What's the Background of the "Fidelity and Chastity" Amendment
             A Witherspoon Society Background Paper
                 for the 208th General Assembly

Overtures from the presbyteries of San Gabriel (96-13) and Santa
Barbara (96-35) call for an amendment to the *Book of Order*,
specifying that the Christian "manner of life" (*Book of Order*
G-6.0106) includes "fidelity within the covenant of marriage" and
"chastity in singleness."

These overtures have an extensive background.  Their wording is
drawn from the United Methodist Book of Discipline, where it was
added in seven places after a judicial decision in 1984, in order
to preclude the ordination of self-professed gay and lesbian
candidates for ministry.

The amendment has been put forward at several General Assemblies;
each time it has been rejected.  The wording originally called
for "celibacy" in singleness, but it was pointed out that
"celibacy" means singleness; thus the amendment would simply call
for "singleness in singleness."  Now "chastity" has been
substituted.

As Bishop Desmond Tutu has pointed out, "It is only of homosexual
persons that we require universal celibacy, whereas for others we
teach that celibacy is a special vocation" (Foreword to *We Were
Baptized Too: Claiming God's Grace for Lesbians and Gays*,
Westminster/John Knox Press).  But the Reformation criticized
vows of celibacy even on the part of those who felt a special
vocation to the monastic life, and the *Book of Confessions*
condemns "entangling" vows of celibacy (C-5.250; C-7.249).  That,
however, is what is being asked for.  One woman said during a
presbytery debate, "You mean you're asking two people who love
each other faithfully that they must become celibate before they
can be called as leaders in the church?"

The amendment has always encountered opposition on the floor the
Assembly, where commissioners expressed uncertainties about
exactly what might be permitted or not permitted under this
amendment.  If it were to be adopted, specific moral guidelines
would be needed for its implementation.

While the amendment is generally regarded as a move against gay
men and lesbians, it would apply to all persons being considered
for ordained office.  Sooner or later issues of enforcement would
be raised, and these would affect all candidates for ordination.
What, for example, would be expected of divorced persons?  What
inquires would be made into the circumstances of the divorce?
Would only the "innocent" party be permitted to be ordained or
installed as a church officer?  Many issues of evidence and
procedure under the Rules of Discipline would be raised.  The Los
Ranchos overture (96-41) would require higher governing bodies to
correct any irregularity or cure any delinquency when a lower
governing body failed to enforce this rule.

A venerable former Moderator of the General Assembly has reminded
us that Jesus "redefined the family" in his teaching (Mk. 10:29-
30), urging people to leave parents and siblings, and even
omitting the role of father in his description of the new
community (cf. also Mt. 23:9).  The patriarchal family is not the
only standard of Christian life.  We can understand why Stanley
Hauerwas, the outspoken evangelical ethicist at Duke, when the
*New York Times* called and asked him whether he supported family
values, replied, "Hell, no, I'm a Christian!"

At the 1991 General Assembly a statement that "all who enter a
covenantal relationship are to be honored" was narrowly
defeated, and David Heim of the *Christian Century* commented
that "the church will find itself increasingly hard pressed not
to offer some formal acknowledgment of committed gay
relationships" in line with the classic Biblical theme of
covenant.

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        Regarding Presbyterians and Their Proposed Dogma
        Regarding Marriage Between One Man and One Woman
                   and Chastity in Singleness

    by Harold Porter, Pastor, Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church
                        Cincinnati, Ohio

Jesus would have to be examined more thoroughly by the Presbytery
before it validated his call to ministry -- for there would be
many rumors.

Rumors about:

- how he loved fallen women;

- his special love for Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha;

- how Jesus permitted a woman to wash his feet and wipe them with
her hair;

- how he broke cultural conventions when he publicly spoke with
women, such as the Samaritan who already was judged unclean both
morally and religiously;

- how Jesus allowed John, his beloved, to lay his head on his
breast.

Jesus, please *answer.*  Clarify the Rumors:

- Tell us more about your love life both public and private.  We
need to know before we can decide your fitness for this office.

- Are you sexually active, Jesus?

- Are you gay, Jesus -- and practicing?  Bi-sexual?

- and what kind of family values are you affirming when your
mother and brothers and sisters came to you, concerned about you,
and you said your family was those who do the will of God?  Won't
that lead to divorce and division in families?

Jesus, for peace, unity and purity's sake, we must know.

And so it goes at the 208th General Assembly in Albuquerque.  For
when the gay and lesbian children of God ask for bread, and those
other persons who find marriage unavailable or not helpful to
their lives, we Presbyterians simply forgot about Jesus who once
said to us, "When your children ask for bread, why do you give
them a stone?"  Please, General Assembly, don't send this to the
Presbyteries.  [But of course they did!]

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                  Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
                       Read Very Carefully

             by The Rev. Charles L. Rassieur, Ph.D.

I have just returned from the 208th General Assembly in
Albuquerque as a clergy commissioner from the Presbytery of the
Twin Cities Area. Because of action taken by the Assembly, 171
presbyteries will be voting in the next twelve months on the
amendment that begins with the words, **"Those who are called to
office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture
and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the
church."**  That sentence states the fundamental theological
premise for this amendment. It is a sentence that should be read
very carefully throughout the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for
it expresses a theology of faith and commitment that betrays the
essential Reformed theology in the ordination vows now taken by
every deacon, elder, and minister of the Word and Sacrament!

The constitutional ordination questions (*Book of Order* G14.0207
& G14.0405) for all three offices of deacon, elder, and minister
of the Word and Sacrament call for church officers to be obedient
specifically and **only** to Jesus Christ and not to Scripture,
and to be instructed, led, and guided by our historic
confessions, **not conformed** to those confessions. Those
ordination vows are written precisely as they are, because church
officers are to have but one Lord to whom they are obedient,
Jesus Christ. We may talk in the church however much we want
about the authority of Scripture, but the bedrock of the Reformed
tradition is obedience to Jesus Christ alone, a faithful
obedience that is properly instructed, led, and guided by our
church's historic confessions.

Those confessions speak clearly about the only One to whom we are
called to be obedient. Referring to baptism, The Westminster
Confession of Faith includes these words: "Not only those that do
actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, ..." (Book
of Confessions 6.157).  And, The Confession of 1967 declares in
the Preface: "Obedience to Jesus Christ alone identifies the one
universal church and supplies the continuity of its tradition.
This obedience is the ground of the church's duty and freedom to
reform itself in life and doctrine as new occasions, in God's
providence, may demand" (9.03).

There has long been confusion in the church about what is meant
by the Word and who or what is the Word. The crisis of that
theological confusion has now reached unprecedented proportions
for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the very first sentence
of the proposed change to our church's constitution. The issue
before the church is far greater than how any one of us might
feel about matters regarding ordination. **The enormously
important issue now before every presbytery is whom will the
church call Lord, and to whom will the church be obedient!**

Every member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should read the
proposed amendment very carefully and read the constitutional
ordination questions very carefully, all in the light of the
guidance offered on this matter by the church's historic
confessions. Then, return again to these words and forget them
not: "for you have one master, the Christ" (Matthew 23:10b); and
"No one can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24a). The church's
officers are to be obedient only to Jesus Christ, not to
Scripture, which is more than enough reason for why the proposed
amendment on sexuality and ordination should be rejected.

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 Issues for Presbyteries to Reflect upon prior to their vote on
     the proposed Amendment to the Form of Government in The
        Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

                       by David J. McGown

The proposed addition to the Constitution would add to the Form of
Government 6.0106 the following:

"Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life
in 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."

Let us now consider the consequences of adopting this proposed
addition to our national Presbyterian Constitution.

1. " Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a
life *in obedience to scripture."*

a. Divorce: Exodus 20:14 -- "You shall not commit adultery";
Matthew 5:32 -- "Whoever marries a divorced woman commits
adultery." Thus ordination or installation of divorced persons is
prohibited.

b. Tithing: Malachi 3:8-10 -- "Will anyone rob God? Yet you are
robbing me!  But you say, 'How are we robbing you?'  In your tithes
and offerings! ... Bring in the full tithe."  Thus non-tithers
may not be ordained or installed.

c. Investing for interest: Deuteronomy 23:19 -- "You shall not
charge interest on loans"; Psalm 15 -- "O Lord who may abide in
your tent? ... Those who walk blamelessly, ... who do not lend
money at interest."  Thus no investors or bankers may be ordained
or installed.

