Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 03:2 (Fall 2021)
Article: A Lutheran View Of Transgenderism
Author: Hans Fiene

---

Eikon 3.2 (Fall 2021) p. 16

A Lutheran View Of Transgenderism

Hans Fiene

Rev. Hans Fiene is the pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Crestwood, Missouri and the creator of Lutheran Satire, a series of comical videos intended to teach the Lutheran faith.

In recent months, a certain church body made headlines after electing and installing Meghan Rohrer as bishop of their Sierra Pacific Synod. “Evangelical Lutheran Church elects first transgender bishop,” declared NBC News’s headline.1 Not to be outdone in the vaguery department, CNN declared, “The Lutheran Church elected its first transgender bishop.”2

These headlines paint with far too broad an ecclesiastical brush. It is true that a church body calling itself “the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America” (ELCA) recently installed Rohrer as a bishop, the first election for someone identifying as transgender in that particular church body. But it is misleading to refer to the ELCA as either the Evangelical Lutheran Church or, simply, the Lutheran Church, as neither of these terms is associated with a specific church body.

While there may be only one ecclesial organization that can properly be called the Roman Catholic Church, the same cannot be said of the Lutheran Church, which has never had a pope or a unified governing body. What makes Lutherans Lutheran is not holding membership in one specific church body, but belonging to a congregation that holds to a certain confession of faith rooted in a series of writings known as the Lutheran Confessions. To be Lutheran, in a historical and theological sense, is to confess these Confessions.

Likewise, referring to the ELCA as either the Evangelical Lutheran Church or the Lutheran Church is misleading because the ELCA’s positions on numerous issues, including transgenderism, are irreconcilable with the doctrine espoused by the Lutheran Confessions. While citizens of the United States certainly have the right to form a church body and call it whatever they desire, merely calling oneself Lutheran does not actually make one Lutheran. And while new stories lauding the LGBTrailblazing of the ELCA may successfully warm the hearts of progressive readers, they do a poor job of informing those readers as to what a genuine Lutheran view on transgenderism is.

What, then, is the Lutheran position? What do the Lutheran Confessions say about the issue that has so deeply absorbed our culture in such a short period of time? The best place to look is in the words of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism.

Eikon 3.2 (Fall 2021) p. 17

Luther’s ...

You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
Click here to subscribe

visitor : : uid: ()