Lutheran Magazine’s Advisers Criticize Bishops : Blocking of Sex Articles Stirs Criticism

An advisory board that oversees the editorial integrity of The Lutheran, the magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has chastised the denomination’s bishops for blocking publication of two articles on homosexuality, church officials say.

The 10-member board, headed by William Chamberlin of the University of Florida, said it was concerned “that there may be a lack of understanding (by the bishops) of the proper role of the church periodical” and that the result of the bishops’ action could be “an erosion of trust” in the 5.3-million-member denomination.

The censorship incident grew out of a growing debate within the new church, sparked by the announcement by three seminarians at Pacific Lutheran Seminary in Berkeley that they are homosexual and would seek ordination to the church’s ministry.

In response to the debate, the presiding bishops of two of the three predecessor churches, which merged to officially form the ELCA on Jan. 1, wrote opinion pieces on the topic for the new denomination’s magazine, The Lutheran.

But although the articles--by the Rev. James Crumley of the Lutheran Church in America and the Rev. David Preus of the American Lutheran Church--were “set in type and at the printer,” according to Edgar Trexler, editor of The Lutheran, the church’s bishops asked the two to withdraw the articles.

“It disturbs me that somehow it was the feeling among the bishops that the discussion ought to be limited to what they are saying (in) the statement they are putting out,” Trexler said.

“It was not so much what they did as it is that they did not understand why there was a problem with what they did,” he said.

“The bishops think they found a strategy that allowed them to do what they wanted without either forcing a confrontation with me or suggesting some collaboration with them. My response to them is, manipulation is still manipulation.”

The advisory board said in its statement that Trexler is “properly concerned over this intervention in the publishing of the magazine” and pointedly told the bishops that their action “runs counter to the spirit” of statements on editorial policy and integrity that are to guide the magazine.

It said a key role of the magazine is to provide “responsible expression about relevant problems, needs and purposes of the (church’s) common life” and to “address the total constituency of the ELCA in all its diversity.”

It is the second incident involving censorship on issues of human sexuality to hit mainline Protestant denominations in the past month.

In late March, Abingdon Press, the United Methodist Publishing House, announced it had canceled publication of Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong’s book “Living in Sin?” because it might aggravate divisions in the church over the issue of human sexuality, especially homosexuality.

The book originally had been commissioned by the Methodist publisher.

In mid-April, however, Harper & Row said it would publish the book and announced that it will be in bookstores in mid-May.