wfn.org | Network wants to talk about polity, not sex

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Note #6932 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05-November-2001
01413

Network wants to talk about polity, not sex

If Amendment A passes, advocates say, both sides lose - and win 

by Alexa Smith

PASADENA - The Rev. Tim Hart-Anderson rolls up his sleeves when he talks
strategy.

He rolled them up during the Nov. 1-3 annual meeting of the Covenant
Network, the largest Presbyterian group lobbying for passage of Amendment A,
which would delete G-6.0106b of The Book of Order, requiring that church
officers practice "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man
and a woman or chastity in singleness."

He espoused a pragmatic approach in the current battle over the amendment:
"Amendment A is the middle ground. It doesn't forbid, it doesn't require,"
Hart-Anderson said. "It allows the discussion (to) happen where it ought to
happen - in congregations and presbyteries. Governing bodies have the right
to determine their own membership. 'A' honors that."

Amendment A is the subject of heated debate now in the church's 173
presbyteries. If approved by a majority of them, it would delete a
controversial clause of the church constitution that explicitly makes sexual
behavior a concern of the committees that examine prospective church
officers. The proposed amendment would put the question of the integrity of
candidates' sexual relationships in the hands of local governing bodies,
which would be free to decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether or not to
ask about sexual behavior.

Liberals in the church claim that, while the controversial clause, G-0106.b,
applies to all unmarried church leaders, it is employed only in the cases of
gay and lesbian candidates, who by church law are forbidden to marry and
thus are forced into lives of celibacy or secrecy.

Yet Hart-Anderson insisted: "The Amendment A argument is not about sex. It's
about freedom of conscience on the ordination decision."

His argument was that the passage of the amendment would give neither side
exactly what it wants. The conservatives wouldn't get to categorically
exclude gays and lesbians from church office. The liberals wouldn't get a
constitutional affirmation of gays and lesbians for ministry.

"People can't talk about sex well," he said, "but Presbyterians can talk
about polity. ... We're just admitting that we disagree on sexuality - that
we're not of one mind."

The strategy the liberals intend to use this time around - a previous
attempt in 1997 to delete G-6.0106b was defeated 57-117 - is to talk polity
first, Scripture second, and sex not at all.

The Covenant Network's brochure, "Organizing Toward Presbytery Votes," puts
it like this: "The primary issue in this vote is what kind of church we want
to be part of - a Church in which we assume the best of one another,
honoring freedom of conscience and the duty of mutual forbearance, or a
church in which only one point of view is tolerated."

As Hart-Anderson said: "For over 20 years, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has
debated this issue, and it has not brought peace or unity. G-0106.b is an
experiment that failed. Our hope is not that the church agree  but to
return to the historic belief in freedom of conscience on non-essentials (of
the faith)."

In one organizing workshop, Pamela Byers, the Covenant Network's executive
director, argued that deleting G-0106.b would accord with Presbyterian
history. She pointed out that G-0106.b is the only part of the Book of Order
that limits the discretion of presbyteries in ordination. "This is an
un-Presbyterian piece," she said.

Byers and Hart-Anderson had a rapt but tiny workshop audience - some from
'swing' presbyteries that have had close votes on sex-related issues in the
past, others from conservative presbyteries who feel that they're beaten
before they start.

So proponents of 'A' were encouraged to approach congregations and
individual Presbyterians to begin making the case for 'A'; to alert possible
supporters among extra-parish clergy and retired ministers about meeting
dates; to consider hosting a presbytery-wide gathering "In Support of an
Inclusive Church"; to share a new video, Core Presbyterian Values:  Freedom
of Conscience and Mutual Forbearance in Non-Essential Matters, with voters
who might be swayed; and to be civil and respond calmly to "fear-mongering"
and threats of a split in the church.

In the Nov. 2 workshop, the talking points came down to five: 1) giving
presbyteries discretion is the middle way; 2) it is congruent with
Presbyterian polity; 3) it supports mutual forbearance in a church deeply
divided; 4) it ends the political battle; and 5) while Scripture does not
offer texts that specifically affirm homosexuality, it does speak of God's
grace and does call for tolerance of people not in the mainstream.

Network literature points out that the removal of "A" would leave in force
requirements that church officers be people of "strong faith, dedicated
discipleship and love of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord," whose "manner of
life" demonstrates the Christian Gospel in the church and in the world.

