Letter to the Presbyterian Church
We write this letter out of deep love for our church and our
commitment to Jesus Christ.
This year, Presbyterians will be asked to consider a significant
amendment to the *Book of Order*, one which we think will have an
extremely negative impact on the life of congregations and
presbyteries. It would amend G-6.0106 by adding this paragraph:
"Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life
of obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic
confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is
the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of
marriage of a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in
singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged
practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained
and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and
Sacrament."
This overture is an attempt to resolve the on-going debate
concerning the ordination of practicing homosexual persons. But
the proposed amendment goes far beyond that issue and will
confront congregational nominating committees, committees on
ministry and preparation for ministry, pastor nominating
committees and individuals with extremely complex theological and
pastoral problems.
The last sentence, including the words "any self-acknowledged
practice which the confessions call sin," will prove nearly
impossible to interpret and, thus, impossible to enforce. Whereas
some confessions speak of sinful behavior in general categories
(e.g. "we violate the image of God in others and ourselves" --
Brief Statement of Faith), others are quite specific. The
Heidelberg and Larger and Shorter Catechisms all list various
behaviors held to be violations of each of the Ten Commandments.
In the Larger Catechism, sinful behavior includes "undue delay of
marriage" and "usury" (charging interest on a loan). It also
condemns work and causing others to work on the Sabbath as well
as "needless ... thoughts about our worldly employments ...." (C-
7.229).
Obvious and difficult questions arise immediately. In the modern
world, where so much economic activity is dependent upon interest
rates, what constitutes "usury," and who decides? What if
someone's job requires work on Sunday and that person in fact
does not "repent" of having that job? It would seem that
prospective elders, deacons and ministers need to repent of all
sins specified by the various catechisms and confessions. What if
sessions and presbyteries do not agree about what constitutes
sinful behavior? What about behavior which we might now consider
sinful but are not mentioned in any confessional standard? And
who decides what is full and appropriate repentance?
At the core of this proposed amendment is the affirmation of the
values of chastity and fidelity. The importance of these values
in the biblical tradition and Christian faith is unquestioned.
But what does it mean to turn these values into criteria for
ordination and/or installation to office? When an ideal is
reduced to a legal requirement, the spirit of Law has become
narrow legalism.
The problem is not simply interpreting a text: it is pastoral.
Most pastors know that many couples who present themselves for
premarital counseling have been sexually active with each other
at least once during their courtship. There is a variety of ways
to address this issue in the context of Christian marriage
counseling. But does such activity *automatically prevent* a man
or woman with such a background from ordination and/or
installation to office?
These are only some of the questions that will have to be asked
and answered whenever *any* church member is under consideration
for *any* office in the church. What this language implies is not
simply the affirmation of a "higher standard of behavior" for
church officers. It requires the examination of behavior
potentially bordering on inquisition, if it is to be taken
seriously at all.
A goal of those who presented this amendment to the General
Assembly was to call church members and officers to a renewed
commitment to life and ministry grounded in scripture and the
theological tradition of the church. We believe an amendment such
as this does precisely the opposite. It transforms the
confessions from great teaching documents which provide
*guidance* (G-14.0207c) into standards which require
*compliance*. The strength of a confessional tradition is the
attempt to interpret scripture and its requirements for Christian
living for the needs of a *particular* day and time. To treat the
teaching of various catechisms as unchanging accounts of specific
behavior that is either required or prohibited will not deepen
our appreciation of our tradition. It will only make it less
useful and more remote.
Those who have undertaken to write and sign this letter are not
of one mind about the central issue which has given rise to the
amendment before the church. As regards the specific matter of
the ordination of active gay or lesbian persons to office in the
church, some are opposed, some are in favor, some see this as a
matter properly determined by sessions and presbyteries, and some
feel that there is more to be discerned and that any
constitutional amendment is premature.
We are united, however, in our conviction that this is the wrong
solution to that matter because it gives rise to more problems
than it will solve. This is a case where no action is better than
the wrong action. We urge your presbytery either to vote to take
no action or to vote against this amendment. We also urge more
patience with one another as we all seek to be faithful to our
Lord in the one Body of Christ.
