Taskforce explores core tenets as basis for discussions

CHICAGO — No votes have been taken.

It’s kind of like reading the tea leaves before the kettle has even come to a boil.
But a preliminary, tentative, test-the-waters discussion Oct. 13 indicated that the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) still is searching for consensus on some of the most controversial issues it faces, including homosexuality and ordination.

On the first day of its Oct. 13-15 meeting, the task force considered draft papers on two big issues — what to say to the church about ordaining gays and lesbians who are sexually active, and whether the denomination ought to spell out what it considers to be essential tenets. Neither of those papers was being formally advanced as reflecting the task force’s position nor was up for a vote.

But at its last meeting, in August, the planning team for this October meeting suggested that it might be time to put forth some “affirmations,” some suggested statements about ordination standards and essential tenets, just to see how task force members would respond — basically, to sense where there might be some areas of agreement and where there’s still work to be done. Those affirmations were drafted by a working group from the task force consisting of three pastors — John “Mike” Loudon of Florida, Sarah Sanderson-Doughty and John Wilkinson, both from New York state — and William Stacy Johnson, who teaches systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Johnson, who presented the draft reports to the task force, stressed repeatedly that these reports “are not anything more than proposals for discussion,” provisional and hypothetical, a basis for brainstorming.

“We felt that at some point we’re going to have to either start reaching consensus or being able to name the places where we don’t have consensus,” Johnson said in an interview. “It’s a way of sort of jumping into the water,” to see what might happen and how far they might need to swim.

It looks like they might have a ways to go.

During one snippet of a four-hour discussion, for example, task force members talked about whether Presbyterians’ views on ordaining gays and lesbians had been compressed by repeated votes on ordination standards into views that were more polarized and less nuanced than their actual thinking may be.

Maybe not, in some cases.

“My response is there are only two views, biblical and unbiblical,” Loudon said. From the conservative point of view, “there is only one interpretation” of the Bible on this point, he said, “and all the rest are wrong.”

But Barbara Wheeler, president of Auburn Theological Seminary, responded that Presbyterians do allow for some range of biblical interpretation. People who have different ideas about how to interpret particular passages of Scripture can all nonetheless be grounded in biblical faith, she pointed out. Sometimes even conservatives disagree with each other on points of biblical interpretation, she said, but that doesn’t mean they question one another’s fundamental faith.

In a discussion about committed relationships between same-sex partners, about being in a faithful, monogamous, long-term relationship versus being promiscuous, Loudon defined promiscuity as any form of sexual activity outside of marriage between a man and a woman, including all sexual expressions of homosexuality.

José Luis Torres-Milán, a minister from Puerto Rico, said committed relationships might exist between gays and lesbians, “but when did the church say it’s OK?” A majority of people from his congregation would say they don’t approve and “don’t take me there,” Torres-Milán said.

And Mark Achtemeier, who teaches theology at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, agreed that “there is a constituency within the church that will maintain that even to talk about these issues … is unfaithful. Anything other than a slammed door and a firmly articulated ‘No’ is out of bounds” to them.

These “testing the waters” conversations made no attempt to pin down the 20 task force members — no votes were taken and some in the group didn’t speak at all. It was clear the draft papers will need serious revision in all kinds of areas. And the discussion presumed there had been no change in the PC(USA)’s ordination standards, which currently limit ordination to those who practice fidelity if they are married and chastity if they are single.

The papers might, however, as unformed as they are, provide some possible clues about the terrain ahead.

         Some key parts of the proposal on “fidelity and chastity” were:

• The church would be asked to focus not only on homosexuality, but on sexual ethics. The draft states “neither breaking the vows of marital fidelity through adultery nor carrying on a lifestyle of sexual promiscuity are in keeping with the imperatives of the gospel.”

• The church would be asked to focus its discussion regarding homosexuality and ordination specifically on the question of whether people in exclusive, committed same-sex partnerships should be allowed to be ordained.

