Catholic and Lutheran leadership in Minnesota sent an open letter to Gov. Mark Dayton and state elected officials on Monday urging them to preserve access to basic needs for the state’s poor. Both Dayton and Republican leadership have proposed cuts to projected funding for social services to fix a $5 billion budget hole, with Dayton proposing a mix of cuts and new revenue and Republicans proposing cuts alone.

“We trust that you will seek to govern the people of the state of Minnesota so that all citizens — particularly those who are poor and live on the margins of our communities — have access to housing, education, health care, and other human services,” the letter states.

The letter is signed by the majority of bishops from the the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Roman Catholic Church, including the Archbishop John Nienstedt.

Just under 50 percent of Minnesotans are either Lutheran or Catholic.

Here’s full text of the letter:

An Open Letter to Governor Mark Dayton and Members of the Minnesota Senate and Minnesota House of Representatives

From the Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

By now, you are immersed in the challenges of providing legislative and executive leadership for all Minnesotans. As citizens, we take seriously the need for change in addressing the Herculean task that lies before us. The responsibilities you face as you lead us and consider the future of our state present opportunities to uphold the dignity and worth of all Minnesotans.

You are already deeply into erasing a large budget deficit, an enormous challenge that suggests both dollar savings and increased income to achieve a balanced budget that avoids devastating cuts in services to vulnerable people. In many of the political campaigns of last fall, we heard politicians speak of “fairness” and “equality” as they spoke of the task ahead. We ask you today to consider “justice” as you engage in your work. Justice means that the common good of all citizens serves as the hallmark of a strong society and a vital economy.

We expect that, as you seek to balance the budget, you will engage in civil and respectful dialog rather than partisanship and posturing. We trust that you will seek to govern the people of the state of Minnesota so that all citizens — particularly those who are poor and live on the margins of our communities — have access to housing, education, health care, and other human services. We suggest that the most eff ective means of eliminating poverty resides in policies that lift people out of a safety net to a level of sustainability.

Minnesota has a history of caring for all its citizens, and all of us are heirs of those who shaped that legacy. Catholics and Lutherans — representing some two million Minnesotans — have partnered in that legacy as the largest providers of health care, human services, and non-public education. Being a state that cares for its people has been the hallmark of Minnesota. And the most telling measure of how well we care for each other is to consider how we treat those who are most vulnerable among us. We believe there exists in the people of this state the will to respond to the human needs among the poor with compassion, generosity, and resolve. We challenge you to remember all Minnesotans as you make decisions that affect the people, the economy, and the character of this state. We pledge our support, our prayer, and our best effort to these same ends as we each seek to be faithful stewards of the common good in this state.

Roman Catholic Bishops of Minnesota
Archbishop John Nienstedt, Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Bishop Michael Hoeppner, Diocese of Crookston
Bishop John Kinney, Diocese of Saint Cloud
Bishop John LeVoir, Diocese of New Ulm
Bishop Lee Piché, Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Bishop John Quinn, Diocese of Winona
Bishop Paul Sirba, Diocese of Duluth

ELCA Bishops of Minnesota
Bishop Jon Anderson, Southwestern Minnesota Synod
Bishop Thomas Aitken, Northeastern Minnesota Synod
Bishop Craig Johnson, Minneapolis Area Synod
Bishop Peter Rogness, Saint Paul Area Synod
Bishop Harold Usgaard, Southeastern Minnesota Synod
Bishop Lawrence Wohlrabe, Northwestern Minnesota Synod

President Obama named a dozen faith leaders to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on Friday, and two of them hail from Minnesota. Leith Anderson of the National Association of Evangelicals, who is also Tim Pawlenty’s pastor, was appointed by Obama, as was fellow Minnesota Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The council, formerly known under President Bush as the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, has had a healthy number of Minnesotans under Obama.

Anderson has been the head of the NAE since 2006, and he’s been the pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie since 1977. Pawlenty’s wife Mary has been a long-time member of Wooddale, and Tim Pawlenty joined the church after the two married in the late-1980s.

Anderson has been seen as a moderate evangelical, eager to find agreement on issues with both sides of the political aisle. In early December, the NEA released a survey outlining 18 policy positions on which Obama and evangelicals agree.

“In the current political climate, many focus their energy on fueling issues of disagreement – people of faith included,” Anderson said at the time. “But, I find it really interesting that evangelical leaders readily look for where we can agree and support.”

Obama also appointed ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson, who has been serving as the presiding bishop since 2001. He oversaw a contentious assembly meeting in Minneapolis in 2008 where the church voted to allow congregations to have gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships.

