''The bone of contention is not "strictly about sexuality," he said, but a fundamental view of Scripture. "Either the Bible is the final authority or it is not."
A decision to ordain
actively gay clergy has caused deep fissures in the nation's largest Lutheran church group, with some traditional Lutherans saying they have been subjected to threats and retaliation as they consider breaking away.
Several disaffected members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) say the decision made at the church's national convention in Minneapolis in August could prompt a major exodus from one of America's biggest Protestant denominations. "I wouldn't even begin to tell you how many thousands [of calls] I've gotten," said Paull Spring, chairman of Lutheran Coalition for Renewal, or CORE, a national coalition based on traditional values. His group said last month that it cannot remain inside the 4.7-million-member ELCA and will form a new synod.
He is not alone.
"I am receiving every single week dozens of phone calls, e-mails, from pastors of the largest Lutheran churches in ELCA," said the Rev. Walter Kallestad, senior pastor of Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Ariz., who left the synod after having been "rostered" as a minister with the ELCA for 31 years. "I've answered hundreds ... from congregations looking to transition out of the ELCA." http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/19/dissident-lutherans-claim-bullying-over-gays/?feat=home_top5_shared