That would be Lutheran bishop of Stockholm Eva Brunne on the left. Eva is in a 'registered and blessed' homosexual partnership. She and her 'partner' have a child conceived through artificial insemination.
Wasn't there another famous Eva Braun? I wonder if they are related...
UPDATE: Here's an interesting article by Wm. Tighe on the Lutheran Church in Norway
RELTIH!
ReplyDeleteWho are the two other female bishops in the center and on the right?
ReplyDelete:( I find this sad ... I guess ML didn't think it will "progress" into this
ReplyDeleteIf Martin Luther were alive today he'd be rolling over in his grave.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, Father? I know you're only human, and that nobody finishes in their progress towards sainthood in this life, But I would have thought you'd find this sort of ad hominem guilty by association twaddle to be beneath you.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see my circa 1991 couch has a second life.
ReplyDeleteWhy are they so ugly?
ReplyDeletearkanabar
ReplyDeleteFather is only pointing out the logical implications of sola scriptura i.e. I get to decide what the Bible Means and how apart from the One TRUE FAITH our interpritation of scripture can go waaaaaaaaaaaay off piste
Cool, you run the Catholic blog equivalent of "The People of Walmart"
ReplyDeleteI know you're only human, and that nobody finishes in their progress towards sainthood in this life, But I would have thought you'd find this sort of ad hominem guilty by association twaddle to be beneath you
ReplyDeleteIs not homosexuality unquestionably contradictory to the teachings in the foundational document of Christianity?
You just have to be prepared when you throw eggs you may get a return volley of grenades.
ReplyDeleteJD Curtis. This is not an ad hominem attack. They're women.
ReplyDeletePlease don't tar us all with the same brush. Some of us in the Reformation tradition remain orthodox and adhere to the ancient traditions and teachings of the church catholic regarding sexuality and the proper ordering of creation.
ReplyDeletePaddy Rooney: Be that as it may, you do so only because you each decide to. As long as you profess a belief that everyone should read and interpret the Bible for himself, logically you must accept that any interpretation is as good as yours because without an authority, who is to say who is right? Of course, most people don't take that profession to its logical conclusion. Most people say something like "Well some things are obviously wrong and some things are obviously right, and the rest are sort of a gray area where we can disagree." But there is no basis for this position. Unfortunately, "The loony people are obviously wrong" isn't a real argument.
ReplyDeleteFourth grade humor persists on this blog, but more mean-spirited. Eva Braun joke. Lovely. (Father, wasn't there a hateful, violent, anti-Muslim nutcase who killed a lot of people in Norway and used to be a visitor to your blog? What's that...all of a sudden you're AGAINST guilt by association?? As well you should be -- in other people's cases, not just your own.)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know, it's just a joke. We can mock others all we want and it's just a joke and nobody should ever take offense, not even when you make an Eva Braun joke. Crazy version of Christianity you sell (give away for free) here, Father.
Matthew, you've asked, "Why are they so ugly?" Seriously? Is that the Christian in you speaking?
Steve: Eva Braun? I was thinking of the wife of the inventor of the electric shaver--who the heck were you thinking of?
ReplyDeleteThis is why I am an ex-Lutheran.
ReplyDeleteI come from a family of Lutherans, was baptized Lutheran, confirmed Lutheran and remained Lutheran for 56 years. Finally, I woke-up after their August 2009 convention.
If Luther could have seen the future in a dream before nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenburg church door, there would be no Lutheran church today.
20 months Catholic now. Sanity (not to mention the truth) has been found at last.
Do like these teachers in the U.K told their students http://tinyurl.com/3n3wr7w
ReplyDeleteI can see your point Father, they do look rediculous.
ReplyDeleteJust an afterthought, I really like their liturgical colors.
ReplyDeleteWhile I enjoy your blog from time to time this was a rather low blow... No one among Lutherans identifies the Swedish Church as the exemplary model of Lutheran Confession and Practice any more than we might point to one of Rome's fringe and say "they are all like that." I have a deep affection and abiding respect for Rome and for the past two Popes especially. I believe that the current Pope has an abiding affection for and respect for those Lutherans who honor their confessions and practice in accord with them. It is a cheap shot to pull out the odd and strangoids among us and say "Look at those Lutherans..."
