Jesus wept,

I too wept

Each morning I pass by photographs and church baptismal and marriage documents of several of my ancestors which hang framed on my wall. During these past weeks, I have wept as I think about these people and the current situation within a number of ELCA Lutheran Churches, most specifically my home and ancestral church. My ancestors were part of the core of German (Bavarian) immigrants who met in their homes and formed St. Paul's Lutheran Church. It is that same church in which I received my religious training as a growing youth.

The current situation at St. Paul's is similar to that being played out in an unverified number of Lutheran congregations throughout the USA. In the cases with which I am familiar through information published by my Northwest Synod and shared in our Church Forums, it appears to me that the scenarios are being led by the individual pastors. I believe this is directly opposite to the ELCA Constitution which states that the scripture is our denominations basis for faith, but we also claim that this scripture always is open to interpretation based upon any new information that may be discovered from generation to generation.

Today we know so much more about the accurate nature of sexual orientation, specifically there are countless scientific studies easily available on the web or in libraries which have been published in the last 50 years. I believe it would be negligent and irresponsible for any one of us to ignore this information and specifically select a few statements of scripture that seem to address this orientation to be the authoritative word for all time. After years of interpretive Bible study, I am quite content to draw upon these "words" to form my opinions, but I believe it very dangerous to specify specific verses to justify my stance.

Jesus said nothing about the sexual behavior now known as homosexuality. In fact, Jesus went out of his way to dine and associate with people with whom the church judged, condemned and rejected as sinners, even though Jesus never referred to them as such. Jesus himself interpreted the scriptures of the day, and in some cases, even acted contrary to the normative interpretation of scripture that had been in force for centuries. If we are to use the same criteria to evaluate Jesus that current opposition pastors use to claim the ELCA has "endorsed heresy", then in my opinion, we would have to consider Jesus a heretic in his own right.

Yes, it saddens me greatly when I read about our Lutheran leaders taking great delight in dividing and making highly inflamable public statements. While I know there is little or no chance that I can change anyone's opinion as to who is "right or wrong" (we all need to make our own decisions), I urge congregants to diligently pray for openness, understanding, and acceptance. It is our Lutheran doctrine to agree to disagree and to love and encompass all.

In the ELCA, each congregation selects, calls and votes on the acceptance of its pastoral leader. I believe the current national ELCA vote does not change that, it does allow for the current understanding and inclusion of all our brothers and sisters. as in all these debates, this will certainly lead to further legal debate and decisions. I do not see a congregation such a St. Paul's, in the near future, calling a gay or lesbian pastor.

Neither do I see a person of that persuasion accepting such a call here.

But most of all, I do pray for the openness of minds, hearts, understanding and peaceful discussion between all members, not for divisiveness and public rhetoric. I weep for my home church and my ancestor's beliefs and hard work. The world is also watching, and as a whole, I believe weeping.

John A. Wott

Formerly of Clyde

Seattle, WA

Inheritance tax

a fair tax

To the editor,

In your Feb. 24 issue was a report about the recent appearance in Clyde of gubernatorial candidate John Kasich.

I would like to focus on a part of this story; His use of the term "death tax".

Actually, what we have is an inheritance tax. There is no such thing as a death tax. Dead people don't pay taxes. In fact, dead people don't do much of anything.

The term "death tax" is an emotionally charged term, purposely used by the likes of Mr. Kasich, to garner support for eliminating the inheritance tax. This is a tax that people pay on wealth that they acquire through no effort of their own, but rather simply because of the circumstances of their birth.

We now live in a nation where 20 percent of the people control 80 percent of the wealth. The trend is an ever increasing income disparity between the rich and the poor. This is an inexorably festering cancer in our society. I suspect it is an underlying cause of the unrest of those in the newly evolved Tea Party movement.

The inheritance tax should not be eliminated, as Mr. Kasich and his privileged friends would like. Rather it should be substantially increased. It's called fairness.

Carl G. Sherer

Green Springs