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Originally Posted by boigrrrlwonder
 Don't mean to change the topic, but I've been thinking about this a lot.
I've recently been re-exploring Christianity. I was raised Lutheran. Attended Catholic schools. Rejected Christianity. Did a brief stint as a militant atheist. Became a Unitarian Universalist and became really active in the church. (During this period I really explored Paganism and still identify with parts of it.) Had a kid. Realized the UU churches around me were not compatible with my parenting. Mostly stopped attending church. Through my interest in Paganism, became interested in finding meaning in my natal tradition. Came across Marcus Borg's work. Learned more about the Emerging church movement. Became a Christian again. At this point, I want to start going to a church again. Part of me wants to go back to a Lutheran church, since that was the tradition in which I was raised. I like the idea of returning to my natal tradition. However, Lutherans officially have very different beliefs than I do. Now, for me, the ritual aspect is more important than the beliefs - however, it goes back to the kid thing - is this what I want my kid to learn? A community I really want to be a part of? Not to talk about finding a Lutheran church that supports my parenting. I was wondering if anyone else has these thoughts and how you have navigated this kind of conflict. |
There are definitely Lutheran denominations that are REALLY conservative (some of my relatives are Missouri Synod for example, which I've heard is super conservative, no women ministers, closed communion, pretty literal bible interpretation, etc.)
ELCA tends to be more on the mainline to liberal side though (though I'm sure it differs from church to church.
I do know that women can be ministers, there is open communion, and some while not every church is, there are open and affirming ELCA churches (I know a while ago they were deciding as a whole whether gay people could be ordained or something, I don't know what they decided though).
When I was christian I went to an ELCA church for a while. I remember one sermon was about Ghandi's "Be the change" quote which I felt was especially inspiring. I also remember talking to the minister about the historical context of the book of Revelation, and being relieved that he knew about apocalypse being a particular genre. There's also a book I used to really like by a Lutheran minister called "The Rapture Exposed" that De-bunks all of the "left behind" stuff.
Another suggestion might be to look at an Episcopalian church. When I was Christian and attending a Lutheran Church I attended an Episcopal church at the same time (I was Lutheran on Sunday and Episcopalian on Tuesday!) and found a lot of the tradition and liturgy to be very similar (I also found it to be quite similar to the Catholic church as well). I also found them to be slightly more liberal than the Lutheran church (which I considered a good thing).
