Lutheran Priests Come Out of the Closet

Although I'm no longer a Lutheran (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, when I was), I'm proud of the 83 Lutheran clergy who came out of the closet at the national church's biannual Assembly taking place in Chicago this week. The Lutheran Church has been grappling with what to do about its gay priests for years.

As it stands now, gay priests are welcome to lead parishes, but must remain celibate, and over the past few years a number of priests within the Lutheran Church have been defrocked for entering into same-sex relationships. The 83 pastors listed within the "coming out letter" distributed at the assembly included gay ministers now serving, those awaiting their own congregation, and those removed since the church-wide assembly in Orlando in 2005, where a move to suspend the celibacy requirement failed to get a majority vote.

For more information on this, and on Gay Lutherans in general, check out Lutherans Concerned, an excellent for you gay Luthies!