Editor’s note: The Presbyterian Lay Committee (PLC), the publisher of The Layman and The Layman Online, does not support same-sex marriage. Instead, the PLC “believes with Scripture that God ordained the lifelong marriage of a man and a woman in the very order of creation and that Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, blessed and sanctified this relationship. The article here was posted as a news story about the Covenant Network’s 2013 conference on “Marriage Matters.”
CHICAGO, Ill. — “The gospel is at stake,” declared William Stacy Johnson during his presentation at last week’s Covenant Network of Presbyterians 2013 conference, “Marriage Matters.”
Speaking to the approximately 200 people in Buchanan’s Chapel at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Johnson volunteered to do anything anyone asked to try to urge the Presbyterian Church (USA) to “open its understanding of marriage to the gay and lesbian people, because, just as I have come to the conclusion that the gospel demanded the ending of slavery, the gospel demands it.”
Johnson said that in looking at the “life of Jesus — not at proof texts or doctrine — Jesus engaged in table fellowship with everyone, the tax collectors, the sinners, the outcasts … Salvation and solidarity have to be linked. You can’t have one without the other. If you think you can have salvation without having solidarity with our brothers and sisters, then you are wrong.”
Greeting the standing room only crowd, Stacy called them a prophetic witness to God in Christ. “You have stayed faithful to this church when this church has not always been faithful to you and that is a testimony to Christ’s faithfulness that humbles me and keeps me in ministry. It keeps me believing in the power of God.”
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PHOTO BY THE LAYMAN
Audience members listen to William Stacy Johnson speak at last week’s Covenant Network conference in Chicago, Ill.
He was grateful for the conference’s topic since marriage does matter. “It matters that we have this conversation, because marriage for many is either an entry ramp into the church or an exit ramp out of the church.”
Johnson said that one sociological factor that determines if a person joins a church is whether they are married. “When you come to church as a single person it can sometimes be intimidating and overwhelming when you see all couples sitting around.”
Marriage, he said, “is an extremely important entry ramp not only into the church, but to blessings beyond marriage.”
Johnson told a story about when his wife had cancer surgery. Once the surgery was over and “things were looking good,” he left the hospital to take care of a few mundane things at home. He got back to the hospital, only to find the doors locked. Visiting hours were over.
“I was distraught, so I started banging on the door.” he said. Finally a janitor came to the door, but only opened it enough to say, “Visiting hours are over.”
Stacy told the janitor that his wife was in the hospital, that she had cancer, and the janitor let him in the building.
“I was overwhelmed with emotion,” he said, “because it just hit me, if we had been a same-gender couple without the recognition of marriage and all that implies, that door would have remained shut … Marriage matters is an entry ramp into all kinds of things.”
An exit ramp
“It is also an exit ramp,” said Johnson. One reason may be that young people are delaying marriage; therefore, they are also delaying church
Another exit ramp is the fact that even though young people are not in the church in large numbers, Johnson said “they are not stupid. They pay attention, and they know what is going on. They watch our every move, and the church’s refusal to extend marriage to gay and lesbian couples is prompting many young people to quit the church.”
Johnson asked, “What is the church about if the main thing they seem to be concerned about is shutting the door on this one group of people? Whether [young people] know Bible or not, say the creed or not — they know it is wrong. This tells you that they know the gospel deep down inside and as soon as we know it, we can get along with the gospel.”
Change between first and second editions of book
Johnson is the author of A Time to Embrace: Same Gender Relationships in Religion, Law and Politics. A second edition of the book was released recently.
He said that when he wrote the first edition of the book, only one state – Massachusetts – approved gay marriage and only Vermont and Connecticut approved civil unions.
“I predicted this would change, but I had no idea how quickly it would,” he said, adding that he had to write a second edition of the book because of all the change.
When the second edition was published in 2012, seven jurisdictions had same-sex marriage and five states offered civil unions. “In the year that has passed it has changed again,” he said. The numbers have now doubled.
“So when I first started doing this work, the marriage issue was a possibility that we were pushing for. Now it is a firmly rooted reality,” said Johnson, “not in every one of your states, but everyone knows that it is coming. It’s just a question of when and how … the argument has shifted … because family bonding is so important, it is impossible not to support” same-sex marriage.
In Johnson’s opinion, the argument has shifted so much, that now, “there is no such thing as gay marriage. There is simply marriage.”
