Click above for the best summary, via AP. Briefly, the Lutherans have said for years that they welcome gay members, but that they won't marry them or ordain them. (At least not officially; Fr. Anonymous knows plenty of gay Lutheran pastors and more than a few Lutherans whose same-sex unions have been blessed in church. But not officially.)
Anyhoo, after years and years and YEARS of discussion, they took a vote. Rumors of schism were in the air; Ann Tiemeyer's voice cracked with emotion; protesters in rainbow scarves seated themselves up front and wouldn't move. And the ELCA Churchwide Assembly didn't move, either. For better or worse, Lutherans are left with a policy of mild hypocrisy, looking faithful to some and cowardly to others.
To the Egg, they just look like one more out-of-touch church group, run by the kind of Baby Boomers who like to pretend they were at Woodstock, but were in fact too chicken to leave the suburbs.
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