{"id":1839,"date":"2013-09-12T16:26:59","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T23:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=1839"},"modified":"2013-09-13T10:40:10","modified_gmt":"2013-09-13T17:40:10","slug":"elca-presiding-bishop-eaton-and-%e2%80%9cthe-cross%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=1839","title":{"rendered":"ELCA Presiding Bishop Eaton and \u201cthe cross\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

ELCA Presiding Bishop Eaton and \u201cthe cross\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

What kind of Lutheran is Elizabeth Eaton, the new ELCA Presiding Bishop?<\/p>\n

Outgoing Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson says of her: \u201cShe is a wise theologian committed to a strong Lutheran<\/strong> evangelical witness\u2026.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

To be sure, she\u2019s known to point to the cross:<\/p>\n

\u201cOn our own we are helpless and lost. We cannot effect our deliverance. We are, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, \u201clike prisoners who must wait for someone from the outside to unlock our cell.\u201d The death of Jesus has done that. That is our core belief. That is the faith. It is Christ and Christ crucified<\/strong> that is the unshakeable foundation of the church.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cLutherans have a history of living with paradox. There are some things that are nonnegotiable for us. But there are other things that it is possible for people who love Jesus holding the same faith together, can have very strong, very sharp disagreements, but it does not have to lead to disunity. Things like marriage or the ordering of government or certain political positions, we can and we do disagree, but we agree on the cross.<\/strong>\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Eaton affirms \u201cthe cross\u201d and<\/strong> she supports major ELCA agendas, including but not limited to, changing the ELCA constitution in 1999 to require<\/strong> an Episcopal, sacramental priesthood, supporting the 2009 decision to approve gay marriage and families, altering God-language to comply with feminist objections as found in the ELCA hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship.<\/em><\/p>\n

The problem is:<\/p>\n

What is \u201cthe cross\u201d? Don\u2019t all Christians \u201cagree on the cross\u201d? Isn\u2019t the cross \u201cthe unshakeable foundation\u201d of all Christian churches, not just Lutherans?<\/p>\n

Lutheran identity is not a matter of waving the cross more vigorously than Catholics or Baptists.<\/p>\n

Rather, Luther rediscovered that salvation is all<\/strong> God\u2019s doing. Now that cuts. It excludes\u00a0 semi-pelagianism in all its pious forms, both personal and institutional. It excludes revelation outside of the cross. It means that the only proper use<\/strong> of the cross is in proclaiming salvation in Christ alone<\/em>, through the cross alone, <\/em>by faith alone<\/em>, through grace alone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Properly used, \u201cthe cross\u201d shows the edges<\/strong> of the gospel, edges<\/strong> which offend modern sensibilities as they did medieval ones. Properly used, \u201cthe cross\u201d has necessary, real world consequences that cut.<\/p>\n

What kind of Lutheran is Elizabeth Eaton? She\u2019s like her predecessors: Hanson, Anderson, and Chilstrom. Richard Koenig, a prominent LCA Lutheran who died in 2011, put the ELCA problem succinctly:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ELCA knows all the Lutheran jargon and recites the epigrams regularly \u2014 Christ the center of the Scriptures, Law and Gospel, justification by faith alone, faith active in love \u2014 but<\/strong> in stuff coming from the headquarters, there’s no signal that anyone knows how to USE them.<\/strong>\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n


[1]<\/a> The Lutheran<\/em>, August 2013, p. 50. Bolding added for emphasis added here and hereafter.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Northeast Iowa Synod Letter, Dec. 15, 2009, Bishop\u2019s column<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Meet the Woman Who Will Lead Evangelical Lutherans: \u2018Religious\u2019 but not Spiritual\u201d Time<\/em>, Interview of Elizabeth Eaton by Elizabeth Diaz, August 18, 2013.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Richard Koenig, www.crossings.org\/Thursday\/Thur091803.htm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ELCA Presiding Bishop Eaton and \u201cthe cross\u201d What kind of Lutheran is Elizabeth Eaton, the new ELCA Presiding Bishop? Outgoing Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson says of her: \u201cShe is a wise theologian committed to a strong Lutheran evangelical witness\u2026.\u201d[1] To be sure, she\u2019s known to point to the cross: \u201cOn our own we are helpless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1839"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1841,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839\/revisions\/1841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}