MICHAEL ROOT - DEAN, COLLEAGUE, AND FRIEND

When I joined the faculty of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary two years ago, among those who offered a warm welcome was Dr. Michael Root. As Academic Dean he introduced me to academic life at Southern Seminary. I wrote to Dr. Root recently expressing my best wishes and support. Now, I have to say that I have bitter/sweet feelings about Dr. Root's move from Lutheranism to the Roman Catholic Church. Bitter because as a lay theologian he provided (still does) an important and instructive Lutheran voice, especially in ecumenical matters. His recent period of deep discernment, I believe, is the continuation of a journey he has been on for some time. He said as much. I celebrate Dr. Root's move because I do not believe that one's everlasting salvation rests with a Lutheran identity, and I find reason to celebrate if people, who find difficulties with what some Lutherans teach and live out, find a church home elsewhere. A majority of those leaving the ELCA, it would seem, are not indicating a destination. Many may be leaving the church of Christ altogether (The ELCA has lost three quarters of a million people since its inception).

I have blogged before about one friend who moved from Lutheranism to the Roman Catholic Church. Professor Stanley Hauerwas, who recently became Anglican after nearly a lifetime in the Methodist Church, (Third Way Magazine) commented on another Lutheran who famously became a Roman Catholic. "When Richard Neuhaus was going to become a Roman Catholic, there was this lovely moment when [his fellow Lutheran] Robert Wilken was trying to talk him out of it and said, 'There are many rooms in our Father's house, Richard.' And Richard said, 'Yes, but some of them are better furnished than others.'" I grew up in the neighborhood of Holy Ghost Catholic Church, Opelousas, Louisiana. Holy Ghost was the largest black RC parish in the nation in the 1960s and 70s with over 10,000 members. There were many rooms in that particular parish where folks very dear to me gathered. Many of my school classmates and teachers were Roman Catholics. My father was a member of Holy Ghost Parish. At a young age I came to respect a lot about Catholicism because I saw how so many around me ordered their lives based on the teachings of that Church. In the 1980s I became an Oblate of St. John's Monastery, Collegeville, Minnesota following the Rule of Saint Benedict. I might have joined my dad some years ago, but I did not because of my support for the ordination of women. Cheryl Pero, who recently completed a PhD in New Testament from The Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, journeyed toward ordination while I was enrolled in seminary. There were several other woman who entered the ministry in the late 70s and early 80s. Over the years I came to believe that excluding women from ordination followed a biblical hermeneutic rooted in sexism. Sexism, like racism, is a sin. And no matter how hard we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is what it is, wrong. Over the years, I have found powerful motivation to stay in the ELCA, as have others, and for different reasons.

It would be decidedly surprising if we would be spared a labor for the truth of the Word of God in a world of rapid change. To move through such times with discernment is the calling of church theologians and lay people alike.