US Evangelical Lutherans publish handbook on gender identity to welcome the LGBTQIA+ community to church life

By Karen Faulkner - Posted at Worthy News:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has published a handbook on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression to “affirm God’s love for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities,” the Christian Post reports. The publication is part of an ELCA effort to welcome and include members of the LGBTQIA+ community to all aspects of church life.

Written by Lutheran Ministry ReconcilingWorks, the handbook asserts: “Many LGBTQIA+ people have learned by experience that they are not truly welcome in church, even in churches that state: ‘All are welcome here!’

The handbook offers advice to congregants on how to approach people from the LGBTQIA+ community and explains gender identity as “a person’s innate, deeply felt psychological identification as a man, woman or another gender, which may or may not correspond to the sex assigned to them at birth. Gender identity is different from the term ‘gender’, which is typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones.”

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HT: Sermon Audio