wfn.org | Churches Struggle in Pitching Big Tent

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

Reply-To: wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>
27-July-1998 
98229 
 
    Churches Struggle in Pitching Big Tent 
 
    by Leslie Scanlon 
    The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal 
    (Reprinted with permission) 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.- All week long they fought - about homosexuality, abortion, 
sex education, gun control, cigarettes, the legacy of Hiroshima.  The 
cynical view is that the conservative Presbyterians were lining up against 
liberal Presbyterians in useless verbal battles that never solve anything 
and never go away. 
 
    Then the Rev. James Mead of Tacoma, Wash., came to the microphone at 
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  Mead had been 
chosen the Assembly's vice moderator a few days earlier - and he laid out 
with uncommon honesty what was at stake. 
 
    "I believe we are called to be a big-tent church, a church that holds 
people in the church if we possibly can," he said. 
 
    Some denominations are "a bit like a squirt gun," shooting out a narrow 
stream of water, Mead said later.  You either stand in the right spot and 
get hit by that one stream or you don't belong at all. 
 
    The Presbyterian Church "ought to be a mighty river, broad and deep," 
Mead argued.  "But even the mightiest river has boundaries." 
 
    In some way, this question of who's in and who's out in denominations 
and congregations is one that affects many of us.  Some folks have chosen 
to be out - they're happy not to be a part of something that seems wrong to 
them. 
 
    But others spend a considerable amount of time and effort trying to 
find a place where they do belong - a place where they believe in what's 
preached; where the words match the deeds; where the right questions are 
asked and answers with which they can live are given. 
 
    But sometimes - especially when the denomination with which your heart 
is aligned does something you just can't agree with - it becomes tough to 
figure out whether you belong in the tent or not. 
 
    And sometimes the people in the tent start pushing.  "Real (insert 
denomination here) believe this.  If you don't believe this, then you're 
not really one of us." 
 
    What Mead is asking is basically this: How do we set the boundaries, 
declare what we stand for and also make room for people from within our 
tradition whose views are different from ours? 
 
    Some denominations say we don't - there's right and there's wrong, and 
we will stand with what's right even if others don't like it.  These are 
people who don't care about the size of the tent as long as it's pitched in 
the right spot. 
 
    And the reality is that some faiths that are flourishing are those that 
seem less tolerant of the views of others, which sends a clear and strong 
message about what they believe. 
 
    But the people in the big tent still are trying to find a way - a way 
to say "this is who we are" without driving people out.  Some argue that 
being inclusive makes religion "wishy-washy."  And Mead clearly wants a 
church that does have boundaries and limits about what is acceptable. 
 
    But he also understands that we all reach a point where we stand at the 
door and say, "Is there room here for me?"  And those asking the question 
will be all of us - in all of our diversity, with the full range of our 
beliefs. 
 
    People are listening for the answers - in the messages that religion 
sends about women, about minorities, about homosexuals, about compassion 
and hope, about wealth and poverty, about sin and the mistakes we've made, 
about judgment and forgiveness. 
 
    The answers don't have to be easy or cheap - faith should not be afraid 
to challenge us to think hard about what we believe.  But the answers must 
ring true across the lines that divide us - for young and old, for men and 
women, for people of all colors, for those who question and those who 
accept. 
 
    If we can't find hearts like ours around the table, if all we find are 
people who despise us, we will walk away. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by PCUSA NEWS
  to the wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>.
  Send unsubscribe requests to wfn-news-request@wfn.org