You may think that you need “space,” but there is less space behind closed doors than there is outside them.
You may think that by meeting privately, you will inoculate yourself from criticism from some quarters of the church.
You won’t. Instead, you will only feed the flames of speculation and criticism.
I have been a journalist for more than 25 years and I have watched body after body try to meet in secret for one reason or another. It hardly ever accomplishes the goal of privacy. Instead it keeps the truth hidden, and allows those who want to twist the truth to do so more freely because there is no public discussion to balance their version.
You will find that if you meet privately, one of your number will talk about what was said. It always happens, even though I know you believe it won’t. They may not even mean to, but it will happen.
Your chore has become vital to the future of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The recently concluded General Assembly underscored that as commissioners declined to consider controversial topics, waiting on your guidance.
So whatever that guidance is to be must be trusted. And to be trusted, the guidance must be seen as the result of deliberate, complete, honest and prayerful study and debate.
If you conduct that study and debate, even a little bit of it, secretly, all of it will become the target for those who don’t like what you say. They’ll be able to cast doubt on the integrity of the group and the individuals who comprise it.
By meeting privately, you open yourself to hints and winks and whispers. Those who want to undermine your work will ask: what would you say privately that you wouldn’t say publicly? What question would you ask — rhetorical or otherwise — that you wouldn’t ask publicly?
The only way to combat those hints and winks and whispers is to conduct your work clearly, openly and loudly.
You may not trust that every one in attendance at an open meeting will report your thoughts and actions without a negative, or falsely scandalous spin, but — if the meeting is open and others are there — you can be comforted in knowing there’ll be multiple reports, which also keeps everyone more honest.
John A. Bolt is a member of General Assembly Council from the West Virginia Presbytery. He was among the original members of the News Advisory Council, and was active in helping revise and strengthen the denomination’s Open Meeting Policy, last ratified by the 209th General Assembly (1997).
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