And earlier this year, Hanson appeared in a video urging an and to anti-LGBT bullying as part of the It Gets Better campaign.

The response to his video was strong on both sides of the debate over homosexuality within Christianity.

“This is an evangelical moment given to us like none other,” Hanson said in a statement about the controversy, “because we live in a culture where most people see the Christian witness as an obsession with drawing lines in the sand and expending enormous energies defining who is on the right side of that line and who is on the rejected side. We know from the biblical witness, however, to beware of drawing lines in the sand, because Jesus is going to be standing on both sides of the line of the sand. For that, he got nailed to a cross.”

Currently serving on Obama’s faith council is Minnesotan Peg Chemberlin who is the president of the National Council of Churches and executive director of the Minnesota Council of Churches. Her term is set to expire this year.

In addition to the Minnesotans on the list, Obama also appointed the Reverend Elder Nancy L. Wilson of the Metropolitan Community Churches, a Christian denomination that sprang out of the LGBT community.

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.

The move bucks the trend of churches leaving the ELCA over the gay clergy issue. More than a dozen churches in Minnesota have either left the ELCA or have announced their intention to do so since the controversial vote by the ELCA general assembly in Minneapolis in August.

According to the Star Tribune, the congregation at Holy Trinity was enthusiastic about raising their contributions, the Star Tribune reports. “I knew that Holy Trinity members were generally supportive of the decision, but I was surprised by how eager they were to increase their financial support in response,” said the Rev. Jay Carlson.

The benevolence payments go to missionary work, hunger programs and other charitable causes run by the ELCA.

The leaders of Lutheran CORE say the ELCA has moved too far away from the Bible.

“Many ELCA members and congregations have said that they want to sever ties with the ELCA because of the ELCA’s continued movement away from traditional Christian teachings,” Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Pa., and Lutheran CORE Chair said in a press statement last week. “The vote on sexuality opened the eyes of many to how far the ELCA has moved from Biblical teaching.”

The ELCA vote doesn’t force any church to roster a gay or lesbian pastor — that decision remains the decision of local congregations. Despite that, at least 15 Lutheran churches in the state have signed the Common Confession of Lutheran CORE that states in part: “We teach and practice that sexual activity belongs exclusively within the biblical boundaries of a faithful marriage between one man and one woman.”

Those churches that have signed the Common Confession and started the process of leaving the ELCA include:
Albion Lutheran of St. James, American Lutheran in Long Prairie, Brooklyn Park Lutheran, Calvary Lutheran in Golden Valley, Christ the King Lutheran in Hutchinson, Faith Lutheran in Hutchinson, Faith Lutheran in Silver Creek, First Lutheran in Pipestone, Holy Cross Lutheran in Maple Lake, Redeemer Lutheran in Fridley, Redeemer Lutheran in Henderson, St. John Lutheran in Starbuck, Trinity Lutheran of Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis, Urland Lutheran in Cannon Falls, and Wangen Prairie Lutheran in Cannon Falls.

Update: Urland Lutheran Church in Cannon Falls says it is incorrectly listed on CORE’s site

“I knew Nate felt strongly. I anticipated (his resignation), but it’s not what I wanted,” associate pastor David Sperstad told the Brainerd Dispatch. “I expected to work with him in ministry for quite a while.”

In early October, a Minneapolis church voted to leave the ELCA over the vote. And a number of churches throughout the state are considering the same.

“As a pastor within a denomination that has been marrying same gender couples for forty years, I am saddened that my congregants must travel north to Canada or south to Iowa in order to be legally married,” said the Rev. Robyn Provis of All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church in Minneapolis. “What that means is that their marriages are recognized four hours north and three hours south but here in Minnesota their marriages are legally invisible.”

Provis was one of a half dozen faith leaders speaking out in support of marriage equality efforts in the state. The press conference at the Capitol was organized by the LGBT advocacy group OutFront Minnesota.

“What this event reminds us is that many people of faith support full legal equality for GLBT individuals, and same-gender couples, not despite their religious beliefs, but because of them,” said OutFront Minnesota Executive Director Amy Johnson.

“The main reasons for denying marriage rights to same-sex couples are religious,” said Pastor Doug Donley of University Baptist Church, which is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches in the USA. “By codifying such a religious belief into law, we are violating our own state and federal constitution. The fair and the just thing to do would be to offer marriage rights to all people. Why not join the other states and stand up for freedom, justice, mercy and compassion?”

He added, “By the way, those are all things that Jesus actually addressed.”