Joanna Adams, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, GA; Wallace
M. Alston, Center for Theological Inquiry, Princeton, NJ; Herbert
B. Anderson, The Brick Presbyterian Church, New York, NY; Eugene
Bay, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr, PA; Dorothy
Bernard, Former G.A. Moderator, St. Louis, MO; Robert Bohl,
Former G.A. Moderator, Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie
Village, KS; Wayne Boulton, Presbyterian School of Christian
Education, Richmond, VA; Cynthia M. Campbell, McCormick
Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL; Calvin Chinn, Chinatown
Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, CA; James Costen,
Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, GA; Robert
Dunham, University Presbyterian Church, Chapel Hill, NC; John
Fife, Former G.A. Moderator, Southside Presbyterian Church,
Tucson, AZ; William J. Fogleman, Denton, TX; Freda A. Gardner,
Princeton Seminary, Professor Emerita; Bryant George, New York
Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington DC; Sheila Gustafson,
First Presbyterian Church, Santa Fe, NM; Shirley Guthrie,
Columbia Seminary, Decatur, GA; Joseph S. Harvard III, First
Presbyterian Church, Durham, NC; Hugh Halverstadt, McCormick
Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL; Cynthia A Jarvis, Chestnut
Hill Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA; Deane A. Kemper,
Lakeside Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, CA; Robert Lamar,
Former G.A. Moderator, Newtonville, NY; Michael Lindvall, First
Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor, Ml; G. Daniel Little, Ithaca, NY;
Linda C. Loving, First Presbyterian Church, Oakland, CA; James
Lowry, Idlewild Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN; William P.
Lytle, Former G.A. Moderator, San Antonio, TX; Clinton Marsh,
Former G.A. Moderator, Atlanta, GA; Denton McLellan, Germantown
Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN; John D. McLeod, Western North
Carolina Presbytery; Blair Monie, Preston Hollow Presb. Church,
Dallas, TX; Irvin S. Moxley, Fairmount Presb. Church, Cleveland
Hts., OH; Harriet Nelson, Former G.A. Moderator, Napa, CA;
Douglas W. Oldenburg, Columbia Seminary, Decatur, GA; Kent M.
Organ, Fairmount Presb. Church, Cleveland Hts., OH; K. C. Ptomey,
Westminster Presb. Church, Nashville, TN; Roger Quillin,
Northridge Presbyterian Church, Dallas, TX; Howard Rice, San
Francisco Theological Seminary; Bruce Rigdon, Memorial Presb.
Church, Grosse Pointe, MI; Isabel Rogers, Former G.A. Moderator,
Presb. School of Christian Educ., Richmond, VA; Jack Rogers, San
Francisco Theological Seminary; J. Barrie Shepherd, First
Presbyterian Church, New York, NY; Harry E. Smith, Pres.
Emeritus, Austin College, Sherman,TX; Benjamin O. Sparks, Second
Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA; Gordon C. Stewart, Westminster
Presb. Church, Minneapolis, MN; Jack Stotts, Austin, TX; George
Stroup, Columbia Seminary, Decatur, GA; Laird J. Stuart, Calvary
Presb. Church, San Francisco, CA; Terry Swicegood, Myers Park
Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, NC; J. Randolph Taylor, Former
G.A. Moderator, Asheville, NC; William P. Thompson, Former G.A.
Stated Clerk, La Grange, IL; Herbert Valentine, Former G.A.
Moderator, Baltimore Presbytery; Jon Walton, Westminster Presb.
Church, Wilmington, DE; Theodore J. Wardlaw, Central Presbyterian
Church, Atlanta, GA; Benjamin Weir, Former G.A. Moderator,
Oakland, CA; Barbara G. Wheeler, Auburn Theological Seminary, New
York, NY; Albert C. Winn, Former G.A. Moderator, Decatur, GA.
*Institutional Identification is for Information Only.*
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14 Reasons Why Amendment B Should Not Be Affirmed
by Robert Lehman
["Amendment B" is the official designation for the "chastity"
amendment. -- JDA]
1. The proposed amendment would deprive congregations and
presbyteries from electing certain members whom they discern to
have received from God the necessary gifts to serve as officers
in the church. Within the limits specified in the *Book of Order*,
it is the inalienable right and responsibility of congregations
to elect elders and deacons, and of presbyteries to elect
ministers of the Word and Sacrament. If God has given an
individual the necessary gifts, the electing body should be free
to recognize this reality and to act accordingly.
2. The *Book of Order* assigns to the appropriate governing body
(the session for elders and deacons; the presbytery for ministers
of the Word and Sacrament) [Book of Order, chp 6] the
responsibility of determining whether or not a particular member
has the necessary gifts to serve effectively in a particular
office of the church. It is our firm conviction that God's Spirit
grants these gifts to certain individuals, and it is the
responsibility of sessions and presbyteries to discern them. The
proposed amendment, if adopted, would prevent these governing
bodies, in certain instances, from moving to ordination and
installation, even when the member quite obviously has been
blessed by God with the necessary gifts.
