North Como Presbyterian Church, Roseville, Minnesota. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-595-34155-1. Pb., 588 pp., $46.95.
Congratulations to North Como Church for producing the most massive and comprehensive resource to date on the battle over ordination standards in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). It is almost beyond comprehension that a congregational task force put together the massive, Ordination Standards: Biblical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives. I am sure the process of working systematically through the many complex issues was rewarding for the Task Force and for the entire congregation. That their work is now available to the whole church is a gift, but it is a gift that must be received cautiously.
Over the past 15 years there have been several calls for congregations in the PC(USA) to study the issues around the ordination of gays and lesbians. The task force from Roseville believed that congregations did not have curriculum that was up to the task. They became convinced that liberals and conservatives were ignorant of “information that has been known for years in seminaries and universities.” Ordination Standards is an attempt to remedy this lacuna by presenting a broad range of biblical, theological, and scientific source material.
The book is organized into two parts: 1) biblical and theological perspectives and 2) scientific perspectives. These two major parts are further divided into 14 modules for group study. The authors use the words of Jesus as an interpretive framework: We are to obey the law and prophets.
Ordination Standards is encyclopedic in scope. Not only does it display the fruits of the study, it contains numerous appendices and supplements that explore particular issues in further depth. For instance, in module 4, “On Applying the Law and the Prophets to Ordination Standards,” there are supplements that deal with Genesis 1 & 2, Sodom and Gomorrah, Leviticus 18 and Romans 1 (among others). This gives the reader the opportunity to examine the particular texts and interpretive moves that function as the building blocks for the overall argument. Ordination Standards deals with the major texts, biblical, theological, and confessional that are in play in the current discussions.
I especially appreciate the judicious conclusions that the authors make in a variety of places, especially in the narration of General Assembly actions. Often persons on all sides of the issues over-read voting results. For instance, Ordination Standards realizes that the recent rejection by the presbyteries of a prohibition on performing same-sex unions did not reflect approbation of such rites, but was instead due to an aversion to prohibitions in general and a concern that a specific prohibition might unduly hinder pastoral practice.
Given these strengths, the most significant weakness of Ordination Standards is all the more puzzling. In a book that intends to fight ignorance on the subject, why are the biblical and theological sources so limited?
For example, in the biblical material on homosexuality, a key question concerns the definition of arsenokoitai and malokoi. These terms are referred to as the more active and passive partners in homosexual relationships in “The Church and Homosexuality” or “male prostitutes,” “sodomites,” or “homosexual offenders” in various biblical translations. They are key New Testament verses in the argument that the biblical witness uniformly judges homosexuality as sinful.
Ordination Standards relies on Dale Martin, formerly at Duke and now at Yale, to deconstruct these interpretations. Martin argues that the meanings of these two words are not clear in Greco-Roman literature, and although homosexual activity is connected to the meaning, they in no way condemn homosexuality in the modern sense, per se. Further, Martin argues that the Christian attitudes toward such behavior in the New Testament mirror that of the larger Greco-Roman world. In short, biblical attitudes on sex between persons of the same gender are typical of its time, no more, no less.
That Martin is consulted is no surprise, nor should it be. As a top-notch biblical scholar and “out” homosexual, Martin has considerable interest in biblical interpretation around homosexuality. His arguments are substantive and well researched. The puzzle arises when the reader notices that Ordination Standards completely ignores the work of Robert Gagnon of Pittsburgh Seminary and Richard Hays, formerly at Yale and now at Duke, on these same texts. Gagnon’s massive work, The Bible and Homosexual Practice, is a must read, even if one rejects his interpretation in the end. Hays’ nuanced interpretation of these texts alongside many other ethical issues in The Moral Vision of the New Testament must be considered. In a book of advocacy these omissions would be disappointing, but that neither is cited in a book that purports to be about “information” is a serious flaw.
Given these weaknesses, I was a bit skeptical about the considerable scientific data presented. The scientific material is impressive and covers a wide range. As a “layperson” in these fields, how would I know if this was given the same unstated spin as the biblical and theological material?
It is a bit strange to criticize a 500+ page book for being incomplete, but that is precisely what Ordination Standards is. What Ordination Standards includes is genuinely helpful, but it could have served the whole church better had it wrestled honestly with the best biblical and theological arguments on all sides of these issues.
Charles Wiley is a member of the Re-Forming Ministry Core Cluster, Office of Theology and Worship, Louisville, Ky.
