wfn.org | ACSWP Cuts Sexual-Orientation Section from its Report

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8-February-1999 
99049 
 
    ACSWP Cuts Sexual-Orientation Section 
    from its Report on Building Community 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trying to salvage a tortured report on rebuilding urban 
community life in the United States, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) has removed a section 
on the issue of sexual orientation. 
 
    The committee, which met here Jan. 14-17, relegated the divisive issue 
to a section near the end of its 70-page policy statement, adding it to a 
list of issues that must be addressed at some point in the future. The 
document, "Building Community Among Strangers," and recommendations growing 
out of it, are to be presented to the upcoming General Assembly in Fort 
Worth, Texas. 
 
    The committee voted unanimously to eliminate a brief section that 
concluded: "To build community, we will need to do a lot of listening 
inside and outside the church: to gay and lesbian persons, and to those 
among us who are pained at challenges to their understanding and 
interpretation that scriptures condemn homosexuality." 
 
    Committee member Laverne Feaster, of Little Rock, Ark., argued, "This 
document is so important that we shouldn't let this issue dominate it." 
 
    Feaster, an African-American, added: "We went through this with race 
issues. We have to decide what we can do. Save this issue for another 
time." 
 
    The Rev. Donald Shriver, the ACSWP chair, concurred. "I agree that we 
should gently push aside this section of the report," he said, "but lift it 
up as an issue the church still needs to face." 
 
    "Building Community Among Strangers" has been embattled almost from its 
inception. Critics of a "study guide" that preceded the policy statement 
itself complained that it was lacking in biblical and theological 
foundation and promoted "universalism" rather than salvation through Jesus 
Christ alone. 
 
    The 1998 General Assembly cautioned ACSWP to produce a policy statement 
that "is clearly centered around the confessional and biblical teachings 
about Christ as Lord of all the world and its only hope of reconciliation, 
and embodies a tone of mutual respect for differing opinions within our 
church." 
 
    ACSWP members, having used their last meeting to beef up the report's 
biblical and theological underpinnings and this meeting to excise the 
section on sexual orientation, now believe "Building Community Among 
Strangers" will be adopted by the Assembly. 
 
    The report begins with the biblical affirmation "that there is one 
humanity created in the image of God," then addresses the divisions that it 
says have rent the fabric of community life in the United States - racism, 
classism, religious intolerance, discrimination against women and immigrant 
groups, and economic dislocations. 
 
    In nearly 50 recommendations, the report proposes a variety of 
responses by individuals, congregations and governing bodies of the church, 
including the designation of the year 2002 as the "Year for Building 
Community Among Strangers." 
 
    During this meeting, the ACSWP put the finishing touches on a number of 
other reports also going to this year's Assembly. Among them: 
 
      A Resolution on Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers - which notes 
that "Jesus Christ comes to us in the form of `the stranger,'" and "points 
to the need for vigorous and persistent advocacy for these new neighbors in 
our midst who often find themselves highly vulnerable to mistreatment and 
deprivation." 
     * A Resolution on Clergy/Parishioner Confidentiality that accompanies 
       a proposed amendment of "The Book of Order" to assert the right to 
       confidentiality and protect ministers from state compulsion to 
       reveal confidential information. 
     * A Resolution on Tobacco, which urges congregations and sessions to 
       support smoking-cessation programs. 
     * A Resolution on Managed Care that reaffirms a long-standing General 
       Assembly policy supporting "the right of every person to have access 
       to quality health care that is adequate, affordable and 
       accountable," and asking various church agencies to advocate for 
       that policy and educate people about developments in managed care. 
     * A Resolution on the Curtailment of Healthcare Services Resulting 
       from Hospital Mergers Involving Roman Catholic Hospitals - 
       expressing concern to the Roman Catholic Church about the effects of 
       mergers involving its hospitals, which typically extend restrictive 
       policies on family planning and abortion services to the previously 
       non-Catholic institutions. 

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