The burden of proof used to be a terrible oppression on the LGBT people “to prove that they had worth,” said Johnson. “Now things have shifted and the burden of proof is on the church to show why we are so stingy in withholding recognition, grace, acceptance for so long … the burden of proof has shifted so much that we have to prove ‘why does the church matter, why does Christianity matter?’ Young people ask is Christianity really anti-gay? Do I really want to be Christian? That is what is happening.”
“Ironically, marriage matters,” he said, “because how we answer this question and which version of Christianity emerges in the process may determine the future of Christianity in America … the stakes are big, not only for gay and lesbian folk, but for the meaning of Christianity in our context …The burden has shifted and we are the ones on the witness stand.”
The needs of the many …
Johnson then turned his attention to an unlikely subject: Star Trek. Summarizing the second Star Trek movie, “The Wrath of Khan,” he discussed a quote from Spock, one of the movie’s main characters.
In explaining why he sacrificed his life to save the starship and its crew, Spock spoke some of his final words: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few – or the one.”
In the Star Trek series, Spock is a Vulcan, a species know for its use of logic. “Spock’s logic is irrefutable,” said Johnson, and in some ways the PCUSA has been operating under this kind of logic. “We have basically told gay and lesbian folk next year – it’s next year – hold on. The amazing thing to me is how many people have held on.”
In the next Star Trek move – “The Search for Spock” – Johnson said that it turns out that Spock is still alive and his friends risk their lives to save him. When he asks them at the end of the movie why they risked everything, the answer was, “The needs of the few – or the one – outweigh the needs of the many.”
“That is Christian in a way,” he said. “I am at the point that the needs of the few, the one — that’s where the gospel is … That is where we are being tested as to what the gospel is or is not … I believe, and I am a big church unity guy – I believe that unity without justice and without solidarity with the one, does not deserve the name Christian.”
Johnson claimed that “extending the covenant of marriage to exclusively-committed gay and lesbian couples does not represent a departure from longstanding political or religious principles but a deepening of them – the deepening of what we know … I think that the meaning of the gospel is at stake as well.”
“We have to be all about the gospel,” he said, adding that “marriage matters enormously in how we think about the gospel today.”
Johnson said the gospel is a task, a journey, and that “we aren’t there yet.”
“Our very belief in the resurrection is what makes me sure I am right on this,” he said. “The resurrection makes me believe that God is not finished with us. The gospel has not come into complete fruition in our midst.”
Seeing beyond
“This is an issue we have to read with Scripture,” said Johnson, “to see beyond what the Biblical writers envision. They could not envision what we are experiencing today.”
Johnson said that Paul could never envision the end of slavery. The ending of slavery was unthinkable to even the most liberal, progressive intellectual thinks. “Slavery was a tough one. Guess what? This is a tough one too,” he said.
Johnson vowed to do anything he was asked to do to “try to urge the PCUSA to open its understanding of marriage to the gay and lesbian people, because, just as I have come to the conclusion that the Gospel demands the ending of slavery, the gospel demands it.”
“The gospel is at stake. In this I am saying something that was only vaguely clear to me in during the first book … The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many,” he said, and because Johnson looked at the “life of Jesus, not at proof texts or doctrine, but Jesus engaged in table fellowship with everyone, the tax collectors, the sinners, the outcasts … Salvation and solidarity have to be linked. You can’t have one without the other. If you think you can have salvation without having solidarity with our brothers and sisters, then you are wrong.”
“My message for you and for me,” said Johnson, is that “We are in a time, maybe like no other in American history … our children are prophesying against us. We need the gospel to happen to us – desperately.”
Johnson is Princeton Theological Seminary’s Arthur M. Adams Professor of Systematic Theology.
10 Comments. Leave new
Practice sin and teach others to do the same, and you will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
God have mercy on this misguided individual….working to lead many astray.
