Dear Brothers and Sisters:
The occasion for this letter is the present crisis in the life and witness of our church, threatening our understanding of the Reformed tradition with respect to membership and leadership standards, sexuality, and professional ethics. Rancor, name-calling, recrimination, and self-righteousness have so far marked the discussion of these questions among Presbyterians. Today these bitter responses, so contrary to the spirit and letter of Reformed theology and ethics, threaten to tear apart this church of which we, though unjustly treated, have been loyal and critical members since the founding of the First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia 190 years ago. It is out of our own historic struggle against Christian prejudice and discrimination, and our distinctive experience of the providence of God through Jesus Christ, as Liberator, that we boldly make this urgent testimony of concern and challenge.
We find it a sad irony that some Presbyterians would adopt legalistic strategies of those who oppose the remedial measure of affirmative action, the reform of unjust criminal justice codes, and the development of a more compassionate system of public welfare. These Presbyterians, by using a strict and inflexible interpretation of biblical texts and the constitution of the Church, seek to establish a hierarchy of sins by which they can single out and exclude other sisters and brothers from participation as full members of our Church (Romans 3:21-23). The modern creeds and constitutions of the Refomed family of churches are open rather than closed interpretations of Scripture and tradition. They focus upon the grace and mercy of God through Christ. They discourage every form of extremism, calling upon each of us to accept, as Christ did, those who have been despised and cast out. They ask us to strive for mutual respect and harmony with those who may disagree with us, and to reounce personal defamation and humiliation as weapons of Christian debate.
In the confusion of norms and values the greatest gift that each of us has to give or receive is love. The greatest expressions of love, as we know it in Christ, are empathy, compassion, understanding, and "standing with," as Christ did, those who are rejected by the scribes and Pharisees. African-American Presbyterians and other racial/ethnic groups in our church have suffered for years from the absence of such qualities and expressions of Christian agape. We know the pain of separation, disparagement, and descrimination. We cannot be neutral in the atmosphere of hostility which currently seems to focus on those whose opinions, actions, sexual orientations, or self-understandings may not be conventional or sanctioned by many. Love demands that we accept and respect each other in Christ, and set aside self-righteous scorn and ridicule, political wrangling, and ecclesiastical terrorism. Only so can we come to the table of sisterhood and brotherhood and strive for understanding and mutuality in order that our true mission, which is to proclaim and demonstrate the good news about Christ, may be advanced in our church and around the world.
Unity is frequently confused with "Anglo-conformity" -- strict adherence to
premises and perspectives based upon the world view and ethos of the North
Atlantic Community, with its history of racial oppression. Christian unity
is, however, based upon the worship of a common Creator who is no respecter
of persons...whose commandment to break every yoke is not abrogated by the
gracious justification of sinners [by Christ, but] the sharing of whose
suffering and ordeal makes us truly one, though of many races and cultures.
As African-American Presbyterians, we refuse to spiritualize Christian unity with pious words about how much "we love sinners, but hate their sin," and how much we accept those different from ourselves even as we effectively shut them out of fellowship, church offices, and ministries. We know what it is like to have our voice silenced in the congregations and courts of the church. In the dark days of 1904-1906, we were sacrificed in order that a false unity could be joined through the merger of the Cumberland branch and the Northern branch of American Presbyterianism. The latter acquiesced, over our protests, to racially segregated presbyteries and synods.
Christian unity is more than a spiritual reality. It is also a concrete, visible, and ethical reality in which we demonstrate the unity of the Triune God by accomodation, incorporation, and loving adhesion in and to each other by divine grace, love and forgiveness (Romans 14:10-12).
We further recommend that: