Grace University Lutheran, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregation located kitty-corner to Superblock at the University of Minnesota, is rooted in the principle of radical love for everyone, including members of the queer community. While their beliefs about God’s love for this community are not universal to Christianity, they operate under the same principles as Christians worldwide.
Pastor Kate Reuer Welton is a pastor for Lutheran Campus Ministries-Twin Cities. Known as “Pastor Kate,” Reuer Welton works with students attending Grace University Lutheran to promote God’s love across campus, including a worship service every Wednesday night.
“What you may call a liberal or progressive nature is really God’s love,” Reuer Welton said. “God’s unconditional love for us flowing out of us to the world.”
God’s “unconditional love for us” isn’t rooted in how Reuer Welton feels. Her belief is rooted in the Bible. She finds grounding in the Bible from the creation account in the Book of Genesis, declaring that all of creation is good (Genesis 1:31, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition), to Jesus’ ministry and his greatest and second-greatest commandment to love God and neighbor (Matthew 22).
Grace University Lutheran’s message was particularly attractive to sophomore Charlie Poth. Poth attends youth night every Wednesday.
“When you go to the service, every service is started off by somebody reading a little script that says you are here, God loves you exactly how you are, and he is delighted that you are here, regardless of who you are,” Poth said.
Poth says the single most attractive thing about Grace University Lutheran is its acceptance of everyone.
“I saw something online one time where it [said], ‘I think God will be okay if I get a small part of the theology wrong, but I don’t think God will be okay if I get the love your neighbor wrong,’” Poth said.
Although it’s impossible to group every Christian denomination into one category, most traditional Christian viewpoints are against same-sex marriage. Christians opposing same-sex marriage believe so because the Bible mentions marriage as a covenant between man and woman, with no mention of marriage between the same sexes, according to The Center for American Progress.
Reuer Welton does not rule out same-sex marriage based on this line of reasoning. Much in the same way, the Book of Genesis does not list dawn and dusk as a part of God creating day and night, and there being no mention of every estuary, lake or fish in the sea God created, she said the Bible does not offer an exhaustive account of every form of human relationship or marriage.
“To treasure all the parts of God’s creation necessitates all of the ways that God has designed people… there’s that goodness in the beginning and there’s the diversity in the beginning, it’s not just binaries… we know from our own experience that it’s not just this and this there’s a lot in between,” Reuer Welton said.
Bishop Jen Nagel leads the Minneapolis Area Synod and is a former pastor of University Lutheran Church of Hope, an ELCA church in Dinkytown connected to Grace University Lutheran. She said that while she believes every relationship is loved by God, that does not include hurtful or abusive relationships.
“I think that it’s important that we should have good ethics for everybody. We should treat our partners well, we should be honest, we should be faithful. Those kinds of things, I would say for folks who are queer, and I would say for folks who are straight,” Nagel said.
And while Christian neighbors of Grace University Lutheran hold a different stance on the queer community, this is not to say their neighbors preach a message of hate. Reuer Welton said good came out of her own experience with Catholicism.
“There’s so much beauty… Most of my pastoral care stuff when I was in Divinity School happened at a Jesuit seminary… I’ve been close enough to Catholicism to really appreciate the gifts and still understand some of the distinctions,” Reuer Welton said.
But not all Christian neighbors of Grace University Lutheran stand divided on their views of the queer community. Neon Together and University Episcopal Community are student-oriented, queer-affirming communities. Intergenerational communities such as Grace: First Congregational Church, University Baptist Church, University Lutheran Church of Hope and St. Anthony Park Lutheran are all queer-affirming, and closely located to the University of Minnesota.
“We’re not an aberration, but are a part of a movement of faithful people that spans denominations,” Reuer Welton said.
Pastor Justin Lind-Ayres, a pastor who only works for Grace University Lutheran, takes special precautions in criticizing other denominations. He said he leads his church with the principles of love at the forefront of any decision and event.
“We seek to embody God’s love and share that love with the world… that’s what we seek to do,” Lind-Ayres said.
