Your article on the vote of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), meeting in convention in Minneapolis last week, may have given your readers the wrong impression. In fact most Lutherans, and every other major Lutheran church body in America, including Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, have rejected the position on homosexual ordination that the ELCA adopted last week. We are saddened at the decision of our brothers and sisters and hold that it is contrary to the clear language of God’s Word found in the Scriptures.

We pray for those members of the ELCA who suddenly find themselves in a church body that no longer values the Bible as the sole and final authority in matters of faith and life. Ironically, while your Aug. 22 article is titled “Lutheran Church expands pulpit,” the effect of the ELCA’s action might better be described with the headline “Lutheran Church empties pews.”

Rev. Alan Daugherty

Spokane