d. Treatment of aliens: Leviticus 19:33-34 -- "When an alien
resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.
The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen
among you; you shall love the alien as yourself."  Thus any who
advocate cutting of benefits to aliens may not be ordained or
installed.

e. Wearing clothing of mixed fabric: Leviticus 19:19 -- "... Nor
shall you wear a garment made of two different materials."  This
would disqualify many.

f. Non-kosher food: Leviticus 11 & Deuteronomy 14 -- Only those
who keep kosher could be ordained and installed.

g. What the Bible says about affectional same sex relations:
Nothing. There is no Biblical injunction against faithful
monogamous affectional homosexual relations.

h. What the Bible says about temple prostitution:  Under the
assumption that everyone is naturally heterosexual in orientation
and disgusted with temple prostitution, Paul says in Romans 1:26,
27, "Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and
in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with
women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed
shameless acts with men." Thus those involved in temple
prostitution may not be ordained.

i. What the Bible says about homosexual rape: Genesis 19 -- "Two
angels came to Sodom in the evening ....  Lot saw them and said,
'... spend the night, then you can rise early and go on your
way.' ... But before they lay down, ... the men of Sodom ...
surrounded the house and they called out to Lot, '... Bring the
men out to us so that we may know them.'"  Thus rapists should not
be ordained or installed.

j. Farming: Leviticus 19:9,10 "... You shall not reap to the very
edges of your field ....  You shall not strip your vineyard bare;
you shall leave them for the poor and the alien ...."  This would
disqualify most farmers from ordination as deacons or elders.

2. "Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a
life ... *in conformity to the historic confessional standards of
the church."*  [Reference numbers are to the Book of Confessions
of our PC(USA) Constitution]

a. Greed and Merchandising: 4.110 Heidelberg Catechism -- "God
forbids ... deceptive advertising or merchandising. ... He also
forbids all greed." Thus greedy persons should not be
ordained/installed.

b. Playing golf, tennis, fishing or other recreation on Sunday:
7.227 Westminster Larger Catechism -- "The Lord's Day is to be
sanctified by an holy resting all that day ... from worldly
employments and recreations as are on other days lawful." This
would disqualify from ordination not only any who are gainfully
employed on Sunday but also any who fish, play golf, tennis or
any who engage in any other recreation on Sunday.

c. Employing others to work on Sunday: 7.228 Westminster Larger
Catechism -- "They are bound to not only keep (the Sabbath)
themselves, but to see that it be observed by all those that are
under their charge." Thus any who employ others to work on Sunday
should not be ordained or installed to office in the church.

d. Any who occasionally skip Sunday worship: 4.103 Heidelberg
Catechism -- "... that I diligently attend church, especially on
the Lord's Day." This would eliminate from ordination any who
fail to attend church when traveling or any other reason.

e. Baptism by women: 5.191 Second Helvetic Confession -- "We
teach that baptism should not be administered in the Church by
women ...."  This would eliminate women from the ministry of Word
and Sacrament.

f. Having pictures of Jesus, especially in a worship center:
4.097 Heidelberg Catechism -- "God cannot and should not be
pictured in any way." Those who display pictures of Christ should
not be ordained or installed.

g. Complaint about taxes or governmental authorities: 5.258
Second Helvetic Confession -- "... let them pay all customs and
taxes faithfully and willingly. ... For he who opposes the
magistrate provokes the severe wrath of God against himself."
Thus such complainers should not be ordained or installed.

3. "Among these standards is the requirement to live ... in
fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman (W-
4.9001)."

Scripture and the Confessions do call for fidelity in marriage
and chastity in singleness. They *also* define other sins.

4. The final sentence in the proposed amendment is "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 Word and Sacrament."

Conclusion:  If the proposed amendment were to be adopted, it
would become incumbent upon every local church nominating
ommittee and Presbytery Committee on Preparation for Ministry to 
inquire about adherence to such biblical and confessional 
standards as enumerated above and to propose for 
ordination/installation only those meeting these standards. How 
many of our current deacons, elders and ministers of word and 
sacrament would pass the test?