3. It is our conviction that, while human error is always
possible, the Spirit of God actively guides sessions and
presbyteries as they seek to discern the Spirit-given gifts in
candidates for ordination. And it must be remembered that it is
the local governing body that knows each candidate and that can
best discern the necessary gifts.
4. Certain fundamentals of faith and commitment are required of
all candidates for ordination and installation. These are
enumerated in the ordination questions to which each candidate
must respond in the affirmative [See Form of Government, G-
14.0207]. When a candidate responds affirmatively to each of
these questions, the church may anticipate in faith that this
candidate is prepared to serve effectively.
5. The overture in question, for the first time ever, proposes to
establish parts of the *Book of Confessions* as absolute standards
by which individuals would be accepted or rejected for ordination
and installation. Until now, one has affirmed "that the essential
tenets of the Reformed faith" are expressed in the confessions of
our church [*The Book of Confessions*] and one has promised to be
"instructed and led by those confessions as [one] leads the
people of God."
6. The proposed overture would specify that "any ... practice which
the confessions call sin" would exclude an individual from
ordination and/or installation. As many as 250 practices are
identified as "sin" in the *Book of Confessions*. A few examples
are as follows:
BOC 7.227 Westminster Larger Catechism -- Question and answer #117
on keeping the Sabbath. This could prohibit installing a deacon
or elder who engaged in any kind of labor or played tennis or
golf or went fishing on Sunday.
BOC 7.228 Westminster Larger Catechism -- Question and answer #118
condemns all who employ others to work on Sundays.
BOC 4.110 The Heidelberg Catechism -- Question and answer #110
forbid deceptive advertising and merchandising, exorbitant
interest, all greed and the misuse and waste of God's gifts.
BOC 7.249 The Westminster Larger Catechism -- Question and answer
#139. Among the "sins" that would require confession are all
unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections,
immodest apparel, undue delay of marriage, idleness, gluttony and
drunkenness.
BOC 5.191 The Second Helvetic Confession. It is forbidden that
women should perform baptisms or other ecclesiastical functions.
7. There were 236 commissioners at the 208th General Assembly who
voted that this was a bad overture and that it should be
defeated. While 313 commissioners voted for the overture, there
was by no means a consensus (57% to 43%) that it should be
affirmed.
8. If this overture were approved, it would be incumbent upon
every session and every presbytery to examine each candidate for
ordination and/or installation as to whether he/she had ever
committed any of the "sins" identified in the *Book of Confessions*
and if so, whether or not he/she had confessed these "sins." If
this careful examination of each candidate were not done, the
governing body would be guilty of selectively deciding to apply
this proposed rule to certain individuals only.
9. This proposed amendment would open the church to the
possibility of self-righteous hypocrisy, as those "without sin"
would sit in judgment upon those who confess that they have
"sinned."
10. This proposed amendment would establish a two-tiered morality
in our church. One could become a member in good standing without
acknowledging and confessing these "sins," but officers would be
required to measure up to this different standard.
11. While Jesus referred to certain behavior as contrary to God's
purposes (e.g. divorce), he never identified homosexual
relationships as wrong. His emphasis was always upon receiving
the good news of the gospel and upon responding in faithfulness
and love to the Reign of God.
12. Our ultimate obedience must always be to our risen Lord Jesus
Christ, as his Spirit enables us to discern his will in the light
of the Scriptures.
13. The Bible, properly understood in its historical context,
cannot be used to argue that long-term, committed relationships
between people of the same sex are contrary to God's will. Thirty
professors of Bible in Presbyterian seminaries have signed a
letter which states: "It is the gospel of Jesus that invites gay
and lesbian brothers and sister to full communion in the church;
and it is the justice of Jesus that calls and equips Christians
for ministry; and it is the justice of Jesus that calls us to
insure that those who are invited, called and equipped are free
to fulfill their ministries among us with the full recognition
and support of the church."
14. The passage of this overture would bring much confusion and
pain into the life of our churches and presbyteries. It will be
far better to defeat the overture, and leave the decision, in
each case, to the session or presbytery who knows the candidate
and who will prayerfully seek the leading of God's Spirit.
NOTE: There has been no attempt to prioritize these reasons. Some
are, without doubt, more essential than others. But each stands
in its own right. I am not particularly interested in trying to
defend them, but I would be willing to respond if a someone has
difficulty in understanding what I have tried to state very
briefly. I would be interested to learn if someone believes I
have failed to mention an important reason for defeating the
proposed overture. -- Robert Lehman, Marcellus, NY, October 1996;
PresbyNet: ROBERT LEHMAN; internet: robert_lehman.parti@ecunet.org
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