wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Van Kuiken accused of heresy, blasphemy

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Note #7807 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Van Kuiken accused of heresy, blasphemy
03253

Van Kuiken accused of heresy, blasphemy

Jensen alleges Cincinnati pastor presided at same-sex 'marriage'

by John Filiatreau

	The Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken, pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian
Church, of Cincinnati, OH, has been accused in a disciplinary case of
blasphemy and heresy and of deliberately violating his ordination vows by
performing a same-sex "marriage."

The action against Van Kuiken was filed with the Presbytery of Cincinnati by
Paul Rolf Jensen, the Reston, VA, attorney who has filed more than 20
complaints in church courts alleging violations of the Presbyterian Church
(USA) constitution and has alleged that the PC(USA) is facing a
"constitutional crisis."

In April, the Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) of the Cincinnati
Presbytery found Van Kuiken guilty of having "married" homosexual couples,
and ordered him to refrain from doing so again. Van Kuiken responded by
promising to defy the order and publishing a letter on his church's Web site
vowing, "I will not change from my position."

According to Jensen's complaint, Van Kuiken performed what he billed as "A
Service of Christian Marriage" uniting two lesbians on May 17.

Jensen also alleges that Van Kuiken was guilty of blasphemy when he said in a
sermon on April 6 that Jesus Christ was a "deviant" and "promiscuous."

"In making this statement he was quoting with approbation from the writings
of Robert Funk, who is the founder and co-chairman of the Jesus Seminar, a
group bent on a Satanic attack on Christianity," he wrote in a press release
made public with his complaint. "Funk is a notorious heretic who  also wrote
that God does not exist, that prayer is meaningless (and) that Jesus was not
divine."

In the sermon, which is on the Mount Auburn Web site, Van Kuiken quotes
Funk's contention, "It is clear from the gospel records that Jesus was a
Galilean deviant and was socially promiscuous.  He ignored, or transgressed
 purity regulations and taboos."

Jensen contends that by his actions Van Kuiken has renounced the jurisdiction
of the presbytery and Assembly PJCs and of the PC(USA).

In his press release, Jensen also complained that G-6.0106b, the provision of
the PC(USA) Book of Order that requires candidates for ordination to be
"faithful in the covenant of marriage" between a man and a woman, or "chaste
in singleness," is being "defied without consequence  throughout the
denomination."

"Active, self-affirming homosexuals are being ordained and installed," he
wrote. "This is true not only in Hudson River Presbytery, but in New York
City, Cincinnati, National Capital, Baltimore, Yellowstone, Twin Cities,
Pacific, Redwoods, San Francisco and elsewhere," including the congregation
of the newly elected GA moderator."

Moderator Susan R. Andrews, a past member of the board of the Covenant
Network of Presbyterians, is pastor of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, of
Bethesda, MD, in National Capital Presbytery.

	"G-6.0106b might as well be removed from the Book of Order, since it
does not enforced (sic)."

Earlier this month, Jensen filed a slander suit against the Rev. Fahed
Abu-Akel, moderator of the 214th General Assembly, accusing him of having
spoken "with actual malice" for Jensen when he told the General Assembly
Council in April that a conspiracy allegation lodged against him - by Jensen
- was "a lie."

Also in May, Jensen filed a complaint against the Rev. W. Robert Martin III,
a member of Western North Carolina Presbytery who is transferring to the
Presbytery of San Jose in California, where he has been called to be pastor
of First Presbyterian Church, of Palo Alto, CA.

	According to Jensen, who was not present, Martin said during his
examination before San Jose Presbytery in April that he does not believe in
the bodily resurrection of Jesus or his Ascension into Heaven "as taught by
the confessions and scripture."

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