Welcome to Chicago

[scott3]

I would like to make a humble suggestion, however. Perhaps you LCMS guys would be polite and refrain from rude remarks about how we do things, just as ELCA people generally did during the coverage of your convention. Ask questions, to be sure, but don't be smart alecks, or that other word either.

Are humble attempts at joviality (I would say "wittiness", but alas -- this seems to be dreaming the impossible dream) also out of bounds?

[Richard Johnson]

I would like to make a humble suggestion, however. Perhaps you LCMS guys would be polite and refrain from rude remarks about how we do things, just as ELCA people generally did during the coverage of your convention. Ask questions, to be sure, but don't be smart alecks, or that other word either.

Are humble attempts at joviality (I would say "wittiness", but alas -- this seems to be dreaming the impossible dream) also out of bounds?

No, as long as they are successful. But it's day 2 of the assembly and my patience is running thin. I think Peter is on vacation this week, so you have to deal with me, and that makes me even testier.

[ptmccain]

I think Richard means the word "clunky" is out and the bell is a lovely, lovely thing.

Seriously, I like the call to order via a bell and I like the lighting of a candle.

Also, so far, I appreciate that the worship appears to be actually following an order from a hymnal. Certain other recently concluded Lutheran conventions did not have a hymnal for each delegate to use.

There, is that nice, or what?

I also complimented the chairman.
Complimented the closed captioning.
Plus, Richard is the best moderator in the whole world, next to Peter.

There.

[Maryland Brian]

I'm not sure that 50 years ago anyone, except a very small minority, believed that same-sex relationships would last 50 years -- or even 50 days. I wonder if almost 20 years ago, when D&G were written, if "practicing homosexual" meant "promiscuous behaviors" in the minds of those who wrote it?

In commenting on a recent decision of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, columnist George Will wrote in his June 25th column, (“When marriage became a ‘hate crime’”): “Marriage is the foundation of the natural family and sustains family values. That sentence is inflammatory, perhaps even a hate crime. At least it is in Oakland, Calif.”

The 9th Circuit Court – the most left-leaning and often-reversed appeals court in the land – upheld the decision of Oakland administrators to exclude pro-family speech as divisive and hateful.

In 2002, a group of African-American Christian Women working for Oakland’s city government requested permission to distribute a flyer, via the city’s e-mail system, noting that the “natural family” is the foundation of society.

Even though homosexual employees were allowed to use the system to promote a gay pride rally and similar events, administrators rejected the Christian flyer as “homophobic,” “disruptive,” and intended to “create a hostile environment.”

Moreover, their printed flyer was removed from a municipal bulletin board, with the warning that similar efforts to communicate these ideas could result in disciplinary action “up to and including termination.”

http://www.profam.org/press/wcf.pr.070629.htm

As mentioned, I don't trust those who tell me they will prevail and leave their goal ambiguous.  Where are they headed?  Are they ultimately being led to create an environment so anti-family that you could be fired at work for even bringing it up? 

Read the entire article.  Very current and rising up from the courts very near the core Good Soil leadership.

Maryland Brian

[scott3]

I wasn't sure where this observation would be appropriate, so I chose this thread.

Is it just me (I have watched almost the entirety of what has been webcast so far), but has there been very, very little floor debate or any input from the general delegation to this point (this point being prior to any debate re: sexuality) but rather a whole slew of speeches?

[Brian Stoffregen]

Is it just me (I have watched almost the entirety of what has been webcast so far), but has there been very, very little floor debate or any input from the general delegation to this point (this point being prior to any debate re: sexuality) but rather a whole slew of speeches?

I haven't watched all of the plenary sessions, but I know in Orlando, there seemed to be more "speeches" than honest debate. In fact, one speaker in 2005 said something like, "I wrote the speech about a year ago when I knew I going to be a voting member."