Are We There Yet?

What brought this to mind was reading the “official” communication from the 215th General Assembly which featured this sentence: “The PC(USA) is a wonderfully diverse body — culturally, theologically and regionally. The Assembly both celebrated that diversity and struggled to find unity within it.”

The drama that we, as a church, have become most interested in, is taking place inside, not outside, the church. We are consumed by strategizing ways to steer the church toward “our way,” while the society rolls on outside our windows. Somehow, in our self-fixation, our diversity has become a good in itself, and not just a reality. And, since we can’t seem to achieve unity, we have made the endless struggle for it a salutary end in itself, rather than the tragic and enervating problem it is.

Around what have our conflicts centered? We, on both “sides,” have made sexuality the great test issue of the faith, with our perpetual struggles over homosexual ordination and same-sex marriage. However, we have done this without stopping to ask what real difference this makes in our ability to minister to the world. Are people suffering because of personal and institutional homophobia? Absolutely. Is this issue worth addressing? In line with other much larger and more pressing issues, yes. Should this be the focus of 25 years of wrangling and dread? Absolutely not!

Some say that the society will reject the PC(USA) because of its lack of inclusiveness. In truth, the society at large finds our ceaseless debates about homosexuality a bizarre fixation (and the great majority of the world’s Christians are mystified we would have the conversation at all). Some insist that the PC(USA) is cutting itself off from vast pools of ministerial talent, and keeping hordes from our pews by excluding homosexual persons from ministry and marriage. The absurdity of these assertions is proved by observing the minimal positive impact on outreach such inclusion has had on denominations that have done away with these prohibitions. If, as is now recognized, homosexual persons make up less than 3 percent of the population, how does the PC(USA)’s attitude toward homosexual ordination and marriage prove to be a boon for outreach to the world? Answer: it does not.

Are there hurt feelings and people out there because of homophobia? Of course. And we should endeavor to minister in the most theologically appropriate ways we can to the injured, but this is nowhere near our most catastrophic societal or ecclesiastical problem (in fact, I suspect our sexuality debates are only a cover for deeper and more difficult problems). So, why have we selected this issue as the cause célèbre (pro and con) of our church? Advocates for the establishment of homosexual acceptance have managed to tease their issue into the problem of the ages, and the academy, the media and the church have followed their lead unthinkingly.

This is not an indictment just of the “left,” however. The “right” has fallen prey to these advocates’ media-fueled blitz. Can anyone with any theological sense understand how the “Confessing Church Movement” could make a statement basically crafted against homosexual practice one of only three statements of “the bedrock essence of the church”? The bedrock essence of the church?

Our present conflict over homosexuality is, I will dare to say it, a waste of time. You want a problem of the ages? What about the persistent, degrading conditions of billions of the poor? We have our programs for the amelioration of the horrible conditions in which these souls live, and grandly make the occasional pronouncement about how concerned we are, but real, concentrated, powerful action that holds the attention of the denomination and society? We are too busy trying to sit next to the window.

Moreover, as Sam Moffett has pointed out “800 million go to bed hungry every night, and there is a great outcry, yet billions die without ever hearing of the saving power of Jesus Christ, and we say nothing.” Our response? To cut our already tiny number of foreign missionaries in order to — you guessed it — pay more attention to the fight happening in the back seat.

Parents are used to hearing “Are we there yet?” from the back seat. If we ask ourselves that question as a church, the answer must be “Of course not!” As Christians, we know that we will not “arrive” until the consummation. But, I have begun to wonder if the PC(USA) has simply pulled over to the side of the road so that we can better concentrate on our intramural squabbling. Meanwhile, the world trudges by, its problems squarely on its shoulders, dragging its entrails, and our response is to glance out the window, tut-tut a bit, and go back to yelling at each other.