The Reverend Victoria Safford of White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church said her church stopped signing any marriage documents until gays and lesbians have the right to marry in Minnesota. “That day is coming. The laws of Minnesota are not meant to exclude some citizens while granting privilege to others,” she said. “The law exists to protect and fiercely guard the rights, equality and freedom of all of us.

Rabbi Jared H. Saks of Temple Israel said that, for religious Jews who favor same-sex marriage, it’s an issue of justice.

“Deuteronomy teaches us Tzedek, tzedek tirdof, Justice, justice shall you pursue. In giving the world the concept of justice, Torah gave the world equality: fair treatment of the poor, the orphan, the widow and the stranger,” he said. “Torah commands us not to oppress the stranger, because we were strangers in the land of Egypt. We know the heart of the stranger. We are Israel and we know what it is to be labeled as different.”

Rev Sarah Campbell of the Mayflower Church, a member of the United Church of Christ said she has married both same-sex and opposite-sex couples for many years and sees no difference in the level of commitment between the two.

“It deeply saddens me that some of the couples I have married are forced to endure additional life pressures — as if there are not enough pressures on families already — because they are denied civil rights,” she said. “The strength of their marriages, despite such additional stresses like additional insurance expenses of all kinds, is humbling and awe inspiring to me.”

She added, “I will fight for equal marriage rights for these couples. Of course I will!”

Mandy Carter of the National Black Justice Coalition spoke at the press conference in support of the clergy.

“Are marriage rights for same-sex couples the next hurdle in our ongoing movement for civil rights? Black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists of the National Black Justice Coalition think so, and we are actively seeking to achieve this next level of equality.”

Carter choked back tears as she read a powerful statement by Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who was a Freedom Rider during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. “I have fought too hard, and too long, against discrimination based on race and color to not stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation.”

Also speaking on Thursday were the Rev. Anita Hill of St. Paul Reformation Lutheran Church and the Rev. Dr. Lowell O. Erdahl, Bishop Emeritus of the Saint Paul Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Monica Meyer, public policy director for OutFront said in a statement, “Recent polls suggest that support continues to grow for these couples and their families, as people learn more about the discrimination that same-gender couples face,” she said. “Today’s powerful statements by Minnesota clergy in favor of marriage equality will help move Minnesota toward an eventual end to discrimination in marriage and support for full civil marriage equality.”

“If we trust scripture in matters of Christ, why don’t we trust it in human sexuality?” asked Pastor Michael Johnson of the Western North Dakota Synod.

Fred Heintz of the Northwest Ohio Synod urged ELCA members to vote “no” until the group had come to a unified stance on the issue. “We do not have a consensus. There’s a time to listen and a time to wait. I am willing to continue to explore this issue.”

Larry Christiansen of the Southeast Iowa Synod argued that the ban doesn’t jibe with the teachings of Christ.

“Look to yourselves and your own sin. Jesus said to apply the law ruthlessly for ourselves, and graciously toward others,” he said. “Our current policy bears false witness to our Lord.”

Craig Johnson of the Eastern North Dakota Synod opposed repealing the ban. “I feel in my stomach that something is seriously wrong. Loving our neighbor I agree is essential… but it does not condone doing what is not right.”

John Seng, a member of the Northeastern Ohio Synod, expressed a widely held belief: that the vote will split the church:  “It saddens me that we are going this way.”

Others, like Brittani Lamb of the Southwestern Minnesota Synod, said that for the ELCA to survive, it needs to understand that young people want gays and lesbians to have equal standing in the church. “For the church to say that God loves everyone but not show that to homosexuals is hypocritical. If this resolution fails, not only will we lose great pastors but will lose younger people too.”

Pastor Paul Tidemann of the St. Paul Synod said that when his church left the ELCA in 2000 in order to roster the Rev. Anita Hill, a lesbian in a committed relationship, membership at their church blossomed. “The issue of welcoming LGBT people the congregation continues to strengthen in spirit and numbers. When we decided in 2000 to call Rev. Anita Hill, our decision was to ordain her. And in the end after a vote of 181 to nothing, our congregation grew by over one hundred.”

The vote to allow gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships to lead congregations passed by a vote of 559 to 451.

After the vote, one ELCA member seemed nonplussed and asked the presiding bishop for support. “We have taken some historic votes today. Can you share with some of us who are deeply disturbed why they should continue in this church?”

Many people have been disappointed in the vote. Minnesota’s own religious right, the Minnesota Family Council, released a statement immediately following the vote Friday afternoon.

