The Lutheran Church

"Lutheran," just plain "Lutheran" that has a rather delightful, roll off the tongue sound: "The Lutheran Church."

What would be the "bare minimum" needed to provide a big enough tent to encompass the variety of "lutherans" self-identifying today?

Thanks to Debbie Hesse for the question get regarding the "Lutheran Bare Minimum."

Three facets to this BARE MINIMUM:

(these "facets" would describe the 'big tent' which, like the host site of a bazaar, has a variety of "tables" or "shops" catering to people's preferences--some of them quite bizarre by their neighbors' standards)

1) A confession of faith in which one would find a) expression given to the reformer's "sola"s; and, b) subscription to the Lutheran Confessions, or at least a part of them.

2) A formal and operative use of the Wittenberg Reformer's understanding for the exercise of authority in the church--
a) the final, ultimate authority is the preaching of the Gospel, the radical Gospel, in such a way that it is both "telos" and "finis" of the law and maintains the paradoxical tension of these two declarations: "Christ is the end of the law for all who believe" AND "Do we by these means abolish the law? By no means! We establish it!"
b) Proper exercise of the "sola scriptura" principle which would recognize
--the external clarity of scripture and its necessity for public use
--the internal clarity of scripture and the necessity of its personal exercise
--that "scripture interprets scripture" is actually the process by which scripture becomes the "acting" subject and becomes the "interpreter" of the interpreter who has become the "passive" object

3) The non-recognition of "rights" as they would be claimed by, or granted to persons, in the church. No one has a "right" to anything before their neighbor or especially in expectation from the "church"--with the exception being the expectation of hearing the gospel and receiving the sacraments. There can be no "self-defense" in the church, only submission to what might be called "oppression" or a denial of so-called rights--submission with the declaration of forgiveness upon the "oppressor." The protest of this "mistreatment" must come from a neighbor or group of them who call attention to the plight of their oppressed neighbor, do what they can personally to relieve the oppression, and call for structural changes, if necessary.

see this post for a fuller treatment:
http://whitemountaintheology.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-on-repentance.html

PS
This principle was terribly violated during the sexuality wars. Dozens of homosexual people "told" their stories, pleaded their case, and demanded their rights.