Do you remember how you felt as a 12-year-old, when the greatest horror in life was to be seen in public with your parents? Many of you feel that way today about your denomination. You’re ready to change the name on your street sign and disassociate with all things Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The recent General Assembly (GA) took some actions regarding human sexuality that have left many self-described conservative-evangelical Presbyterians like you feeling aghast, disheartened, and even angry.
How should you respond to this?
First, pay attention to the motivations behind those whose majority votes have taken these initiatives. Like you, each GA commissioner professes faith in Jesus Christ and is a congregational leader. Most oppose promiscuity. Many believe that the biblical writers’ condemnations of sexual perversions were not addressing same-sex monogamy. They also believe that the way our culture treats gays and lesbians as deviants deserving mockery and scorn is unchristian. Many know gay and lesbian Presbyterians, and they want their faith and spiritual gifts to be mobilized for significant ministry. Accordingly, these commissioners believe they have voted as Jesus was guiding them.
Second, sort carefully through what actually has and has not happened. By a narrow margin, the commissioners voted to lift a pre-emptive ban on ordination/installation candidates wishing to file a scruple regarding their non-conformity to the fidelity-chastity requirement in the Book of Order (B/O-G-6.0106b). The GA voted to negate the authoritative interpretations (AIs) of the church’s Constitution that specifically declared homosexual practice to be incompatible with ordained service. They started a process of re-translation of the Heidelberg Catechism (HC), aiming to eliminate the condemnation of “homosexual perversion.” And, they sent to the 173 presbyteries for majority ratification a proposed B/O change that would eliminate the ordination requirement “to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.” If the ratification vote goes as intended over the next 10 months, and if the planned rewrite of the HC proceeds and gets ratified in 2010-11, our standards for ordination will have, indeed, changed. However, three previous attempts to ratify such a B/O change failed, and a catechism change requires a super-majority (2/3s) — a long shot, to be sure.
While the elimination of the old AIs has softened the specificity, our essential standards have not changed. Any ordination candidate sexually active outside an opposite-sex marriage will need to make a convincing case that his or her sexual behavior either conforms to, or represents a departure from a non-essential standard.
Third, remember that you can influence the amendment ratification vote to come. Do you want to keep the present language in place? Proponents of change made their case in the hothouse experience at GA. Now you get to make the case on the ground in your presbytery. Prepare well for the debate and be there, either as a voting minister or elder-delegate or as a supporter and advocate.
Will you succeed? One rule of thumb: honey works better than vinegar. Show the undecided members of the presbytery how your position more truly mirrors the spirit of Christ; how it will strengthen the cause of mission; and how it will better unite the church. Threats, scoldings, and demonizing of opponents will discredit whatever point you are trying to make.
Fourth, make friends. Find the support you need from your like-minded allies, talking with those who are proposing alternative ways for churches like yours to maintain integrity in a denomination that might be straying. And build friendships with your opponents. You can learn much from them, and you can influence them most when they know you care. Blind spots are best discovered when the bright lights of different perspectives are allowed to illuminate.
Finally, don’t forget that God has been correcting and restoring erring communities of faith since the days of Abraham and Sarah. God never gave up. How can we?
May it be that, like it was when you turned 13 or 16 or 21, the day will come soon when you’ll look back at this stage of life as a passing one, and you’ll now know that your mother Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) isn’t so bad after all.
— JHH