The words here spoken are no less than the “Liberal/Progressive words spoken about the US Constitution. It is a living document crafted by men who could not have envisioned the world today compared to then. Slavery is uses in the same justification for an expanded definition of the words of our founders. This is not a misguided individual. He is clear in language and intent. He is promoting a Liberal/Pregressive interpretation of God’s Word to allow a recrafting of the language and practice of individuals and worship to conform to the World Progressive Allaince goal of a single world under Secular Progressive control. Make no mistake my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, this is a political agenda born of the mentality that is controlling of individuals, not releasing them from the tyranny of the group. The smoke screens of justice, acceptance, euality and harmony in the community of believers are to lay a foundation of rethinking and rewriting the very words of our Bible to conform to Liberal/Progressive views of how the world should be in their utopia. The rewriting of the Book of Order and including of confessions to whcih the Presbyterian Church USA must conform is the vehicle for subjugating congregations and individuals to the demands of man and not of conscience and God. Success in this arena will lead to a church controlled by secular political identities holding themselves out to be the keepers of God’s word when in reality they are the perverters of His word and intent. Those who oppose these entities will be held out as failing to adhere and understand God’s word. They will be identified as enemies of the church and state who proport to be the protector of that word or as misinformed people ignornat of God’s true intent. I cry not as an alarmist but as a man called and ordained by God to speak His word. Should we as believers allow our sacred text to be rewritten, changed, rethouhgt or revised to comply with a secular political world view, or accept confessions apologizing for the deeds of others and ordaining sin and other abominations, we are no different than those who crafted the Golden Calf. When it is finished and all around it are worshipping the idol, judgement will be forthcoming.
I agree, Dr. Peavey. But I still believe he is misguided in terms of his claims to be a Christian. He is not being guided by the Holy Spirit. It’s very obvious.
Mr. Johnson says, “… Jesus engaged in table fellowship with everyone, the tax collectors, the sinners, the outcasts …” But Jesus purpose was to redeem them from their sin and change their lives. He didn’t accept the sin – “Go and sin no more.”
regarding the quote “I believe that unity without justice and without solidarity with the one, does not deserve the name Christian.”
does each one calling themselves “Christian” need to claim full knowledge of all ones seen and heard? images of ones are being realized (from réaliser) all the time and it seems unlikely that these all reside within the Lord Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God….due to Love with a fear of God, i tend to have a kind of momentary hesitation to make confident assumptions about any one before me (including my “self”)…and this hesitation influences any image of solidarité that we may share…. and yet an influence that need not be one of weakness…..i pray for the guidance of the Lord to direct, toward His Will, these ones we hold in love and hypomoné….likewise, i pray for humility while “we all” continue experiencing His transforming power.
If we as a Church don’t stand for our beliefs we will always be at a level of unbelief. If we recognize sin and try to compassionately deal with the sinner (the same why I would hope they would deal with us) and we love God with all that we are, then we fit the discription of being a Cristian.
I have no reason to believe that Marriage is defined other then being between a man and a woman, and God defines sin, not mankind.
So a church that identifies or justifies sin, pushes me away. I do love the sinner, as (because Jesus requires me to!) I love myself. And in doing so I know we can all be forgiven.
Lastly Salvation true salvation has no conditions except belief in Our One True LORD. The only solidarity we all need.
This man is highly educated in the rhetorical skills of the Progressive movement. His argument is based upon the supposition that there is no OBJECTIVE TRUTH, only that one truth which he alone has gleaned by his own understanding of scripture and any other position is false. All who agree with him are “enlightened” and rest of us backward, bigots. His is actually a self refuting argument.
His position is that God is wrong and he’s right! Since he rejects God’s word, he is not a Christian. He is the reincarnation of the First Century Gnostics which the apostle John warned against. What sin will he advocate for next? I shudder to think.
Mr. Johnson is trying to convince you that a square peg will fit perfectly in a round hole, that 2+2 does not equal 4, that up is actually down and down is actually up, that hot is actually cold and cold is actually hot, that wet is actually dry and dry is actually wet, that right is actually left and left is actually right. In other words, Mr. Johnson is a pervert insisting that sin is actually good and good is actually sin.
Mr. Johnson said that one must look at the “life of Jesus and not at proof texts or doctrine” but that is utterly impossible. When Jesus was tested three times by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus quoted three times the scriptures by saying first “it is written” “it is written” “it is written”.
Jesus did not look from within himself to rebuke the tempter, Jesus quoted from the written word of God by saying, “it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” again Jesus said, “it is written do not put the Lord your God to the test” and again Jesus said, “it is written worship the Lord your God, and serve him only”
As stated in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
And as stated in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
I could go on, and on, but this is sufficient to expose Mr. Johnson as a deceiving antichrist.
http://zionistjewssatanistusgovernmentimmora.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-jews-are-not-gods-chosen-people-and.html
I am a liberal/progressive Democrat and proud of it. I am also a Christian who believes that homosexual practice is sin. Rev Peavy, your attempt to mix politics with your religion is disgraceful and very unchristian in my opinion.