Watching

The events, according to my poor recollection are here. Skip them if you know them:

Late last summer, the Sierra Pacific Synod of the ELCA, my beloved Church body, met to elect a new bishop. I tuned in, excited they might elect Rev. Dr. Meghan Rohrer as not only the first transgender bishop of the Church, but more importantly—having met them—as a very good, forward-looking leader. Rev. Nelson Rabell-González, pastor of Misión Latina Luterana, was also on the short list of candidates. Amidst the assembly, allegations of misconduct were brought against Pastor Rabell-González. He addressed them by saying that the timing was racist, and that they should be ignored. He quickly fell off the ballot. Rev. Rohrer was elected as Bishop, to less celebration than hoped.

The Sierra Pacific Synod did eventually decide to remove Rev. Rabell-González. There are suggestions that this decision was made outside normal processes, but I cannot speak to those details. Bishop Rohrer came to explain to the congregation on a Sunday morning, and to lead worship. The date was Sunday, December 12, 2021—the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is a major festival for not only Roman Catholics in Central America, but also for the Mexican (and Mexican-American) culture as a whole.

Shortly thereafter, the Board of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, an LGBTQ+ Lutheran group, decided to remove Rev. Rohrer from its organization due to racist actions of an unspecified nature. The timing was incidental, unrelated to the events at Misión Latina Luterana. Some other members ELM were outraged; there had been no policies for membership, and this had never been done before.

Early in 2022, a listening team was appointed by the office of the Presiding Bishop. Two other synodical bishops, along with the director of the Latino Ministries Association of the ELCA, traveled to Sierra Pacific to walk alongside all those involved in this messy situation. Voices bandied about social media, some saying that nothing had been done wrong, while others said that too little action was taking place. The presiding bishop remained necessarily reserved, but assured the Church that the proper steps were being taken.

Finally, this week, the bishop’s decision was published. According to our Church body’s regulations, there is insufficient evidence to bring disciplinary action against Bishop Rohrer. At the same time, it is clear that confidence in the Bishop Rohrer has been greatly damaged. Presiding Bishop Eaton is requesting that Bishop Rohrer resign their position.

In response, the listening team has written an open letter, saying they had asked that their full report be released publicly, and asking why this was not done. The Latino Ministries Association of the ELCA has also written an open letter, complaining that no action is being taken, and noticing that Presiding Bishop Eaton neglected to use the word “racism” in the course of her response. (That letter used “they/him” as pronouns for Bishop Rohrer a number of times, rather than the “they” I have more commonly seen. I had thought the bishop’s preference was simply “they,” but could be incorrect.) Other comments of various natures have been made, but these are from official channels.

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I do not know what will happen as these things continue to develop. I do not know what should happen. I cannot even promise that I have these facts correct. But with that in mind, there are three things that I see:

1) Whether you are willing to accept this or not, Racism is the greatest sin of the United States of America throughout history. And heterosexism/binary-genderism is one the greatest sins of the Church throughout history. It sounds like the latter is almost a non-issue in these particular events, but it is still “in the air,” so to speak. Both of these problems will continue to come up in our life together as a Church in the North American context—sometimes on purpose, and others by accident. At this time, we have no ability to choose that they not be present; only whether the next time is a step forward or a step backward. We will hurt one another, and we will do so in the name of arbitrary divisions of our one Created humanity like ethnicity or color of skin or understanding of gender. And we will be called to account for when we do so, and for how we respond.

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2) The rest of the Church is watching. While we are being our (necessarily) messy selves, deciding how we want to respond to these kinds of challenges, there are other people in the world who are—more than—spectators. I am here in Bolivia, in a Lutheran World Federation church body of about 110 congregations. They are wondering how to handle the emerging issues of sexuality and gender equality. They are struggling to develop a self-identity that is Latinx and Indigenous and Lutheran at the same time. And they are watching their “Big Brother” in the North.

I have frequently heard my sisters and brothers here talk about the United States as the “real Church” or the “better Church.” This is evil, insidious theology, an affront to the priesthood of all believers, but it reflects their thinking nevertheless. The ELCA is large, with over 9,000 congregations across the United States. Our particular history is longer in duration; the Bolivian Church was officially founded only about 40 years ago, with congregations reaching back 80 years, but no longer. If they feel they do not know how to be the church “correctly…” If they look to their larger, “better” neighbor… If they see us mistreating certain people or communities, either the people they are struggling with, or they themselves… What will we be teaching them about their worth, or their neighbors’, before God?

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3) Jesus taught us many things, but two above all:

First, resurrection always comes. Period.

And second, unfortunately, death usually needs to come first.