The statue in my friend's garden is St. Francis.I got a request from one of my very best friends...in an e-mail:

“Jerral,  I need some of your words; calm, nonagressive, non-confrontational words.  During lunch today, a guest  stated that members are leaving the church because the high leadership of the church (Lutheran) decided to allow homosexuals to pastor churches.  I would like to write a letter to the news letter of the church and have read some pretty good blogs from you on the subject.  If you feel like writing a paragraph or three, I would like your help.  That's all, “

So, I wrote:

Lutherans and all other Christians are called to put into actual, day-to-day practice Jesus’ suggestions for relating to other people. As a matter of fact, his best known statement about responding to others is known as the “Golden Rule.” It’s not a name Jesus gave to the practice, but it’s not a bad label. His suggestion is that we should relate to other people in exactly the way we would like them to relate to us. The “rule” doesn’t say we should expect other people to see the world the way we see it. In no way does the “rule” say the responsibility is ours to decide and declare which ways of being human are appropriate for other people. In Matthew 7:12 Jesus said , “Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you...do you even so to them.” The New English Bible translation says, “Always treat others as you would like them to treat you.” Perhaps beginning with verse one of Chapter seven is a good idea: “Pass no judgement, and you will not be judged.”

Some of the things Jesus did NOT say: “Do to others the things they do to you;” “Do to others first before they get a chance to do to you;” “Wait and see how others treat you, and then give them the same kind of treatment.”

Perhaps it is time for Lutherans to set the right example before the world, and especially before the rest of the Christian community, in the matter of human sexuality. We reject outright many of the laws in the Levitical Code. None of us, for example, believe a “woman caught in adultery” should be stoned to death. Yet many in the Christian community believe they should decide for other people whom it is appropriate for them to love, and whom they may marry. Because more than half of all marriages in American end in divorce (obviously, many others fail but don’t end in divorce), it is clear that many people are notoriously bad at picking life partners for themselves. It is time for Lutherans to do to others in this matter of human sexuality what we want them to do to us. Don’t judge. Leave the matter of loving and marrying and mating to “the other,” just as we expect “the other” to do to us. It’s a simple suggestion, this Golden Rule. It’s easy. It applies to Sunday School teachers and pastors and music directors and organists and to every soul that wanders into our churches off the street.

It has been suggested that the reason many people are leaving the Lutheran church is that the denomination has officially sanctioned the appointment of gay and lesbian persons to be pastors of Lutheran Churches. Perhaps the persons who leave the church for that reason have failed to understand the heart of the Gospel. All means all.