With a storm raging outside my window right now, I am reading blogs. I love to find something new when I am spending time on the computer. Sometimes I find a new Tae Kwon Do move or a new movie that I have not seen or even a new word. That is what I found today as I roamed the infinite space that we call the Internet.
There is a movement within Lutheranism that calls themselves orthodox Lutheran. If we look at the word orthodox, we find from the Greek that orthos means "right, true, or straight" and doxa means "praise or worship." So the word orthodox really means right, true or straight worship, but it also means "having the right opinion." (I get this information off of Wikipedia. I know that source is not academic, but for our purposes here, it will suffice.)
As I read the blogs, and I cannot remember which one this comes from, but I found something new about these so called orthodox Lutherans. They are really not orthodox. They do not want right worship or having the right opinion, but this movement is about having the same opinion. Hence, they are not orthodox but HOMOdox. Homo means same and and that is what they want. The only thing these Lutherans want is for everyone to believe and think the same way, or I should say think and believe their way.
I don't know about everyone else, but the diversity of theological thought is a good thing. We have diversity in the natural world and it helps us understand more about the world. Therefore, diversity in theological thought helps us understand more about the divine. Having a robust dialogue about the divine gives us all a better understanding of God and our relationship with God. But the key word in that last sentence is dialogue. We must have a two way conversation where each person is willing to come away from that conversation changed. If we do not have a two way form of communication, then it is just dueling monologues and we all lose. Moreover, if we were all the same, if we all looked the same, acted the same, thought the same, think how boring the world would be!
So, every time I see the word orthodox, I will begin to be skeptical!
4 comments:
Jerry, You must not have been paying attention when, a couple of years ago (seems like hundreds of yeas a go) a fellow pastor said in one of our staff meetings, "Diversity is evil"
Pastor Ray
It does seem like years ago when we were blessed with being called the devil incarnate by such "good people!!" One of those "good people" are taking his church out of the ELCA and the other's web page is off line and has been for months. Who knew? God bless!
Good commentary on the
'Orthodox' among us.
Just another breed of pharisaism.
No matter what they choose to call themselves, it's just rebranding homophobia.
And their theological arguments?
The notion that they have the confessions behind them?
A retired ELCA bishop is a member of my congregation, and we agree that these 'neo-orthodoxians' believe in salvation not by works, but by 'correct' doctrine..what they construe as correct doctrine.
Somehow, there's always a meticulous 'correction' in their thinking. Sheesh! Lord protect us from such scrupulosity!
I asked my brother (a retired ELCA pastor with Word Alone)why they are just coming up with this word
"orthodox" in criticizing the August CWA decisions, and he could not answer. I think that they will not allow God to call to ministry whomever God wants to call, and that is blasphemy!
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