Here is my take on the current discussion about Pastor Bolz-Weber (who, BTW, I believe, has a name that deserves respect and should not be minimized to a set of letters).
If you totally reject the ELCA's position on same-gender marriage and acceptance of gays and lesbians....
If you are offended to the pious core of your being by her use of language...
If you are uneasy with the type of people that she speaks of and are in her congregation....
If you insist that at every time and in every place the Whole and Pure Doctrine/Practice of systematic theology be on the table...
If you are disturbed by the whole idea of a "celebrity pastor," especially a Lutheran one...
Then you will never, ever be able to hear or understand what she has to say about grace, about acceptance in the Body of Christ, about forgiveness, about the Gospel and about the Church.
I am not always comfortable with everything she says and wonder if some things she says might have come unmoored from whatever "orthodoxy" is.
I am old. I have learned to live with being uncomfortable because - as I have said before in this modest forum - I am uncomfortable with those whose theology seems welded to the first four centuries of Gospel life and locked into those times or welded to the writings of our friends in the Reformation era or locked into rigid interpretations of certain passages of scripture. I am uncomfortable with those whose Lutheranism is only ecumenical on their "Lutheran" terms or whose sense of mission ignores certain civil and world problems. Sometimes those people drive me crazy and make me think that their part of the Church has lost something essential. In weak moments, I would not want them speaking to a youth gathering.
But I am able to see Gospel, grace, Lutheranism (though not my particular "type"), and value in what they say.
That's one of the problems with this life - it just has too many "ifs" and "maybes". And sometimes it's too darned uncomfortable.
It is always difficult for me to disagree with you for several reasons, not the least of which you are one of the few people on this Forum that I've met and putting a face to a name really does lead to relationship; the second reason is that we are both ELCA and while you are able to celebrate your church body, I honestly mourn what was lost.
I probably fit most of your points above. Some explanation follows:
- I suppose it was Michelle Obama who left us with the tag line of being offended to the core when she spoke of Trump's disrespect of women - yes, the same Michelle Obama who had a rapper to the White House to perform for her children (read the lyrics). I am offended by her language. I spent 20 years in a trading room. Believe me, I've heard worse. It was during this time that I went through the diakonia program and was set apart as a deacon. My colleagues were aware of what I was doing and not only encouraged me but gave me a red stole. I don't write this for bragging rights, but to share that this is a call I took - and still take - seriously. I didn't fall into the language or off-color humor yet I maintained good relationships with my colleagues and was treated with great respect. Why didn't I fall into this pattern of language? Simply because my colleagues saw me as someone whom they would consider (for lack of better word) "religious." I wanted to live up to that. Nadia Bolz-Weber is a pastor of the church. We expect more from her. Whether the Epistles wee written 2000 years ago or yesterday they are still relevant and those who follow the call to the ordained ministry, on them is placed a higher degree of behavior ... not that they're better but they are shepherds, leading God's people. Lead faithfully and act like a child of God.
- Point 3 above is what offends me to the core more than her language. Because she's bold in her language, because she is outspokenly in favor of not only same gender relationships but fluid genders, etc., because she is covered in tattoos, and because (perhaps) many of her congregation are just like her does not mean that those who criticize her are uncomfortable with people who are in her congregation. We are not country bumpkins who have never seen a woman like Bolz-Weber, who have never heard such language, who have never seen a same-sex couple. We are intelligent enough to make a differentiation, to see the fine line between behavior and people. To say that one cannot interact with those whom they are leading unless they become like them in every way simply holds no water. Leading and following are not synonymous. Again, I can only speak to my own experiences of attending parishes in the inner city and in areas of Queens that would not be considered inner city, but close to it. We had parolees in our congregation, we had a guy in prison who was allowed to come to his mother's funeral and then whisked back, we had homeless -- and all of these people were loved. One wrote that when she got out of jail she felt that she would never get rid of the smell of prison. But it was the love of the congregation that became like a perfume to her, erasing that smell of prison. We were many nationalities, many cultures, all over the economic map as well as educational map - but none of that mattered. People who lean more to the left need to delineate between behavior and the person.
- One of the beautiful aspects of the church is that we do have a faith that has been handed down through those whom God inspired -- those who put God's words into Scripture -- and the Spirit-led inspiration of the early church fathers who left us such a beautiful treasury of faith. The Reformers carried on that tradition and left us with a gift of theology that we can see paralleling the early writings of the church. Whenever the writings of the Fathers or Reformers appear as the 4th reading in For All the Saints - well, it is a joy. Just the other day an Advent prayer from the 16th century was so moving that I gave it out on small cards at our Advent Lessons & Carols service (with citation, I promise Pastor Schumacher!). We may think we are wiser today, but we aren't. We can conform Scripture to our liking, but that isn't faithfulness - or discipleship.
I fear that Bolz-Weber is no longer the fringe of the ELCA but quickly becoming the mainstream. She was not the only speaker at the youth gathering to raise eyebrows. I, too, heard her years ago and she was far more moderate than she is today in both language and theology. Perhaps her star status brought her to a new level of pastoral style. T
