1. BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, sits at the right hand of the Father and rules over all things in heaven and on earth. He has poured out the Holy Spirit to lead his people into the truth and promises to be with them until the end of the age. In practice: Be hopeful - not because we Christians are wise and faithful, but because Christ is wise, faithful, and ruler of all.

2. THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD: We hear God's own voice in the human words of the Bible - even though these words are from a time and place different from our own. In practice: God has the right to have the Bible read openly in church - even when God's likes and dislikes disagree with our own.

3. THE WORD OF GOD IS SPOKEN TO "ME" WITHIN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE CHURCH: The principle of "Scripture alone" does not mean, "I, by myself, am the interpreter of the Bible, according to my ideas and experiences." The Bible is sufficient, but I am not. In practice: The right of other Christians, past and present, to be heard when I read and interpret Scripture must be respected.

4. THE WORD OF GOD IS "LAW" AND "GOSPEL": Life "according to the flesh" is judged and condemned under the Law. Sinners - but not sin - are justified in the Gospel by grace through faith. In practice: Lutherans aren't surprised when we find God's way of ordering creation is a problem to live with. The struggle of the homosexual is in no way unique or different from the struggle of any other Christians against the world, the devil, and their own sinful flesh.

5. THE ONLY OLD TESTAMENT LAWS THAT APPLY TO CHRISTIANS ARE THOSE AFFIRMED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT: An example: the New Testament does not forbid you to play football with bare hands, even though Leviticus 11:6-8 says that touching the skin of a dead pig makes you unclean. A contrasting example: Leviticus 18:22 says: "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." The New Testament affirms this law in 1 Cor. 6:9-11 (ESV): "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality… will inherit the kingdom of God." In practice: Old Testament laws don't all apply to Christians. The New Testament decides which ones do.

6. THE GOSPEL IS NOT: "God accepts me and wants me to accept and affirm what I am, and calls on others to accept and affirm what I am." In practice: love the sinner and hate the sin.

7. THE GOSPEL IS: "God accepts me and wants me to reject and deny what I am, and calls on others to accept and affirm not what I am, but what I will be in the kingdom." In practice: the Gospel is, "Your sins are forgiven."

8. "WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS FREEDOM!" (2 COR. 3:17 - PART 1): Freedom means we are pronounced free from condemnation under the Law. The Spirit thereby frees us to fulfill (not skip) the moral requirements of God's Law - under the new commandment from our Lord to love one another. In practice: Spirit-led freedom flows from a broken, contrite heart that admits God's judgments are true.

9. "WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS FREEDOM!" (PART 2): We are no longer slaves to the Law, but free children of God. The Holy Spirit gives us freedom to interpret new situations and (sometimes) to do what we were not permitted to do before. The Spirit gives us this freedom as a share in the Son's freedom for the Father. In practice: Spirit-led freedom allows us to do what we please, because we are pleased to do what pleases God.

10. "WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS FREEDOM!" (PART 3): Our freedom has changed, but nature has not changed. My freedom can only break down if I close my eyes to the created order - for example, if I equate my desires with "the way God created me." "All things are lawful for me," claim the Corinthians; "but not all things are helpful," answers Paul (1 Cor 6:12). In practice: Homosexuality is unhealthy and not "helpful."

11. JUDGE WORDS AND ACTIONS. DO NOT JUDGE PEOPLE: Only God can judge people. God will "help you to discern what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless" (Phil. 1:10-NIV). In practice: We are to judge words and actions - what the Bible calls "discernment."

12. WE BELIEVE IN THE ONE CHURCH: We are not free to ignore what the Holy Spirit has said and done in the church over the course of 2,000 years since Pentecost (and has spoken through the prophets of Israel). In practice: God doesn't tell one individual (or congregation, or synod, or denomination) one thing, and another something else.

13. WE BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CHURCH: The Holy Spirit is the power of the world to come. In practice: When the church thinks in terms of this world's categories ("conservative" or "liberal"), it's a warning signal of a serious misunderstanding.

14. WE BELIEVE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: Lutherans are not the whole church. We have no authority - and no ability - to change teaching that belongs to the whole church. In practice: We can no more change church teaching by ourselves than we could change, by ourselves, the U.S. Constitution.

15. WE BELIEVE IN THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH: We belong to the same church as the apostles do. In practice: What was the sense of ordaining (as the Episcopal church did) an openly homosexual bishop to continue the apostolic ministry - when we already know that the apostle Paul rejects the opinions of that bishop?