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Note #8088 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Nobody's favorite
04045
January 26, 2004

Nobody's favorite

Various 'parents' of 'Transforming Families' paper are treating it like a
stepchild

by John Filiatreau

LOUISVILLE - After six and a half years of cyclical debate and revision, a
controversial PC(USA) policy paper on the ever-changing American family is
nearing completion.

The current draft of what is now titled "Transforming Families" - the 14th
major reworking of the ever-controversial document - comes to 77 pages,
meaning that it has been written at a rate of about one page per month.

The group charged with writing the document for the Presbyterian Church
(USA), the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), met in
Louisville for three days last week to continue wrestling wearily with the
language of the report.

The meeting, at the Presbyterian Center, took place in an atmosphere of
mounting urgency because "Transforming Families" must be in its final form by
Feb. 27 if it is to be submitted to this summer's 216th General Assembly in
Richmond, VA. (ACSWP also was looking at several other reports being readied
for the Assembly.)

In its present, almost-final form, the paper seems to have the tepid support
of all parties and the enthusiastic backing of none.

During last year's Assembly, a 43-page version of the report caused a furor.
Critics said its authors had sidestepped Biblical teachings and placed
families headed by same-sex couples on the same moral plane with those headed
by married heterosexual couples, in violation of scripture and Presbyterian
belief.

One of ACSWP's responses to the criticism was inviting one of the leading
critics to join the writing team. The result was a version with a more
evangelical bent, more Biblical and confessional language, and an unequivocal
definition of marriage as "a union of one man and one woman," in keeping with
PC(USA) doctrine.

Last week's meeting was devoted to a word-by-word toning down of that
language and a softening of the paper's evangelical tone.

The ACSWP chair, the Rev. Nile Harper, a retired minister from Ann Arbor, MI,
complained on several occasions that committee members, by removing or
softening language conveying the traditional Presbyterian opposition to such
practices as cohabitation and same-gender parenting, were trying to revise
the paper to make it resemble the version rejected by last year's GA.

Alan Wisdom, who wrote much of the contested language, said the revisions
were stripping the document of its moral and ecclesiastical foundations and
making him feel a bit like a "token evangelical" on the writing team.

 The outcome was a draft that affirms traditional Biblical attitudes about
marriage and family without saying directly that other domestic arrangements,
such as single-parent households and families headed by same-sex couples or
divorced parents, are necessarily inadequate, inferior or sinful.

Last year's General Assembly, after rejecting both the original version of
the paper and a hastily prepared one-page substitute drafted by opponents,
asked ACSWP to bring a new, improved draft - with a more Biblical and
Reformed perspective - to this year's Assembly.

The main topic of discussion during last week's meeting was a new six-page
section listing "affirmations and recommendations," authored by Wisdom, a
representative of Presbyterians in Faith and Action who helped write the
one-page "minority report" presented to last year's GA.

Wisdom's organization, a Presbyterian "think tank" and advocacy group, is
part of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, an organization
headquartered in Washington, DC, that describes itself as "an ecumencial
alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches' social witness
in accord with Biblical and historic Christian teachings."

Discussions of Wisdom's work turned on nuances and shadings of grammar and
meaning.

An example:

Wisdom wrote: "God can and does work through persons in all kinds of
families, even those established contrary to God's will. We envision a
society that welcomes and nurtures all persons, regardless of their family
circumstances."

The Rev. Leslie Klingensmith of Silver Spring, VA, an ACSWP member, objected
to the phrase "even those established contrary to God's will," calling it "an
oblique and underhanded reference to same-gender parents and families" that
"invites us to be judging."

ACSWP Coordinator Peter Sulyok objected to the same phrase on other grounds,
arguing that it "weakens our own (Reformed) affirmation that God is
sovereign."

Wisdom said he'd included the phrase to address "one of our bottom-line
concerns" and "to affirm that God's grace did reach all families."

The phrase was deleted, with Wisdom's reluctant agreement.

The paragraph now reads: "God works in and through persons in all kinds of
families. We envision a society that welcomes and nurtures all persons,
regardless of their family circumstances."

Another example:

Wisdom wrote: "Marriage is a form of family life that provides a suitable
context for the nurture of children. We envision a society in which parents
or guardians work together in caring for their children. The best context for
this cooperative venture is a loving, lasting, egalitarian marriage of the
mother and father, where such a marriage is possible."

Klingensmith said calling traditional marriage "the best" circumstance for
the nurture of children "just seems so 'schoolyard-bully' to me."

The final version: "Marriage is a form of family life that provides a
suitable context for the nurture of children. We envision a society in which
parents or guardians work together in caring for their children. One
appropriate context for this cooperative venture is a loving, lasting,
egalitarian marriage of the mother and father."

Some committee members said they thought Wisdom had placed too much emphasis
on the procreative aspects of marriage as a "context" for raising children,
giving the paragraph a tone more Roman Catholic than Reformed, but Harper
pointed out that concern for children was one of the General Assembly's
principle reasons for asking ACSWP to produce such a paper.

