherry picked the bible for our own pre-conceived agenda, as we become little gods. The act of homosexual sex is mentioned in the bible because it was part of a religious act of faith by straight people worshiping other gods. The root cause is worshiping other gods apart from Jesus Christ not any sexual orientation. For example, the bible talks of sex with temple prostitutes as wrong, does it mean that sex is therefore wrong and that the “bible” stand was that we should not have sex!

The Christian Post SG article “On the Ordination of Homosexuals” dated 27 Aug 09 calls the ordination of gays in the Lutheran Church a compromise quoting an argument that” Since we can compromise on other sins, such as divorce, why can’t we also compromise on homosexuality?” “This argument falls on the basis of our wrong assertions that homosexual sex is sin by itself because the bible only talks of it in relation to their faith worship of idols because this was what the gods demanded as the ultimate act of faith. The sin is worshiping idols. The “other sins, such as divorce” mentioned by Christian Post is also an irrelevant and incorrect comparisons since to be consistent we have to quote the sin of transgressing against the same OT series of laws such as not working on Sundays or eating pork, an unclean animal. We don’t call transgressing against the specifics of the Jewish Laws, a sin, or a compromise, so why single out gays unless we are cherry picking the bible for a reason to condemn them. After all, the Anglican Cathedral is no Jewish temple of the precise measurements mandated in the OT. Surely, if we were to be consistent, we have sinned, for even our place of worship would then be unacceptable. When we say that Homosexuality is Sin, we have compromised the bible because we have tried to force our interpretation onto it, in doing so, impacting its credibility. Once we compromised the bible as an ultimate authority pertaining to faith, our faith in Christ is compromised.

We have made ourselves and our heterosexuality an idol coupled by a strong sense of religious self righteousness that we deliberately “add” to the bible for our pre-conceived motives. It is not that we worship the bible, we worship ourselves and our heterosexuality until all our own sins of divorce, adultery and abortions by straight couples is blamed on gays by claiming that they are destroying our families. We used the religious Law to highlight our righteousness in able to comply by it. Paul highlighted in Romans that the Jewish adherence to the Law is outward and temporal behavior modification which does not lead to any inward permanent changes, but instead their straight Jewish religious forefathers turn to worship other gods, having sex with men in their religious acts! Paul was against the Judaist by claiming that their adherence to the law does not lead to any righteousness but to grave sin of idol worship being committed. Likewise, our stand against Gays is grave sin revealing the extent of our self righteous even willing to sacrifice the bible and the gay community. True righteousness is in Christ alone through Grace, and not in ourselves nor in following the Law.

There is Salvation in Christ, through prayer and quiet reflection away from the whirlwinds of religious mob mentality when we realized as do vast majority at the Evangelical Lutheran Church, so succinctly summarized by Rev Lee M Miller II of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran who testified to the assembly before the vote:-

I stand in favor of this resolution because I stand on the shoulders of gay and straight folks who have proclaimed the Gospel of Christ and a message of love.

I am not saved because I’m a heterosexual. I’m saved because of what God has done.

All I want to say to those who are listening that they are not condemned because of their sexuality; but they are saved because of how God loves them, that God’s grace is for all, in all.

Thank you

(Isa 52:8-10 NKJV) Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, With their voices they shall sing together; For they shall see eye to eye When the LORD brings back Zion.Break forth into joy, sing together, You waste places of Jerusalem! For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God.

I see a time, very soon, that the redeemed of the Lord, in the gay community, shall return and come with singing back to the Lord, coming with singing that they are accepted once more. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall be away. An everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.