The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has fully embraced the LGBT community's push for inclusivity in lieu of the Bible's teachings on genders, and has placed a transgender in a key leadership position, reports say.
The Western Journal noted that as the abandonment of biblical legitimacy within hierarchical Christian organizations becomes more common, one of the major Christian churches in the United States has just elected the country's first transsexual bishop.
According to Religion News Service, the Rev. Megan Rohrer of Grace Lutheran Church in San Francisco was the first transgender to be ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2006. Rohrer became the first to work as a pastor after being assigned to Grace Lutheran in 2014.
The ECLA is one of the biggest churches in America, with over 3.3 million adherents and 8,900 congregations throughout the country. Rohrer would be the first transgender to act as bishop of a large Christian denomination in the United States.
Rohrer told RNS in a written statement: "It's an honor to be called to serve the Sierra Pacific Synod. During this time when some imagine trans people at their worst, Lutherans have once again declared that transgender people are beautiful children of God. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and my family as I accept this call."
The 41-year-old "Bishop-elect" Rohrer is a trans woman who does not seem to classify as male or female and prefers to use the pronoun "they." In 2017, Rohrer also became the first LGBT chaplain for the San Francisco Police Department.
Due to appearances on "Queer Eye" and in the pages of Time and Cosmopolitan, Rohrer has been a minor celebrity. She is lawfully married to a woman. When she came out as bisexual, Rohrer said that "she was bullied by Christians and kicked out" of her youth group. Her ordination to the ECLA in 2006 was eventually approved in 2010, after a procedure "designed to sidestep" the denomination's policy on LGBT ministers.
She tweeted to critics of her ordination, "If my election confuses you, may that confusion inspire you to notice all the other wonderful things God is up to that you may have missed. God's call extends to more people than you'd expect, in more places than you'd expect and more often than you'd expect."
She is also active in homeless initiatives and LGBT "street activism" and has written several books.
Rohrer will be the next bishop of a denomination named for one of the great fathers of sola scriptura theology, Martin Luther.
The Western Journal correspondent Lisa Cox opined: "While it sounds like Rohrer has a very big heart for what she does, it is not her capacity to serve or her value in the eyes of the Lord that is on trial here -- it is her ability to teach, and adhere to, biblical Christianity."
She argued that the heart and soul of the gospel is the redemption and not the glorification of the things mankind had struggled with before Christ.