ReplyDeletePastor Peters, with respect, the Lutheran Church of Sweden is hardly a "fringe" Lutheran group. It is the largest Lutheran body in the Lutheran World Federation. If anything it could be considered theologically mainstream and representative of contemporary Lutheranism, with it's faith and practice - including it's position on issues of human sexuality- perfectly consistent with the ELCA, the largest Lutheran body in the USA.
ReplyDeletePastor Peters, how is the Swedish Lutheran Church's espousal of homosexualism any different from that of the position of the main Lutheran denomination in the USA--not to mention the Episcopal Church of the USA and the Church of England--both of which the ELCA are in full communion? Rather than the Bishop of Stockholm being 'fringe' it seems she is mainstream.
ReplyDeleteWhen I put it in italics, I was quoting Arkanaber
ReplyDeleteI got your back pal ;)
You miss my point. Those Lutherans whom you identify (Swedish Church and the ELCA) have purposefully left the fold of the Confessions and their practice is in no way reflective of those Confessions. It is not the Confessional identity that has changed but these folks. I will readily admit that they are a scandal to Lutheranism and offensive to our Confessions and history. My point was that this is not who Lutherans are. It may be who the Swedes are and the ELCA but that is not reflective of Lutheran identity and confession and these groups would admit that the have chosen paths that diverge from and even conflict with what Lutherans have readily believed and practiced up to the mid-20th century. You can certainly judge them as pretty bad Lutherans but to look at them and say this is what the Lutheran Confessions are about and Lutheran practice has been over its history, that is red herring.
ReplyDeleteFather, you are being disingenuous. The VERY FIRST COMMENT on this post inferred your attempt to connect this poor stupid woman and the mistress of the leader of the Third Reich. She was in all likelihood given her name, and doesn't deserve to have you draw that connection on such a basis. It's egregiously irrational discourse, and just a bit too uncharitable for me.
ReplyDeleteNow, if you'd pointed out the Gay Brownshirt connection, that wouldn't have bothered me. But this sort of specious, stupid, irrational attack sets my teeth on edge, the more so when it comes from somebody I respect.
Iniquity always has a face.
ReplyDeleteArkanabar - you're happy with the Gay Brownshirts jibe, but not a humorous name link that suggests that Bishop Brunne might be part of the Gay Brownshirts?
ReplyDeleteI don't get it.
I'm not mad at the girls. Just the nature of Protestantism.
ReplyDeleteFreedom of religion and property rights apply.
As they do to us.
As long as the Protestants don't try to tell us how to run the church, we can all get along.
Pastor Peters--Lutheran theology and moral teaching develops does it not? You are not stuck in the sixteenth century are you?
ReplyDeleteIf it develops--what authority have you to determine which is authentic development and which is not?
Why should Bishop Brunne and the ELCA not be the authentic voice of modern day Lutheranism? Just because you say so?
And do they not claim to be the authentic interpreters of the Lutheran faith today? Certainly the liberal Anglicans I know argue such.
Either they are the authentic voice of Lutheranism today or they are not. Can you tell me why they their expression of Lutheranism is necessarily wrong and yours is right?
With regard to the last comment, the Church of Sweden still accepts the Augsburg Confession as "authoritative," and all its ordinands have to subscribe to it, so on what basis can an outside onlooker decide (or accept the statement of a "confessionalist" Lutheran) that the Church of Sweden is "not Lutheran" or "no longer Lutheran?"
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, this article on mine, on Norway
http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=12-06-061-r
demonstrates how adroit, if speciously so, liberal Lutherans can be in invoking the (general rather than specific) support of Lutheran doctrine for their own purposes>
The Norwegian counterparts of these Swedish flaminicarum aren;t much better; see the photograph here:
ReplyDeletehttp://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_over_norske_biskoper
Father -- I can leave the gay brownshirts jibe alone. It would have helped if you'd drawn out the connection a bit, perhaps. As I said in the combox of your follow-up post, rhetorical cheap shots like that set my teeth on edge.
ReplyDeleteHi, since Norway has come up: I'm a Norwegian Catholic with some knowlege of the Lutheran church in my country. And ant the moment the female bishops are on average not worse, actually, I would rather say better, than their male colleagues. While the introducion of female pastors has been a difficult process in the Lutheran churches, a good case can be made for it, and it is now almost universally approved of. It's not like in our tradition where it is of course impossible.
ReplyDeleteThe spiritual harvest of the "reformation" is manifest!
ReplyDelete