It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a gay Lutheran to get into the pulpit, sometimes!

Lutherans define themselves doctrinally, which results in an invitation for Lutherans to argue with each other endlessly over doctrine.

Other churches define themselves, too, in their own ways. Catholics are bound together by a focus on hierarchy. They easily become authoritarian. Methodists have their roots in achieving "holiness", which meant sobriety, hard work, and owning hardware stores. Baptists are big into repentance and instant turnarounds. They testify about how awful they were, and how they love the Lord Jesus so very much, now that they are sinners on their knees.

You get the idea!

We noted, on our recent family tour of ancesterdom, that a lot of the Lutheran churches in rural Iowa had fallen upon hard times. Many of them were out in the countryside, alongside cemeteries, where the settlers had gathered on Sundays to sing and pray, to marry and baptize their children, catechize them in enduring truths and, when the time came, to bury their dead.

There aren't many small farmers, anymore. Even the small towns are de-populating. Many of the churches are empty, and many more are emptying, gradually. But since they are Lutherans, they still know how to argue endlessly over doctrine. These days, they are arguing about the ordination of gay people.

It keeps them busy, deciding whether to leave the Synod, or to split the faithful remnant into two congregations or, more likely, just to go join another church: one that believes the right stuff and does not allow gays into the clergy, or maybe not even women. Certainly not lesbian women!

Meanwhile, the weeds are growing up through the sidewalk.

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