wfn.org | Commentary by Bob Browne

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

21-Jun-1997 
GA97120                     Commentary 
 
 
SYRACUSE--"The Presbyterian Church will never get out of trouble 
until it gets out of the pelvic zone."  Price Gwynn, a former GA 
moderator,  spoke this prophetic word to the General Assembly Council 
at their recent meeting.  
     Imagine that!  My word, Emma!  Upon my soul! 
     Whether the Council agreed with Gwynn or not, denominational 
leaders were clearly aware of the pain of many Presbyterians caused 
by the presbyteries' approval of Amendment B.  They had also noted 
centrifugal forces driving many loyal members from the center of the 
institution's life toward its periphery and some farther still.  
Leaders knew they were dealing with a giant case of Ooops! 
     Thus, the overriding theme of this General Assembly became 
"Unity!  Unity!  Unity!"  The word and its synonyms were spoken 
repeatedly in worship, committee meetings and business sessions as 
though its magic would create warm fuzzies.  It sounded like 
motherhood, apple pie and . . . . fidelity. 
     Yet the emphasis on unity sounded to many like a threatening 
denial of the right to dissent and an idolatry of the institution.  
Their dissent, they claim, is not a violation of the grace, mystery 
and purposes of God; but a legitimate response to abuse by an 
institution ruined by dogma.   
      
     An institution, even the PCUSA, is a temporal occurance, 
available to the senses, a fixed medium for realities that transcend 
its structures in the same way the sun transcends a solar battery.  
If our institution demands blind obedience to what many consider a 
violation of transcendent truth, it is invoking an authority over 
conscience--an authority it dare not claim.   
     In a church of the reformation that, at least until now, has 
believed that "God alone is Lord of the conscience," dissension is a 
blessing, not a curse.   And a major strength of reformed traditions 
has been their allowance of difference.  Some at the Assembly grieved 
that this may be a genesis moment of oppression in the UPC(USA), a 
birth of contemporary dogma.  Faith and its implementation are 
structurally unhealthy if they employ unhealthy means or lead to 
unhealthy outcomes.   
     Argumentation and conflict are normally benign in the church, 
often leading to greater understanding and faith.  The scariness of 
this current squabble is that it strikes at the heart of what it 
means to be human.  If those in authority (read power) teach or 
enforce belief or behavior that fails to correspond to the genuine 
experience of the People of God, those teachings and enforcements 
manifest their own unbelievability. 
     Any religious plan, teaching or amendment  that divides the 
individual human person, igniting conflicts between body and soul or 
intellect and emotions, is, has been, and always will be unhealthy.  
Religious leaders whose teachings or enforcements on sexuality remain 
based on this butchered model of human personality lose credibility 
among the faithful; so do their teachings.   Forays into the most 
intimate and sensitive facets of individual lives leave an enormous 
chasm between the institution and the People of God. 
     Any religious body with accepted authority is comfortable with 
human persons, integrating them with, not alienating them from, their 
sexuality.  Jesus' chief targets were religious leaders who 
perpetuated their minute control of people's behavior through 
managing a hypocritical religion of obsessive external regulation.   
On the other hand, if the institution could seize this moment and 
respond to it gracefully, this time could generate an outbreak of 
faith, love, hope and greater truth than we now understand.  A 
journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  But the 
second step often consists of sitting down to remove the stone from 
your shoe.  "Amendment B-plus" may be that second step. 
     Failing that, the PCUSA will have walked into the deepest do-do 
of its recent history.  And its greatest hope will be in knowing that 
few Presbyterians pay any attention to the staples of institutional 
concern.  The show goes on, but the audience has drifted away.  Most 
are too busy with real life to notice what is playing at the 
institutional festival.  And, like Elvis, the denomination may become 
even more fat, slow and lazy, then self-destruct; only to resurface 
at shopping malls and service stations across rural America. 
     Faith, even the Presbyterian brand, is not a controlled 
substance.  Denominational survival usually comes by dumb luck and 
forgiveness. 
 
Rev. Robert (Bob) Browne, Honorably Retired, Cayuga-Syracuse 
Presbytery      

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