BERLIN (RNS) Gay and lesbian Lutheran ministers in the conservative German state of Bavaria may live with their partners in parish parsonages, but only if they enter into a state-sanctioned civil union.
Although the move may seem bold for what is generally considered one of Germany's most traditional states, Bishop Johannes Friedrich of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria said it was no great departure from existing policies.
He noted that the church had already welcomed openly gay ministers and same-sex unions. "We had only left out that a couple could live in a civil union in the parsonage," he said.
H/T to Box Turtle Bulletin.
I've always thought that intellectually honest Conservatives should support same sex marriage.
ReplyDeleteWade, I agree. Certainly commitment and fidelity in a relationship are conservative values. Why not bless and support them?
ReplyDeleteI like the relaxed attitude of Bishop Johannes Friedrich. He's quite right - it is only logical.
ReplyDeleteThe Episcopal Church is in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I learned early on from people who knew things -- really -- and got things right when everyone else was all wet:
ReplyDeleteHomosexuals are unable to form lasting serious unions.
Please don't shoot the messenger, he's doing the best he can! This was the official formal position of the Psychological Industry, and I imagine the DSM writeup on that disorder (pdsthmhdtbhc) included it.
So hey, it turns out that thousands of people who had been in long-term relationships for, umm, a long term, were joyfully queuing up to be married when the gates opened in places like San Francisco.
Obviously everyone else was jumping for joy at the happy discovery of so many people who turned out -- who could every have guessed? -- to be capable of it all.
I mean, wasn't everybody delighted?
Sheesh.
BTW I also learned from the same good sources -- I repeat, genuinely good ones -- some facts about Hitler, including a more or less obscure one, that were BS.
ReplyDeleteNot simple BS even, but libels against Hitler. I sometimes contemplate the idea of libels against Hitler, and am filled with wonder. Or something.
Sorry about the OT. I just had to get Hitler into the thread, didn't I?
The point to the first of those two comments, if there was one, is that some people have acted a if they really were pleased, and our Bavarian Bishop seems to be one. Seems to me, though I've no expertise in this, a right Christian kind of response.
ReplyDeletePorlock, I'm sorry but I am a bit confused about what you are trying to say. How does Hitler come into this? What libels? ...
ReplyDeleteSorry to be so late to the party: let's hear it for the Lutherans. YAY!!
ReplyDeleteDP, I hear that some Lutherans are good people. YAY!
ReplyDeleteCathy,
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for that. The second post was a pointless digression, a wandering into free-association.
And the third tried to state the point I was too fuddled to get into the first one: the good Bishop seems to have a practice of rejoicing in the good news of people doing good, respectable things like forming enduring relationships. Rather than rejoicing in, you know, iniquity. It's rather sad that this seems newsworthy.
But I need to write my blog comments much earlier of an evening.
Aha, now I get you! Thank you Porlock, and sorry I've been two days getting back to this.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there's Godwin's Law.
ReplyDelete"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches." In other words, Godwin put forth the sarcastic observation that, given enough time, all discussions—regardless of topic or scope—inevitably end up being about Hitler and the Nazis.
Godwin's law is often cited in online discussions as a deterrent against the use of arguments in the widespread reductio ad Hitlerem form.