It wasn’t easy to do so.
For one thing, the highly charged emotional controversy surrounding the subject has polarized church and society. And, we in our branch of the church often have sounded more like the shrill voices of politicians and pundits than the thoughtful voices of reconciliation.
Contested matters, like same-gender partners being married or the federal government providing medical insurance, tune our vocabulary to a different-than-dining-room-table-conversation pitch.
Take, for example, the matter of medical insurance.
Proponents for federally directed medical insurance elevate the altruistic intentions, the economic advantages, and personal benefits such program(s) surely will provide. They reassure that nothing bad will result.
Opponents of such medical insurance warn of ulterior motives, economic chaos, and personal crises that the program(s) surely will generate. They dismiss complaints about the present system.
Each decries the other’s exaggerations and minimizations while being blind to their own. And, the truth gets mugged.
So it has been in the sex wars. Proponents of a more inclusive policy have argued that their position provides the only pathway to Biblical justice. Opponents of a more liberal policy argue that their position provides the only pathway to Biblical morality.
Finally, like a booming thunderclap the S.C. has cleared both teams off the field and brought them into a shared locker room, requiring them to encounter one another. And, to listen to one another.
What’s more, the S.C. has articulated as clearly as this editor can imagine the deeply held convictions about which Presbyterians “of good characters and principles … differ” (Book of Order, G-1.0305). In a tour de force through Biblical, church, and legal history they outline the many tributaries of thinking and practice that have converged into the river of practices presently operative in church and American society. In the process, they express in the most positive terms why for some the only conceivably faithful context for marriage under God’s design is between a man and a woman. And, they explain in equally positive terms why for others the covenant of marriage is a wondrous gift of God that mustn’t be proscribed from loving, same-gender couples.
In the process, they also disabuse the moderates by declaring “civil unions cannot adequately substitute for marriage.” … “Civil unions/domestic partnerships provide neither the state-sanctioned benefits nor the societal acceptance that marriage … offers.”
One problem remains. The S.P. has not told us how to resolve these differences. They state that God has called us together to live in the covenant community of faith, and they repudiate not just leaving but even threatening to do so. Instead they call us to live in “mutual forbearance in how we practice our lives of faith together.” And they invite us all to affirm and live out a covenant they have embraced within the committee.
But they haven’t been able to resolve the differences.
In a blog post, S.C. member Margaret Aymer responds to those who were accusing the committee with taking the easy route:
For the record, we have intentionally left the initial report without recommendations so that the church can read and comment on the report (and not just rush to the recommendations). We would welcome suggestions of specific recommendations that keep in mind both the covenant and the place of disagreement. (Gruntled Center)
We at the Outlook say, “That’s the right thing to do, at least for now.” In fact, we urge you to download the report, study it, share it with others, discuss it openly. I plan to send it to all my non-Presbyterian relatives to show them why I’m so thankful to be a Presbyterian.
To be honest, I’m not always so thankful. Sometimes we don’t do a great job of telling the truth. But every so often, a group among us covenants — in true Reformed tradition — and implements that covenant to tell the truth, in love, to one another and to the rest of us. The Special Committee to Study Issues of Civil Union and Christian Marriage has done so, and they deserve commendation.
— JHH
