Witherspoon Society faces challenge of representing progressive Presbyterians

Many of its 700 members are grey-haired, veterans of struggles for economic and social justice both inside the denomination and in the secular world. Its leaders want to attract more members from seminaries and are trying to figure out what it will take for the Witherspoon Society to speak to the interests of Presbyterians in their 20s and 30s.

In tight economic times, and with some of its supporters retired and on fixed incomes, the Witherspoon Society, with an annual budget of $55,000, struggles with finances, with the desire to expand and to do more work at the same time dollars are hard to come by.

And it’s sometimes difficult for Witherspoon to find its place, its special role, in the array of groups that have sprung up on the progressive side of the church, such as More Light Presbyterians and That All May Freely Serve, which are focused more specifically on the gay ordination question. One of the largest of these groups, the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, announced plans in recent months to broaden its agenda, to include not just work on ordination standards but an array of progressive causes.

“On the left, Witherspoon and other progressive groups have continued to work together, with plenty of differences over details,” Eugene TeSelle of Nashville, a Witherspoon Society board member off-and-on for the last 15 years, wrote in a recent history of the group. “The Witherspoon Society, following its time-honored tradition as `the left’s center,’ has tried to hold together the whole range of issues,” some of which have spawned particular advocacy groups for their own causes, such as Voices of Sophia, a feminist group, or Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options.

But there is still a sense, among its core supporters, that the Witherspoon Society has a role to play — one which emphasizes theological reflection and tries to put before the church a wide range of peace and justice concerns, from the impact of war with Iraq to the ways in which racism continues to play out in the nation and in the church “It is wonderful to have people who continue to have a vision,” that the pursuit of justice is a part of God’s call to all people, Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA)’s stated clerk, told about 100 people gathered in Louisville recently for the Witherspoon Society’s 30th anniversary celebration.

“We’re always going to be there,” Kent Winters-Hazelton, a pastor from Claremont, Calif., who is the Witherspoon Society’s president, said in an interview following the gathering. “We’re trying to figure out our niche.”

In a denomination which seems to have endless stamina for the fight over ordaining gays and lesbians, the Witherspoon Society is proud of its distinctive history of not being a single-issue group, but of tackling a range of progressive issues and working in alliance with groups ranging from the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship to those addressing environmental concerns. That broader base — while it may not have been the focus of the denomination’s attention in recent years — may become more significant as the nation’s attention turns to matters such as tensions in the Middle East and between the United States and North Korea, the ramifications of war with Iraq, and the implications for both the wealthy and the poor of President Bush’s tax proposals.

“We have always pursued a broad agenda, dealing with the many facets of a justice-oriented, prophetic-witness approach to the issues facing our church and our society,” Winters-Hazelton wrote in the most recent edition of Network News, Witherspoon’s quarterly publication.

“Yet for many in our denomination, one primary issue has become the focus over the past few years,” that being the ordination of gays and lesbians. “While Witherspoon is very clear in its supporting and working for a more inclusive church, we want to resist the natural tendency for other issues of justice to get overlooked or pushed off the agenda. Especially in these days, as our world faces increased militarization, the war with Iraq, global economics and the troubling issues related to homeland security, we believe we must redouble our efforts to keep our church from turning inward toward its internal conflicts and neglecting the desperate needs of the wider world.”

At the conference in Louisville, for example, speakers included the writer Wendell Berry, who gave his reasons for opposing war with Iraq; Mary McClintock Fulkerson, an associate professor of theology at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, talking about racism, and Douglas F. Ottati, a theology professor at Union Seminary and Presbyterian School of Chrisitan Education, speaking about the theology of grace.

“A church that acknowledges a gracious God will not be fundamentally exclusionary,” will not see itself as “an elite corps of spiritual gymnasts,” but a rag-tag corps of sinners, Ottati told the gathering. And such a church will go out into the world to “witness to the God of grace who already stands in relation to all,” seeing all people, in all places, of all religions, as God’s children. “It will go to all nations with a ministry of care and reconciliation and peace. It will preach the gospel . . . It will be evangelical, and it will not concede that to a bunch of people uttering threats.”

Some at the anniversary gathering expressed interest in creating more local Witherspoon chapters, or at least alliances of progressive Presbyterians — something that already seems to be happening in places like Oregon and California. “So many folks I talk to feel so alone,” said Ann Euston of Albuquerque, N.M., Witherspoon’s program coordinator.

And at one workshop, titled “Finding a New Generation of Progressive Presbyterians,” people talked about why there aren’t more young leaders drawn to Witherspoon.

At seminaries, progressive Presbyterian students often are asked, “Why don’t you go to the United Church of Christ” or “Why don’t you go Unitarian,” with the assumption that those denominations might be a better fit for someone who’s young and liberal, said Jake Young, a 34-year-old pastor from Springfield, Ill.

“This is where I feel called to be,” Young said, explaining why he stays. But he does see erosion, and those who do leave “do it one by one. They don’t threaten schism, they fall away one by one,” either to other denominations or out of organized religion altogether.

In an interview, Young said some young progressive Presbyterians aren’t interested in becoming enmeshed in national political fights; that’s not how they want to spend their careers in ministry and their energy. The debate over ordination “hasn’t been pretty,” he said. “The discourse has taken turns that are much less than hospitable,” so some are reluctant to get pulled in.

Over the years, as the denomination has focused more on ordination standards, the Witherspoon Society may have lost some of its momentum. “One answer some people give is Witherspoon is ’60s people in their 60s, or maybe now in their 70s,” TeSelle said in an interview. “It may be a lot of the enthusiasm came from the start-up period.”

Winters-Hazelton thinks denominational politics may play a role as well. “It’s harder to try to establish a career track in the church if you get too identified with one side or the other,” he said in an interview. “I think a lot of younger ministers are cautious, and listening and weighing.”

And some argue that conservative Presbyterians are better organized, better financed. “It’s been said many times that organizing progressives is like herding cats,” Young said. “They all have their own ideas.” To some, “liberal” has become, as Young put it, “a dirty word.”

Chris Glaser, a gay Presbyterian who preached during the anniversary gathering, introduced himself as “an avowed, practicing, unrepentant liberal,” and said, “We liberals do seem to have all the right enemies.”

But Glaser argued that the Presbyterian church needs to redefine terms like “liberal” and “conservative” and “fundamentalist.”

Glaser said he remembers canvassing door-to-door as “a Goldwater Republican.” When he knocked on the door of one modest home, a woman came out and said, “Seems like conservative is a bad word” to some, but she remembered when it meant someone who saved enough to give to others.

“Having grown up a fundamentalist as I did, I recognize fundamentalism in our camp, the so-called knee-jerk liberal,” Glaser said. But a classic liberal can see many sides to an issue, “that’s why we’re sometimes seen as weak, wishy-washy,” he said. So Glaser argued for a thoughtful, theological approach rather than a reactionary one to the issues of the church, one rooted in Jesus’ teachings about justice, mercy, welcoming the stranger and bringing good news to the poor.

Young said he’d also like progressives to reclaim the word “evangelical” — it’s not only conservatives who believe in evangelism, he said — and to emphasize their commitment to the principles of Reformed theology.

“We’re not young progressive Presbyterians,” he said. “We’re young, thoughtful and thoroughly Reformed in our thinking.”

At the Louisville meeting, the Witherspoon Society also made a deliberate effort to voice its support for those who work at the PC(USA)’s national offices in Louisville — inviting staff members to attend the meeting if possible and to join them one night on a riverboat cruise. “There are other voices in the church that are very, very critical of the national staff,” Winters-Hazelton said. “It’s a tough, tough position to be in.”