After Kelli and Crystal’s presentation, I felt that I had gained a better understanding of the Lutheran faith – however, I also began to question some of the things I was being told. I got the impression from Kelli and Crystal that when talking to the Pastor of their church, everything he said was kind of a “well. I’m not exactly sure but this is what I think about it…” type of a thing, which may be a general characterization of Lutheranism. It seemed very odd to me that Lutherans would form a larger group like the ELCA in which they try to determine uniform beliefs because that seemed like a very “Catholic” thing to do. Since Catholicism is supposedly the only universal church, and since Lutheranism is not universal in the sense that it has uniform ideas, in some ways I would understand how someone who’s a Lutheran may not be able to speak on behalf of their church about certain beliefs, but instead only from their own beliefs. I think that it must have been very difficult for Kelli and Crystal to determine what information was a universal belief of their church, and not just their pastor’s opinion.
I really enjoyed the segment of Kelli and Crystal’s presentation about women in their church. For a long time now, one of my biggest concerns/complaints about the Catholic Church is the role of women. A lot of people defend women not being priests based on tradition. I realize that Catholicism is based basically entirely on tradition, but this is one tradition that I see no point in keeping. However, the Lutheran faith does ordain women, and while there has been some controversy over the issue, it still seems to be a widely accepted Lutheran concept. I was kind of surprised to hear that women were the ones who had the most trouble with women pastors, and part of me still doesn’t believe it. In some ways I think it’s a conspiracy by the men who are not in favor of women pastors and thus project their beliefs onto women parishioners. However, that’s just a theory. It’s very possible that many women who do their best to make sure everyone thinks there are the most Christian and pious women, are upset by women who “one-up-them” and actually become pastors. If this is the case, I find it quite ridiculous. I was also surprised that there has been such a controversy about ordaining homosexuals. Since Catholicism has basically given a copout answer on homosexuality, I wouldn’t be shocked to hear about such a controversy in Catholicism. However, I always thought that the Lutheran church would be more open-minded about this issue.
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Pastor Jay was not exactly sure on only a few items, not everything we talked about. There are some things in the Lutheran church that are controversial just like in many faith traditions. Lutheranism itself may not have universal ideas, but the ELCA does. I do not know how long Pastor Jay has been preaching so if he has not been in practice for that long that may be why he does not know the answer to every question. I am sure you can talk to some Catholics and they also might not know about some of the issues in their faith tradition or necessarily agree with them. I know one thing that Pastor Jay was not sure on was abortion. The fact that Lutheran pastors can marry and Catholic priests cannot, may have something to do with his belief in this. He mentioned that if his wife’s life was at risk, he would much rather have her live than a child he has never met. I am not going to say my feelings on this but Catholic priests do not have that same connection. That is just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on women being ordained. It is one tradition that does not need to be kept. In my opinion females can do just as good of a job as men at preaching and I have actually seen a woman pastor preach and I was very impressed. She is very easily to relate to and that makes church more inviting.
I look forward to hearing about your presentation on Catholicism because I am one of the few non-Catholics here but am interested in some of their beliefs.