Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer is making history in the Evangelical Lutheran Church as the first ever transgender bishop.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) announced in a press release that Rohrer, who uses they/them pronouns, was elected to serve a six-year term as bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod.

“It’s humbling. It’s inspiring,” Rohrer told CNN. “And I think I’m very aware that this call is bigger than me — that it’s about serving God, and it’s about … a place in history that means a lot to a lot of people.”

Rohrer has served as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in San Francisco since 2014 and was ordained during a time when the ELCA did not allow LGBTQ pastors to openly serve.

When the policy changed in 2009, Rohrer, who lives in San Francisco with their wife and two children, was among the first of seven pastors received into the ELCA.

 

“Most people’s feelings about gay and lesbian and trans people aren’t rational, and maybe as I’ve matured as a pastor, I’ve figured out that it’s feelings. People have a feeling or a fear that is compelling them to want to say no to an entire group of people,” Rohrer told Cosmopolitan in 2018. “The way to respond to that is by being our best self and by being louder than other people’s fear.”

Rohrer also told the outlet that they grew up in South Dakota, where the hardships they faced coming out as transgender inspired them to turn to religion.

“You can imagine it’s not the most fun place to figure out you’re trans,” they said. “The amount of religious abuse that people spoke near me and around me was enough to make me study religion.”

Rohrer, who has also worked with San Francisco’s LGBTQ homeless community as executive director of Welcome for the past 12 years, will be installed on Sept. 11 at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Walnut Creek, California, according to the ELCA.

The ELCA, which has 3.3 million members, is the only Christian denomination (along with the Episcopal Church) to allow transgender people to serve as clergy, according to CNN.

“I think the most important thing I can say as a queer pastor is I’m sorry. Using faith to tear other people down is not good news,” Rohrer told Cosmopolitan. “We need to all be as loud and angry as the people who want to declare that there are types of people that god can’t love. People are literally dying because of it.”

6 thoughts on “Lutheran Church Elects First Ever Transgender Bishop”
  1. What does this transgender bishop read from what Bible? This is a DISGRACE*** TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE

  2. I guess it’s s good thing we have the Lutheran and Episcopal denominations to correct God. I wonder if they still use the King James Version of the Bible to preach and teach. …something to think about: If God is going to be the final Judge, Who is going to condemn the sin of humans, and who is going to make excuses for never establishing a holy relationship with the Lord of heaven? ….think I’ll go with the winner.

  3. 1st, it’s NEVER “irrational” to stand on God’s word on any subject; 2nd it’s not “irrational” to stand on the repeatable findings of decades of science confirming the same thing God said millennia ago. What IS irrational is to stand before us & blatantly DENY the wisdom of God, and the experience of science, and tell us we’re irrational tobelieve them.
    There were sound reasons, not mere whims, for every command God gave the Hebrews through Moses during the Exodus, including all those relating to sexual behaviors, most of which encompass mental physical, and spiritual health, not only for the individual, but for the community as an whole, as well. None of those reasons has been changed or removed. All that did change is that since the crucifixion, the grace allotted to other sinners, until physical death to repent his sins is also now allotted sexual sinners rather than immediate stoning. All other aspects still pertain. Unrepentant sin puts 1 at odds with God, & His children. There are specific requirements for a bishop which are not met in this person.

  4. Are all of you completely nuts .this is so much against the Bible and God. You all should be ashamed of yourself for electing a freak of nature. May God forgive you all. And have mercy on your souls.

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