wfn.org | Rogers raps 'militant fundamentalists' in PC(USA)

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Note #6935 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

06-November-2001
01416

Rogers raps 'militant fundamentalists' in PC(USA) 

Moderator says Lay Committee is out to seize control of the denomination 

by Alexa Smith
              
PASADENA, CA - The Rev. Jack Rogers, moderator of the 213th General
Assembly, has denounced the Presbyterian Lay Committee as a "militant
fundamentalist" group that wants to seize control of the Presbyterian Church
(USA).

Rogers' remarks, made during the recent annual meeting of the Covenant
Network here, drew sporadic applause from a seemingly surprised group of
about 350 Presbyterians.

Rogers said the Lay Committee is using Biblical literalism against the
church and intends to silence its social witness. He said the Lay Committee
espouses "common fundamentalist themes," and this year has "gone further in
(its) destructive course than ever before."

He coupled his warning with a plea to church members - liberal and
conservative alike - to take a "Sept. 11 pledge" not to propose any more
legislation or start new judicial actions on ordination standards until the
recently-appointed 21-member Theological Task Force presents its final
report in 2005. "We need more education, not legislation," Rogers said.

The task force was authorized by this year's General Assembly (GA) "to lead
the PC(USA) in spiritual discernment of our Christian identity ... seeking
the peace, unity and purity of the church."

The Covenant Network is the largest organization of Presbyterians working to
eliminate G-6.0106b from the church's Book of Order. The controversial
provision, ratified in 1997, bans the ordination of those - notably, gays
and lesbians - who fail to practice "fidelity within the covenant of
marriage between a man and woman or chastity in singleness." The network has
promised to push legislation to delete G-6.0106b every year until the
provision is eliminated.

Rogers has publicly criticized the Lay Committee before, but has never gone
into such detail about his objections to the conservative group. The
Committee's newspaper, The Presbyterian Layman, upset by the GA's actions -
especially its decision on the so-called "fidelity/chastity" provision and a
statement on Christology - charged that the entire Assembly was "apostate,"
or un-Christian.

Rogers, drawing on research on fundamentalism by George Marsden, said
militant fundamentalists believe they must "fight a 'holy war' against
change, against the present culture, to bring back an ideal culture."

"Those of their own community who do not support this holy war are called
apostate ... (and) these militant fundamentalists usually select a few
features of their imagined perfect past and make them absolute," Rogers
said. "This is often set forth as the necessity to believe a few precisely
worded doctrinal statements."

The moderator said the Lay Committee has promoted the Confessing Church
Movement and its "hastily drawn up, rigidly worded, three-point creed tied
to a political agenda," as a way to further its own cause. He called the
creed, which attests that Jesus is the only Savior of the world, the Bible
is infallible and sex is appropriate only between married heterosexual
couples, "the Layman's creed."

"We have, as a denomination, something much better," he said. "A Book of
Confessions, representing centuries of wisdom from our forbears in the faith
who have lived and died for the faith that they have bequeathed to us. We
have something more: A democratic process involving the whole church, by
which we prepare and choose the creeds by which we will live ...

"Are we ready to toss aside the wisdom of the church, and a democratic
process, for the dictatorship of a special interest group with a
self-serving political agenda?" he asked.

Rogers, who calls himself an evangelical, was careful to distinguish between
evangelicals and "militant fundamentalists."

"There is a significant difference between evangelicals, who want to change
the church in a more conservative direction, and fundamentalists who want to
tear down the church and refuse to work within it," he said. "I believe that
most evangelicals and members of the Confessing Church Movement want to
affirm their faith and remain within the denomination as a conservative and
constructive presence. Why then align themselves with what I think is a
potentially schismatic group?"

He said one tenet of the fundamentalists' belief is that some people are
excluded from God's grace.

Rogers said the GA was wise to point out that Presbyterians neither
"restrict the grace of God to those who profess explicit faith in Christ,
nor assume that all people are saved regardless of faith."

"We are not God, and we should not play God," he said. 

He added: "I've been reading my Bible every day since I was a small boy.
Most of my study and writing during my adult life has been regarding
Biblical and confessional interpretation. ... I can tell you with complete
confidence that the real Bible is much deeper and richer and more
challenging than the superficial literalism that passes for believing in
Scripture in some quarters."

Rogers built his case against what he called schismatic and fundamentalist
thinking by quoting from a speech made by Robert Howard, the Lay Committee
chair, during last month's annual meeting of the Presbyterian Coalition, a
group that opposes the ordination of gays and lesbians.

He said Howard used the word "war" in advocating a campaign to take over the
denomination and called the Confessing Church Movement a "shadow church." He
said Howard also encouraged congregations to withhold both per-capita and
mission funds from the denomination, and proposed that any PC(USA) churches
theologically out of step with the conservatives be invited to leave the
denomination.

"I try to read some of the Gospels every day, along with other Old and New
Testament passages," Rogers said. "I find no evidence that Jesus spent His
time leading a moral crusade to support the status quo in society. I find no
evidence that He was busy seeking out people who should be excluded from the
church because they were different from the majority. The only people that
Jesus continually was in conflict with were the people who were determined
to uphold the law, as their culture defined the law. Jesus continually
defied the norms of his culture."

He said the Jesus of the Bible is loving and accepting, and ought to be
shared with those who feel excluded by what he called "our self-righteous
religious culture."

He drew applause when he said the decline of the family in U.S. society
cannot be blamed on homosexuals who want to live in committed relationships.

"None of these (problems) will be solved by denying same-sex couples the
right to legal and church sanction for publicly committing to a life-long
relationship," he said. "In a culture of non-marriage, it is very ironic
that we are spending great amounts of money and energy in trying to prevent
people from marrying who want to do so in a way that would contribute to the
stability of society and the enrichment of the church."

Commenting on the threat of schism, Rogers told his audience: "We did not
choose each other because we agreed on every issue. God chose us, and made
us a part of God's family, the body of Christ. We need to acknowledge and
rejoice in our common commitment to Jesus Christ ... and find therein a
basis for continued relationship."

During an open-microphone session after Rogers' address, the Rev. Michael
Bruner, of Malibu, CA, who identified himself as a supporter of the
Coalition, said: "Not everyone in the Coalition supports the Lay Committee.
I don't. I think they're creating schism in the church." Nor do all
Coalition members support the Confessing Church Movement, he said. "I am one
who does not."

Some participants in at least one workshop during the Coalition meeting
complained that the link between the Confessing Church Movement and the Lay
Committee has kept some churches from signing on to the confession. The Lay
Committee provides a Web site for the Confessing Church Movement.

Before introducing Rogers, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the denomination's
stated clerk, said he has "reluctantly" come to believe that some of the
alienated parties within the church may leave.

He urged the Covenant Network to seek an agreement with the Coalition to
hold their next annual meetings simultaneously - perhaps doing business
separately, but coming together for worship. Tim Hart-Anderson, a Network
board member, said it has proposed such collaboration in the past, but the
Coalition has declined. He said the Network will try again next year.

Rogers, who resigned as a Network advisor on becoming moderator, is
considered a traitor by some evangelicals because he has changed his mind on
the ordination of gays and lesbians.

Asked what he'd like people to do to support him, he said he neednt be
thought of as "poor ole Jack." He said he sleeps well at night despite the
stress. He asked for prayers that he be given wisdom and judgment as well as
courage and strength.

He said he hoped to be a "bridge-builder" as moderator of the embattled
denomination, "but that has not proved to be true  so Im trying to be a
truth-teller."
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