Even if it fails this year, trends suggest that a similar measure will pass soon. We both have prayed and worked for this change in the PC(USA)’s ordination policy and the shift in its teaching on same-sex relationships that underlies the change. Even though the church’s practices will probably change more slowly than we hope or you fear, this constitutional change, when it occurs, will be a major development.
We are, frankly, stunned at the speed of the change — we thought it might take decades more to achieve — and we are deeply grateful to the two groups that are doing most to make it possible: steadfast GLBT leaders in the denomination who, by the faithfulness of their ministry and witness, are convincing a voting majority that it needs their service in ordained roles; and many other Presbyterians who, often painfully and at considerable cost, are revisiting their theological opinions on same-sex relationships and changing their position on ordination.
At the same time, we are deeply concerned about other faithful Presbyterians, including some of those we most love and admire, for whom this decision will create a crisis. Indeed, it already has. The prospect of the change in ordination standards has caused some congregations to leave the denomination. Recently, pastors of some conservative churches called for reconfiguring the denominational fellowship in another way, by creating governing bodies inside the PC(USA) for the like-minded. When the change in standards actually happens, the pressure will escalate. Conservative and evangelical Presbyterians will be challenged — by bloggers, pundits, and media personalities, both religious and secular — to disassociate themselves from a denomination gone wrong.
In the cacophony of voices, we hope that those who are distressed by the change will hear a clear message from Presbyterians like us who helped to bring it about. The message is this: PLEASE DON’T GO. Don’t separate from us, either by leaving the PC(USA) or by withdrawing into a cul-de-sac inside it. We want and need to share a denomination with you. Here is why:
For the good of our souls — and yours. The dangers of separation into ecclesiastical clubs that think and act alike are very grave. Those who agree are prone to congratulate each other about the correctness of their ideas and the virtuousness of their deeds. The end result is self-righteousness, which closes our minds and hardens our hearts. As Martin Luther reminded us, there is no greater barrier to the work of grace than the conviction that we don’t need it.
But we do need it. In an insightful speech last month in Los Ranchos Presbytery, Richard Mouw made this point with respect to our different positions on sexuality. Gay persons and their supporters, he said, “aren’t all that gay.” There is much sadness, tragedy, and yes, distortion and sin, in our sexual lives, and our theology of sexuality doesn’t always treat those facts adequately. At the same time, Mouw said, advocates of “straight” sexuality as the norm aren’t all that straight. There is deep unhappiness, brokenness and yes, crookedness and sin in their sexual lives that is often not adequately treated in their theology. Who prompts us to “sexual humility” (to use Mouw’s term) and reminds us of our need for mercy and grace? Our opponents may be wrong about many things, but they are right about one: we are sinners, and even our most cherished ideas could contain errors. We liberals (for want of a better term) need you conservatives and evangelicals (for want of better terms) to tell us that, and we suspect that you need us for the same reason.
Therefore, far from being exhausted by the debates over sexuality, we are grateful for them. They are a prime opportunity for examination of conscience, confession and repentance, and it is you who differ from us, rather than our allies, who make it so. If we don’t meet together, argue, debate, and sometimes vote about sexuality and other important theological issues, we miss a major opportunity for the Holy Spirit to use you to help us work out our salvation.
For the good of the church. Both those who have separated from the PC(USA) and the pastors who want some sort of internal separation say that because we have not only different ideas but also different religious cultures — different music, worship and prayer styles, publications and admired leaders — we should spend most of our time in separate configurations, with those who share our habits, preferences and tastes. They claim that homogeneity will help to build a stronger church.
Many scriptures suggest otherwise. They picture the church as a body whose disparate parts cannot function without each other (1 Cor 12) and as a house for God constructed of “those who were far off” and “those who are near,” knit together spiritually, all resting on the cornerstone of Christ (Eph 2). This picture of a church that, literally, incorporates diversity, including the most profound kind, religious diversity, is not only sound ecclesiology. It is also a practical necessity. None of us has all the ingredients needed to build strong congregations and to revive this denomination. Taking a page from Richard Mouw’s book, we might say that liberals are not all that liberal: we tend to be highly traditional and sometimes snobbish in our choice of music, shy about expressing religious emotions, and hostile to those who don’t accept the whole liberal package of ideas and values. By the same token, conservatives are not necessarily all that conservative: by buying into a lot of the evangelical consumer culture, they have sometimes thrown out important liturgical and theological traditions with the bathwater. They too are intolerant of those who don’t endorse all the planks in their party platform. And none of us is evangelical enough in the root sense of that word — good at telling the world, especially all those cool unchurched young people, how the Gospel of Jesus Christ will save their lives. We have some effective techniques on each side, and we should be tutoring each other in what we have learned about outreach. We should also — if we want to make a powerful witness to nonbelievers — be modeling for the world our oneness in Christ, an antidote to the world’s way of dividing almost everything into a party of us and a party of them.
We could advance other arguments to persuade you to stay with us. We could, for instance, predict that neither a different denomination nor a separate presbytery or synod will be free of conflict. Those who left the PC(USA) and its predecessors to form different denominations are still fighting, often bitterly, only now with each other rather than with us.
But no other reasons are as compelling as these: We need each other, to correct our weakness and failings, and even more to pool our strengths to create the kind of church the world is hungry for: one that gives hope to the world because partisanship and hostilities are broken down by the peace of Christ, one in which personal holiness and passion of justice are knit seamlessly together, one that will carry the Reformed and Presbyterian traditions of Christian faith — traditions that are now more important than ever — into the future in vital congregations and a durable denomination.
So PLEASE DON’T GO. Stay with us and work with us so that with God’s help we may bring such a church into being.
BARBARA G. WHEELER is an elder in Bethel Peniel Presbyterian Church, Granville, N.Y. JOHN WILKINSON is pastor of Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester, N.Y., a More Light congregation. Both Wheeler and Wilkinson were members of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church and are members of the board of the Covenant Network. Their views are their own, not those of the organizations and churches with which they are associated.