About 350 Presbyterians attended the conference at Pasadena Presbyterian
Church, a downtown congregation once pastored by noted ecumenist the Rev.
Eugene Caron Blake, that has long historic ties to progressive causes.

The Covenant Network has committed $100,000 to its campaign to win approval
for "A," most of it to be used to produce and distribute a video of a
PowerPoint presentation created for last summer's General Assembly by
advocates for overtures to delete G-0106.b. The Network is repackaging it
for a broader market and will send it free to those who want it. (For more
information, visit the Covenant Network Web site at
www.covenantnetwork.org).

The Presbyterian Coalition, an organization formed in 1993 to oppose the
ordination of homosexuals, committed $300,000 to its campaign against
Amendment A during its annual conference last month, attended by more than
1,300 evangelicals and conservatives. The Coalition also is promoting a
video, A Call to Faithfulness, produced by Presbyterians for Renewal,
another evangelical group within the PC(USA)., that is available free to
churches. (It may be obtained by calling the Maderia-Silverwood Church in
Cincinnati, 513-791-4471.)
 
Doug Nave, a gay man who is a trustee at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in
New York City, narrated the PowerPoint presentation during a plenary
session. "I believe we're not divided by homosexuality nearly so much as
we're divided by a failure to respect our own polity," he said. "We have
tried to govern through power. ... What we've forgotten is that power
doesn't give our actions authority. Almost half of our denomination believes
that our ordination standards are wrong. ...

"And we won't have denominational peace and unity until we honor that
viewpoint every bit as much as we honor the view of those who agree with our
present rules."

That's not to say that participants in the conference - which marked the
50th anniversary of the publication of Richard Niebuhr's classic book,
Christ and Culture - weren't also thinking about Scripture and what it says
about the debate.

Keynoter Peter Gomes, a Harvard College professor and best-selling author,
said conservatives "must not be allowed to build a fence around Scripture"
and claim its authority purely for themselves.

Gomes, an openly gay American Baptist minister, cited several Scriptural
principles that he said apply, the foremost being that of Imago Dei - that
human beings are created in the image of God, a fact, he said, that must be
honored in all people: "That is a sound, unambiguous Scriptural principle."

Speaking from a towering pulpit in the church, Gomes said that redemption is
possible, even for an un-inclusive church; that it is, in fact, inevitable.
"And because of that possibility for redemption," he said, "we do not give
up, we do not lose heart."

Gomes urged those in attendance to pray and picket, lobby and labor to love
"for redemption is not inevitable without the faithful work of the people of
God." He added, "You are engaged in an heroic enterprise," that he say may
ultimately love their enemies "into extinction."

In a workshop on hospitable and transforming churches, the Rev. Laird
Stuart, of San Francisco, the network's immediate past co-moderator, said
liberals are often "fundamentally misrepresented" by their opponents.

"They often say, 'Show me a text,'" demanding evidence that the Bible
supports homosexual practice, Stuart told his listeners. He admitted that
there are no texts that do so directly, but others may be interpreted to
help understand the quandary in the church.

In Acts 10, he said, Peter is unable to find a Biblical passage in support
of eating unclean foods, the first step in outreach to Gentiles in the early
church. "He gets that (understanding) from a vision, a vision from God,"
Stuart said. "Now that's shaky territory - but important territory."

Stuart said that text acknowledges that the risen Christ may come to
followers in ways other than the written Word, as in the case of Paul's
conversion on the Damascus road.

He also cited Luke 13, in which synagogue leaders tell Jesus that scripture
forbids healing a sick person on the Sabbath. When his act of mercy is
criticized, Jesus draws on moral authority rather than Torah authority, and
calls those who oppose him hypocrites, Stuart said.

In closing, Stuart said, conservatives accuse liberals of "accommodating to
the culture."

"I want to say to those who think (so) that we want to be agents of Christ,
transforming churches, transforming culture. The new Amendment A allows us
to live together, instead of playing upon our divisions, or making them
worse.  Amendment A allows our polity (to find a way) of staying together.

"A whole church is a far more effective witness to the transforming power of
Christ than a fractured church," he said. "Take that message back to your
presbyteries for people to hear. And it will be good news for them."
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