Harper also urged the committee to consider "the political question" of how
the final report will be received by General Assembly commissioners - a group
that he said will be far more diverse than ACSWP itself.

Wisdom also commented on "the political context," noting that his evangelical
friends had been of two minds "about whether it was wise or not" for him to
accept ACSWP's invitation to join the writing team. "There were people who
felt I should turn it down because I would be used," he said.

Wisdom said these friends warned that "the (committee's) strategy was to put
a token evangelical on the writing team to tone (the criticism) down
somewhat."

Wisdom said he doesn't believe the changes made in the manuscript justify a
charge that ACSWP is "supporting sex outside of marriage," but he said they
will make his evangelical colleagues' questions about his involvement "even
more acute."

Wisdom said some of the latest revisions tend to "undermine" the report's
moral foundations and "seem to create loopholes."

Jim Berkley, who attended the meeting as a representative of Presbyterians
for Renewal, said he thought the revisions amounted to a serious weakening of
what he had thought was "an excellent, very strong" position paper. Berkley
had warned during previous ACSWP meetings against a tendency to "dance
around" controversial issues and to "leave doors open, kind of cleverly," to
too broad a range of interpretations.

Harper commended Wisdom for his contributions, saying: "If we don't have
Alan's participation, it won't pass" the Assembly. The committee's vice
chair, the Rev. Sue Dickson of El Paso, TX, encouraged the group to offer its
thanks to all who contributed to the report, "especially Alan, who has
created a whole new document for us."

The current draft asks the 216th General Assembly to approve "Transforming
Families" for churchwide study and to instruct ACSWP to prepare and
promulgate a "related study/action guide."

In addition to the "affirmations" already quoted, the report says:

*"Families are called to live by the grace of God, for the love of God, and
in the communion of the Holy Spirit";

*"Family is not to be an ultimate identity or loyalty. Families are called,
in authentic Christian discipleship, to turn outward in lives of love and
service to God and neighbors";

*"The Church is a new kind of family, with all its members related mutually
(rather than hierarchically) as sisters and brothers in Christ";

*"Marriage is a gift God has given to humankind for the good of all humans";

*"Adoption is a metaphor for human relationship with God and a model for the
extension of familial commitments beyond the ties of birth and marriage";

*"Sin is a pervasive reality in all human relationships, producing
destructive behaviors that are symptoms of 'alienation from God, neighbors
and self' (Confession of 1967)";

*"Prevalent values of materialism, consumerism, individualism and hedonism
distort and deface family life."

The section on recommendations begins with the observation, "The challenge of
strengthening and transforming families seems overwhelming. ... It is hard to
know where and how to begin."

Among the proposed recommendations:

*"All church members are called to extend the bonds of kinship beyond their
own marital-biological families. Each is encouraged to undertake at least one
family-extending relationship."

*"All church members can seek to practice family-strengthening virtues and
habits in their own lives";

*"Local congregations can commit themselves to a program of comprehensive
support for loving, lasting, egalitarian marriages";

*"Presbyteries, clusters of churches within presbyteries, or particular
congregations can approach local church bodies of other denominations about
the possibility of joining in a community marriage policy consistent with the
values affirmed in this policy statement";

*"General Assembly entities, synods, presbyteries, congregations and
individual Presbyterians can 'bring the church's influence to bear so that
the media will act to strengthen moral values'".

One major ACSWP response to its assignment from last year's GA was to include
a new theological review prepared by the Rev. Charles Wiley of the Office of
Theology and Worship.

It says that, "While the basic marital-biological form is not the only
acceptable form of family, it ... exemplifies in a basic way God's ordering
of the interpersonal life for which he created humankind."

During the committee's last meeting, in December, Wiley's work didn't seem to
stir much controversy or opposition. But during last week's meeting, ACSWP
member Ronald Stone, a retired professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
and an elder at East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, objected to
the emphasis Wiley had put on Baptism as a context for a Christian
understanding of family.

"I would abandon this whole discussion of baptism," he said. "I don't think
putting it into connection with one of our two sacraments is a gain. We were
not asked to do a theology of Baptism."

The Rev. Jack Terry, a member from Portland, OR, agreed, saying: "I think the
mandate is to talk about the social-cultural context." He also suggested
moving the theological section from the front of the report to the back.

Stone also criticized as "unrealistic" the revised paper's claim that single
people are called to "chaste and disciplined lives."

"I would substitute 'responsible' for 'chaste and disciplined' every time it
appears," he said. "I raised four children. I would never teach them to be
chaste; that means a virgin. I always taught them to be responsible.

"Every pastor I talk with tells me the people who are not married are not
virgins."

Sulyok said he is confident that "Transforming Families" will be finished and
polished by the Feb. 27 deadline and will be approved by the Assembly.

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