• The church would consider practicing “mutual forbearance” regarding the differing views among Presbyterians about whether gays and lesbians in committed relationships can be ordained. It would be up to local governing bodies to determine whether a particular departure “from the high standards articulated by the Book of Order” is acceptable or not — whether a particular departure involving a particular candidate for ordination violates essential tenets of the Reformed faith, or not.

• The church would be reminded “it is an ancient conviction of the church catholic” that the peace, unity and purity of the church comes not from its members or ministers but “is graciously given to the church by the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ.”

Some in the PC(USA) would like the denomination to be more explicit about what are its essential tenets of faith. San Diego presbytery, for example, has adopted what it calls “Essential Tenets and Reformed Distinctives” that its committees use in evaluating candidates being considered for ordination.

 Among the significant points in the task force’s draft paper on essential tenets:

• Doctrine does matter. “It is important that the church, and especially its ordained leaders, remain clear about the doctrinal standards to which the written confessions of our constitution bear witness,” the draft report states.

• Balance is necessary between shared views on doctrine and freedom of conscience. “It is necessary to find agreement concerning standards essential to the church’s shared life in Christ, and it is also important to find an appropriate range of freedom of conscience in interpreting those standards,” the document states.

• Essential tenets should emerge from the entire Book of Confessions, which has “rich diversity” but is also “unified and clear,” rather than from a list boiled down from the confessions. “The conviction against reducing the church’s confessional standards to a list is itself among the core convictions or `essential tenets’ of American Presbyterian theology and practice,” the document states.

• Differences over non-essential matters should be expected, and should not cause the church to split. The church must remain open “to what God is doing in the world,” to prayer and to continuing to interpret the Scriptures under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Task force members found plenty to object to and to question in the ideas as presented in the draft reports. Milton “Joe” Coalter, for example, who is librarian and professor of bibliography at Union Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, questioned whether it’s correct to say the confessions are “unified and clear.” Coalter asked:  “If it’s so unified and clear, why are we having trouble? It’s not unified and clear.”

Achtemeier raised questions about what would constitute the church’s doctrinal standards — is it “some golden thread running through the confessions?” But he pointed that the Bible itself is the foundation for the church’s confessional statements.

When one talks about essential tenets, “essential for what?” Achtemeier asked — for salvation, or for being considered within the boundaries of Reformed theology? The standard for the church is Scripture, and any attempt to reduce from that is fallible, Achtemeier said. And there’s a “huge difference,” he said, between an open list that would say core Presbyterian beliefs “would include at least the following” and a closed list that would indicate “these are the eight.”

There was conversation about whether, if the church’s peace, unity and purity is truly in Christ, it can be theologically defended if people seek to break the body of Christ over disagreements about ordination standards (and how have differences been dealt with on such issues as divorce, abortion, slavery, and ordaining women?) When is some form of living together with differences best, and when is a theological dispute so serious that schism is perhaps justified?

Torres-Milán asked about the idea of ordination being considered valid “for the whole church.”  Does making decisions on a case-by-case basis — deciding case-by-case whether it would violate essential tenets to ordain a gay or lesbian person — result in a denomination with “one umbrella” but divisions among the presbyteries?

And while some objected to the idea of the church perhaps seeming to accept committed, same-sex partnerships, Johnson argued that “if you talk about homosexuality in the abstract, you’re not going to get anywhere.” He tried to focus the conversation on sexual ethics and Christian practices — faithful versus promiscuous relationships, for example. In that context, “this says the dispute is whether it’s OK to have covenanted, same sex relationships or `No, that’s unacceptable too,’ “ said Jack Haberer, a pastor from Texas.

“On the one hand, people say `we’ve been debating this for 30 years,” Johnson said. “On the other hand, have we been debating the right questions?”

Wheeler said she sees three issues embedded in the church’s discussions.

First, what rules of conduct are required for church leaders?

Second, what rules of conduct are commended for Christian life?

Third, what should the church teach?

So now, it’s back for more discussion, more drafts, more thinking.

The task force has scheduled another closed-door session for this meeting, as permitted by the General Assembly.

Its report to the church is due to be completed by September 2005.