I visited a Lutheran church the other day out of curiosity

Started by zarus tathra, June 30, 2013, 02:19:49 AM

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Shiranu

IIRC, the ELCA has a group that has branched off now since gay marriage was allowed in the ELCA.

They kicked about 2/5ths of our church out (big church... fit about 800, had a huge gym, about 10 classrooms, two dining halls), owed about $1.5 million to the new mission the ELCA set up (that they hadn't paid the last time I was in town about two years ago) and fired the preacher they had for being too liberal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutheran_C ... for_Christ

That is the "denomination" the new church is. They consider themselves the response to the liberalization of the ELCA (which has always been liberal as long as I grew up in it). I know they had people get up infront and talk about how evil gays were, even though several families that went to that church were openly gay, and that they would not stand to see their wonderful church pulled down with the idiots up in Minnesota.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Jason Harvestdancer

Quote from: "SGOS"
Quote from: "Jason_Harvestdancer"There are three branches of the Lutheran church in the US.  From largest to smallest they are ELCA, Missouri, and Wisconsin.  That is also the same order if you were to define them as basically relaxed to most radical (as radical as Lutherans can get, that is.)  So the Wisconsin Synod is both the smallest and the most rigid.

These three branches each belong to one of three world-wide branches.  The ELCA is a member of the Lutheran World Federation.  The Missouri Synod is part of the International Lutheran Council.  The Wisconsin Synod is a member of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference.  Again, that is listed by by size (from largest to smallest) and by strictness (from least to most).

Odds are, if you meet a Lutheran, he's probably ELCA.  If overseas and you meet a Lutheran, he's probably in an LWF affiliated church.

And in terms of them going crazy, they are one of the more harmless denominations, and concentrate much more on actually studying the theology.  But, on the other hand, Michelle Bachmann was a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran until she found they weren't crazy enough and switched to Evangelical.
There is also the Wartburg Synod in the US, or maybe it's under the umbrella of one of the three you named.  I think I remember my mother saying it was a small synod of German and Scandinavian origin.

No, that's actually old news about an old synod.  It has long since merged into other synods.

There are other, smaller groups than what I named, statistically insignificant.

Lutheran church bodies in North America
White privilege is being a lifelong racist, then being sent to the White House twice because your running mate is a minority.<br /><br />No Biden, no KKK, no Fascist USA!

Jorjor

Quote from: "bericks999"the one they got me on (you can read 'bout it in my intro thread) - having sex in the church/school (when I was a teenager).  


LMAO,  that definitely does not fit into the realm of acceptable behavior!

The Skeletal Atheist

I've been to both Lutheran and Methodist churches when I was younger, and I didn't really and still don't really have a problem with either, they seem mild and harmless for the most part. My father  on more than one occasion has had a beer with the Lutheran pastor when we use to go. Now the Baptist church, on the other hand, made my dad walk out in the middle of a sermon in disgust.
Some people need to be beaten with a smart stick.

Kein Mehrheit Fur Die Mitleid!

Kein Mitlied F�r Die Mehrheit!

Shiranu

I have "visited" the Bible. Twice (skimmed the "begats" and what not). It sucks. As far as holy books goes it is one of the most boring, contradictory and just plain silly in the list... shit, the Qur'an is a much better read.

I think it is YOU who might need to visit it.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

EntirelyOfThisWorld

Quote from: "Solitary"My favorite Christian religions are the Universalists and Quakers that even accept atheists.  =D>  Solitary
+1
I dated a woman who took me to a Quaker service.  This is something I would recommend for everyone, regardless of faith, or lack thereof.  I will not spoil it for those who don't know, but low key doesn't even begin to describe it.

That relationship ended when she reconnected with her Anglican roots, and became dissatisfied with my doomed soul.
Freedom is Free.  It\'s included in Democracy.  Democracy is Hard.  It involves coexisting with people who think that sayings like "Freedom is not Free" actually makes some kind of sense.

Colanth

Quote from: "treeman"There was a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, very religious.
Yet Jesus came to him saying, Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God-John 3:3.  Few churches today even know what this means, yet it
is absolutely necessary to see the kingdom of God!
Rather than visiting a lutheran church,  you may want to consider visiting THE BIBLE.
Why?  There are much better fables if you're into that thing.  (There's more objective evidence that Mickey Mouse was a real person than there is that Jesus was.)  And much of the Bible has been proven, by actual objective evidence, to be nonsense.  You should take your story into a time machine and take it back to a time when people believed that stuff.  (There's more objective evidence of time travel than there is of Jesus, too.)
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

SGOS

I don't remember the Lutheran Church of my youth wanting to insert itself into the political life of everyone else.  My parents talked about politics and religion, but they didn't mix them up.  I left home when I was 17 and moved to a small town.  That's where I was first exposed to churches where preachers were totally obsessed with the sinning of everyone else around them.  They viewed the world about them as Sodom and Gomorrah, while they themselves and their flock were an elite minority that remained pure of heart.

Of course they weren't elite, or even a minority, because every other fucking church in town thought they were the only ones that remained pure of heart while the rest of the world was falling into decay.  Being saved, and saving others was the main order of business.  Satan was suddenly lurking behind every bush, whispering into people's ears and encouraging them sin.  He seemed to be quite influential, too, as there were lots of church men and women sneaking off to have sex with the husbands and wives of others.  They would stand up and publicly confess their infidelities in church, sometimes naming names and destroying the marriages of their other partners, while they themselves gained entrance into the kingdom of God.

This was a small town, and everyone knew what everyone else was doing.  It lent an air of chaos to the place.  It was the first time I saw full blown gossip sessions, where women would confidentially expose the sinful behaviors of others, while the group would exclaim, "Oh my," or "Dear Me," with that breathless tone that denotes shock, horror, and delight at the same time.   These were the Bible fundies from one of the twenty or thirty whacked out churches that provided the town's guidance and salvation.  It was nuts.

Colanth

Quote from: "SGOS"These were the Bible fundies from one of the twenty or thirty whacked out churches that provided the town's guidance and salvation.  It was nuts.
It's small town.  During the night, you sneeze.  When you go to the general store/post office, they say "bless you".  The only thing completely private is a thought you didn't think.  (And some of the ones in the north are almost as inbred as the jokes about the south.  There hasn't been new blood in the town for generations.)
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.