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All letters to be published in Lutheran Partners magazine / Lutheran Partners Online must include your name and where you reside. Address: Editor, Lutheran Partners, 8765 W. Higgins Road, Chicago, IL 60631-4101; e-mail, Lutheran.Partners@elca.org, Lutheran_Partners@ecunet.org, or LUTHERAN PARTNERS (if on Ecunet/ Lutherlink). Because we wish to publish as many letters as possible and at the same time maintain some control over the length of the letter section, letters should be no more than 600 words in length. Shorter letters are preferred.

Nature of Confession
Katie Adelman’s recent article about the new Evangelical Lutheran Worship centers on “Asking Good Questions” (Nov./Dec. 2006). Since the ELW has not been put in service in the congregation to which my wife and I belong, I do not know what form or language will constitute our Confession and Absolution in its liturgies.

My question is based on the liturgy from “The Order of Morning Service” in our predecessor Lutheran hymnal named The Concordia Hymnal. I grew up on the words “...we poor sinners confess unto Thee that we are by nature sinful and unclean, and that we have sinned against Thee by thought, word, and deed.” The upshot of that was that as a confessional person from my youth up, I knew my (human) nature consisted in being full of sin and also (by nature) I was unclean before God and myself and the world at large. It matched a couple of linked sayings that were jokingly passed around in the community where I was raised: “Oh, you’re good for nothing; you’ll never amount to anything.” It fit the “sinful and unclean” of our weekly worship confession as to who we were by nature.

So, what do I and others like me have to expect will be the nature of our confession in the ELW? I hope it is more hope-filled and positive than what the Lutheran confession and absolution once was to me. I trust it will be.

L.A. Jake Jacobson
Wilsonville, Oregon

Outer Space Theology
Trolls, fairies, witches, Big Foots, Loch Ness monsters, etc. have always existed in the minds of superstitious people. With extraterrestrials (ETs), some attach great significance to questions about them since a lot of energy, time, and even science is being expended to substantiate their existence.

George Murphy believes we need an Outer Space theology (Handiwork, “Is Anybody Out There?” Jan./Feb. 2007). Maybe we would do better to be sure that we keep our revealed Christian theology intact and make it available to those who are still bound in the ignorance of scientific superstition.

Lester F. Polenz
Mansfield, Ohio

Standing on Principle
Those who object to the overall premise of David W. Glesne’s book, Understanding Homosexuality, are missing a very crucial point, which is that the church sometimes, when a basic principle is involved, must choose and stand by the right interpretation of Scripture (see Letters, Jan./Feb. 2007). Surely, there is diversity in the church, but when diversity changes the meaning of Scripture, then it must be rejected.

This applies to the present discussion of sexuality. The practice of homosexual relationships is contrary to the orders of creation as clearly implied by Jesus in Matt. 19:4-5:“Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.’” Also, the practice of homosexuality is rejected in passages in the New Testament, notably in Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 Timothy 1:9-10.

In the history of the church, scholars have given new interpretations to basic teachings of the Scriptures, but the church has had to reject such suggestions and stick with the traditional. Likewise, today, when the interpretation threatens the integrity of the scriptural understanding of marriage and the family, the interpretation must be rejected. The present ambiguous position and practice of the ELCA is not good for the health of the church.

Don Docken
Maplewood, Minnesota

Correction
The Northern Rockies Institute of Theology, an ELCA life-long learning center, is located in Great Falls, Montana. The biographical statement of one of our authors, Jessica Crist incorrectly cited the city as Billings. Our apologies.