Gays, Lesbians, and Lutherans

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Just when you've talked yourself into thinking it might not be so bad to belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) after all, the church comes out with another study on sex. This time it's from the Division for Outreach (DO), by way of the Gay and Lesbian Outreach Study Team, and it's called, "Congregational Ministry with Gay and Lesbian People." Actually, the DO report isn't really about sex at all, or, more precisely, it doesn't talk about sex. The report's authors, like Nice Christians everywhere, think it very bad form to talk about sex when you talk about gays and lesbians. You should talk instead--you should talk only--about discrimination, persecution, and being inclusive.

The ELCA's skittishness about sex talk is understandable. It has twice in this decade issued study guides on sexual morality in general, and both times

has been badly burned. The first study was so latitudinarian on all forms of sexual relations short of bestiality--as long, of course, as they occurred in (unspecified) "committed relationships"--that the resulting storm of …