Fellow Lutheran Dwight P. at Versus Populum has a very thoughtful essay on same-sex relationships in the church that actually pretty closely matches the place where I am on the issue: a desire to be faithful to the witness of Scripture and tradition existing in tension with personal experience of gay and lesbian friends and acquaintances.
I have virtually nothing of value to add to the public debate on this, except, perhaps, that I think a big part of the problem is that the churches (specifically mainline Protestant churches) seem presently to have very little in the way of a coherent or credible sexual ethic, and that having such an ethic is probably a precondition for thinking about same-sex relationships in a meaningful theological way (rather than trying to bring the church in line with our pre-existing secular political commitments, whether “liberal” or “conservative”). By a “coherent sexual ethic” I mean a specifically Christian understanding of the ends sex & marriage should serve.
Most people in our society, and in our churches, have abandoned the idea (rightly or wrongly) that sex is primarily about procreation. Basically we seem to have replaced that with a notion of “companionate marriage” that is all about “self-fulfillment.” But again, this lacks any specifically theological content.
A Thinking Reed 
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