The battle lines in the Texas shootout are familiar: One side wants to purge public schools of almost any respectful mention of religion, while the other wants the Bible to be given even more reverence in the classroom than that afforded great Americans like say, Martin Luther King Jr.

As an institution that communicates its theology within its liturgy, the Church of England's doctrine of marriage and sex is outlined within the introduction to the Wedding Service. In it we learn that marriage is not just about bringing husband and wife together in the joy of sexual union and as the foundation of family life. It is also not only just a way of life made holy by God and blessed by the presence of Jesus at a wedding at Cana in Galilee.

Then, acting just as the week came to an end, the denomination voted to eliminate barriers that had prevented non-celibate homosexual ministers from serving in ELCA churches. The vote to affirm the new statement on human sexuality was close -- receiving the exact number of positive votes necessary for passage -- but, taken together, the two actions signal a massive seismic shift, not only in the ELCA, but also in the larger denominational world.

"Certainly in business, efficiency can be a make-or-break word between profit and loss," Mohler said, "but when it comes to missions and the work of our churches and the work of the Gospel around the world, efficiency has a limited application.

"What this really marked, more than anything else, was an infusion of a business culture into the life of the denomination.... Churches were now concerned with efficiency; decisions were made on the basis of efficiency."