Lutheran "Scholars" Press Church To Keep Discriminating Against Gays

A group of Lutheran "scholars" and church "leaders" released an open letter on Tuesday urging members churchwide to reject proposals that would liberalize the denomination's stance on homosexuality.
Ahead of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Churchwide Assembly in August, the conservative group is cautioning voting members against changing the denomination's current position on same-sex blessings and the ordination of partnered gays.
"The proposals to be considered by the Churchwide Assembly this summer from the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality are perceived by some as compromises that will permit the ELCA to live faithfully with internal diversity on controversial ethical questions. The proposals are in fact no compromise," the letter states. "They clearly imply that same-sex blessings and the ordination and rostering of homosexual persons in committed relationships are acceptable within the ELCA."
"The teaching of the church will be changed," the letter warns. "We should not make such an important decision without clear biblical and theological support."
(CTI)

Churches To Accept Gay Workers In UK

Religious groups in ther UK are to be required to accept gay workers, secretaries and other staff under new anti-discrimination laws.
Church leaders had hoped to be able to push for anti-gay exemptions from the new laws but deputy equalities minister Maria Eagle has said the laws will cover almost all church employees.
Previously, any roles necessary "for the purposes of an organised religion" are exempt for gay protection laws.
But the Equality Bill will define this as applying only to those who lead the liturgy or spend the majority of the time teaching doctrine, such as ministers, bishops and their equivalents.
(PN)

Intolerance Causes People to Leave Church

According to Harvard University professor Robert Putnam, who conducted the research.
New research by the Pew Forum on Faith in Public Life shows young Americans are dramatically less likely to go to church.
"It's a huge change," says Robert Putnam, who conducted the research. This trend started in the early 1990's and continues through today.
Putnam went on to say that in the past two decades, many young people began to view organized religion as a source of "intolerance and rigidity and doctrinaire political views," and therefore stopped going to church.
The research will be included in a forthcoming book, called "American Grace."