Lutheran Core logoA Minnesota pastor says his church is incorrectly listed on the website of a conservative splinter group that’s breaking away from the Evangelical Church in America (ELCA) over the church’s recent votes on homosexuality, but that group is refusing to rectify the error.

Pastor Arthur Sharot of Urland Lutheran Church in Cannon Falls has asked Lutheran CORE to remove his church’s name from the group’s CORE Congregations page — a list of churches that support its “Common Confession” — but Lutheran CORE says Sharot’s congregation must take a vote in order to get its name removed.

Lutheran CORE is in the process of creating “a new Lutheran church body will be formed for those leaving the ELCA,” mainly over the ELCA’s decision to let churches ordain gay and lesbian clergy living in committed relationships. Urland says some members of his congregation do not share Lutheran CORE’s stance on homosexuality.

Lutheran CORE’s “Common Confession” states in part:

“We believe and confess that the marriage of male and female is an institution created and blessed by God. From marriage, God forms families to serve as the building blocks of all human civilization and community. We teach and practice that sexual activity belongs exclusively within the biblical boundaries of a faithful marriage between one man and one woman.”

“I learned that our name was on their website through some phone calls from people concerned with this sexuality issue,” Sharot said. When he asked to have the church’s name removed he was rebuffed in an email from Mark Chavez, Lutheran CORE’s director.

“He said that we needed a congregational vote to have our name removed. My council president phoned Lutheran CORE’s office and was told the same thing,” said Sharot. “We are sending a letter requesting our removal. We have no reason or necessity to have a vote to have our name removed from an organization we never asked to be a part of.”

But Chavez said Urland did ask to be a part of Lutheran CORE — only it wasn’t called Lutheran CORE at the time.

“The history of the Common Confession is that in November 2005 two organizations were formed – Lutheran CORE and Lutheran Churches of the Common Confession (LC3),” Chavez told the Minnesota Independent in an email. “Membership in each required affirming the Common Confession. When churches voted in congregational meetings to join LC3, they were listed on the web site.”

Sharot said that before he became pastor of Urland in 2006, the church had voted to join the LC3.

“Sometime after that [vote], apparently, unbeknown to Urland, there was a blending of a number of organizations including LC3, into ‘Lutheran CORE’,” Sharot says.

Chavez acknowledges that the two groups have become one. “About a year ago, LC3 blended into Lutheran CORE and those churches [that signed the Common Confession] are now known simply as Lutheran CORE congregations.”

And that’s a problem for Urland Church: they don’t want to be a Lutheran CORE church — and technically never voted to become one.

Lutheran CORE’s own founding and connections show that it is more controversial than first appearances reveal. In 2008, Chavez became the director of Lutheran CORE and before that he was director of WordAlone, a group that spawned CORE. WordAlone believes the ELCA is losing its “Christ-centered focus,” in part because of “the push for approval of sexual relationships outside of marriage.” Chavez is currently the vice president of WordAlone, which shares an office with Lutheran CORE in New Brighton.

WordAlone holds some controversial views about homosexuality. From its website:

[T]here are no studies indicating that there is a genetic or biological determination of same-sex orientation or behavior. Instead, many factors are involved. At least 88 studies indicate that many individuals can change from a same sex to heterosexual orientation.

“Large numbers of those engaging in same sex behavior are promiscuous. It is not uncommon for some gay men to have as many as 1000 sex partners per year, most of them anonymous contacts.

Homosexual behavior can be self-propagating. Some homosexual groups and individuals engage in active recruitment. A child who is sexually molested has an increased likelihood of later engaging in homosexual acts. There is also an increased incidence of homosexual activity among children raised by same sex couples. Adoption into such environments puts children at risk.

The journey to freedom from homosexuality will involve, 1) establishing a personal relationship with Jesus; 2) fellowship in a dynamic church that proclaims truth and expresses godly love; 3) breaking sinful same-sex relationships; 4) developing healthy, nonerotic or emotionally dependent, SAME-sex relationships; 4) addressing common roots such as rejection, envy, self-pity, unforgiveness, rebellion, etc.; 5) experiencing inner healing for traumatic events of the past such as sexual abuse, negative labeling, experiences of rejection, sexual sin, etc.; 6) renewing the mind by replacing lies with God’s truth; 7) and finding release from any demonic strongholds that may exist.