“With this vote to affirm homosexual behavior and clergy, the ELCA has fully embraced moral relativism and jettisoned its moral authority in the community. They’ve embraced postmodernism and rejected the clear teaching of Scripture and Christian practice for nearly 2,000 years,” said Prichard.

“Speaking as a Lutheran, with this vote the ELCA needs to change its name. It’s no longer ‘Lutheran’ or ‘Evangelical.’ They have turned their back on the authority of the Bible, the foundation on which Martin Luther started the Reformation,” said Prichard.

Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Pa., chair of Lutheran CORE, a group who lobbied against the measure, said, “I am saddened that a Lutheran Church that was founded on a firm commitment to the Bible has come to the point that the ELCA would vote to reject the Bible’s teaching on marriage and homosexual behavior. It breaks my heart.”

But for many, today’s vote was met with excitement. “This is a joyous day for the LGBT Lutherans who no longer have to choose between their spirituality and their sexuality,” Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese said.

“Thanks be to God for our colleagues at Lutherans Concerned and all of the Goodsoil coalition,” said Harry Knox, director for HRC’s Religion and Faith Program. “The ELCA has studied, prayed and listened to the witness of its LGBT sisters and brothers, and has come to consensus in community. This decision reflects the best of Lutheran tradition.”

Emily Eastwood, executive director of Lutherans Concerned/North America, said, “Today I am proud to be a Lutheran. Supporters and advocates of full inclusion have longed for this day since the inception of the ELCA, and for many of us what seemed like a lifetime.”

The ELCA also voted to ensure that churches that decline to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships have that right and each congregation is free to make the decision that best fits them.

Photo: Wikipedia

It was only a matter of time before the religious right would chime in to announce that a tornado that hit parts of Minneapolis on Wednesday was a warning from God that the Lutherans should not relax doctrine related to homosexuality. “Jesus Christ,” wrote John Piper, pastor at Minneapolis’ Bethlehem Baptist Church, “controls the wind, including all tornados.”

On the church’s blog Piper spells out the Bible verses that prove the tornado was God’s warning to the Lutherans to reject a vote to “agree to disagree” on the issue of homosexuality.

The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction. Reaffirm the great Lutheran heritage of allegiance to the truth and authority of Scripture. Turn back from distorting the grace of God into sensuality. Rejoice in the pardon of the cross of Christ and its power to transform left and right wing sinners.

Photo: Collegewolf

Two close calls marked the third day of the General Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) on Wednesday. The nearly 2,000 Lutherans, media and activists assembled at the Minneapolis Convention Center took cover as a tornado nipped one side of the building and damaged the steeple of a Lutheran church across the street. A short time later, the 1,014 voting members would pass a social statement relaxing church doctrine on homosexuality with a dramatic vote that was exactly a two-thirds majority. One vote against would have killed the measure.

“We trust the weather is not a commentary on our work,” said the Rev. Steven Loy, who was chairing the committee on the social statement.

The social statement is a long document that essentially says that the church will agree to disagree on the issue of same-sex relationships, but will neither punish congregations that decide to bless such relationships nor force congregations that reject blessing same-sex couples.

”This church also acknowledges that consensus does not exist concerning how to regard same-gender committed relationships, even after many years of thoughtful, respectful, and faithful study and conversation,” the statement says in part. “We do not have agreement on whether this church should honor these relationships, uplift, shelter and protect them, or on precisely how it is appropriate to do so.”

But LGBT Lutherans are hailing the vote, which came in at 676 to 338, exactly the 66.67 percent margin needed.

“This is a day of progress and compromise,” said Emily Eastwood, executive director of Lutherans Concerned/North America, a group that works for inclusive LGBT policies in the church. “By a two-thirds majority the church has supported families of all kinds and has acknowledged without judgment the wide variety of views within the ELCA regarding LGBT inclusion.”

But with such a close vote, opponents were inevitably not happy. “We mourn the decision by the Churchwide Assembly to reject the clear teaching of the Bible that God’s intention for marriage is the relationship of one man and one woman,” said the Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Pa., chair of Lutheran CORE, a group that opposes the relaxing of church teaching on homosexuality. “It is tragic that such a large number of ELCA members were willing to overturn the clear teaching of the Bible as it has been believed and confessed by Christians for nearly 2,000 years.”

While the less controversial social statement passed by a two-thirds majority, an even more controversial vote is expected on Friday when the church will decide whether gay and lesbian pastors who are in committed relationships can lead ELCA congregations. That vote will need a simple majority to pass.