The AP wire released information regarding the votes in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Here is the headline you might see pop up, well, everywhere:
Lutherans to Allow Sexually Active Gays as Clergy
The nation's largest Lutheran denomination took openly gay clergy more fully into its fold Friday, as leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers.
Provocative right? Also dead wrong.
This sort of language focuses on sex again. It sounds like the ELCA is now going to allow sex holidays and maybe even sexual orgy liturgies for those who are really horny on Sunday mornings. Of course this feeds into the crap that groups like the American Family Association and Americans for Truth like to spew from their venomous bung holes. "See?", they might say "Now the Lutherans have given in to a sex-obsessed society!!!" Richard Dawkins might call this a meme. I call it horrifically misinformed and horribly misleading.
Here is the same story as reported by GLAAD:
Lutherans Change Policy – Affirm Partnered Gay Ministers
Low and behold this is what the Lutherans actually voted to affirm in the bounds of the church. Here is the language as it now applies to both clergy and parishoners:
"a publicly accountable, lifelong, monagamous, same-gender relationship"
Sex was not affirmed, but a very specific kind of relationship that clearly does not add provision for "sexually active gays" in the way that the AP wire has falsely reported it. That NPR, New York Times and others would choose to publish this wire shows how long we have to go before we understand that this is about the legitimacy of a kind of relationship, and not about sexual practices.
Yes. Gay people have sex too. They actually enjoy it as much or more than as heterosexuals. Shocker. But where Johnny puts his penis or what Sally does with her vulva is not what has people attracted to the same gender in a knot. This is not what supporters of same gender relationship legitimacy and equality desire and even demand. There is no law preventing people from having sex with whomever they choose.
But there are laws in all social circumstances that do not recognize their relationships as legitimate and so, they are not equal. This is about viewing same gender relationships under the same light as we do heterosexual relationships. That is all. This is about the conviction that God has called people out of the closet, called them to serve the church, and has called them to preach and serve sacraments to the people of God.
Why would Patrick Condon of the AP write such a wrong-headed and misleading story? Perhaps it is due to the leanings of Patrick Condon who wrote the piece. Condon apparently has his own agenda as told through his relationship with a right-wing element in Minnesota during the Al Franken campaign.
Why would Condon be friendly with opposition researchers like Brodkorb? The point is that he and other political reporters earn their keep by writing news that people will read. The boss likes stories that have some heat, and one of the best ways to get political dope on a candidate is to talk–totally off the record–with opposition researchers like Brodkorb.
This is how Condon and Brodkorb scratch each other's backs. Guys like Brodkorb–former director of research for the Minnesota Republican Party–and other opposition researchers, gather anything remotely embarrassing about a candidate, package it up and pitch it to reporters from supposedly respectable news outlets like the Associated Press. They're a slimy form of PR agent, pitching stories to reporters.
The reporters, for their parts, like the slimy opposition research because it's usually packaged with all of the documentation, and the reporter gets the credit with his boss and in public for digging up the dirt.
So, a misleading piece by a less than hospitable reporter who has a past of hanging with those who would likely oppose "sexually active gays." Wonder how Get Religion will spin this one. Hopefully they spin it back to the above referenced piece by GLAAD that got it right.
UPDATE: You will note that NPR has since changed the headline to read "non-celibate clergy." This is like one fail wrapped in another. Non-celibate is another way of saying "sexually active" without using the word sex. The first time could have been an error to get in the news cycle as early as possible. This is an intentional change after the fact that is consciously misleading and ill informed. They did not affirm non-celibate clergy, the affirmed what they said the affirmed which is defined above.
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