Jesus alone’ overtures debated before committee
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, June 11, 2001
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Three “Jesus alone is Lord” overtures were vigorously debated before the General Assembly’s Committee on Theological Issues and Education on June 11.
The dividing lines between those who favored the overtures and those who opposed them were sharply drawn.
“It is not arrogant to proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior, but it is treason not to,” said John Watson, a minister in La Jolla Presbytery in California, who argued on behalf of the overtures.
But John Walter, a pastor in the New Castle Presbytery, called the overtures “harsh and shrill” and said they would add to the “spirit of hostility” in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The debate before the General Assembly Committee was another phase in the year-old controversy that erupted last year at the annual Peacemaking Conference of the Presbyterian Church (USA), where Presbyterian minister Dirk Ficca, a keynote speaker, asked, “What’s the big deal about Jesus?” Ficca was suggesting that there are other avenues to God.
The three overtures – 01-43, 01-51 and 01-52 – ask the General Assembly to reaffirm that Jesus Christ alone is Lord and Savior of the world. Overture 01-52 would also require Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council, to affirm that historic Presbyterian tenet.
More than 30 people – most in favor of the overtures – spoke during the committee’s hearing. Freda Gardner, a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA), was among those who spoke.
Gardner, who earlier told a Covenant Network dinner audience that God has many names, opposed the overtures. She labeled them “restrictive, unfree regimen” that would cause the Presbyterian Church (USA) to “cease to be a Reformed church.”
Byron Shafer of New York City warned the committee against approving the overtures and, instead, called on it to “affirm the mystery of God’s salvation and the wideness of God’s mercy.”
Franklin T. Lloyd, a San Diego layman, called the “Jesus alone” overtures the “most important document before this General Assembly. It should be on the consent agenda.”
Jane Dempsey Douglas, a feminist theology professor, urged the committee to resist the temptation to declare Jesus alone as Lord and Savior as an “essential” statement of faith.
Terry McKinney called one of the overtures “a tar baby” – “If we adopt it we will be mired in a single subscription of the Christian faith. We will trivialize the gospel of Jesus Christ and reduce the fullness of the gospel to a t-shirt slogan.”
James Harper, a pastor in the Presbytery of San Joaquin, paraphrased C.S. Lewis’ comments about Jesus’ claims that he alone was Lord and Savior: Either Jesus was a liar, or he was delusional or what he said was true. “I am confident that we can take these words as truth,” Harper said, referring to John 14.6. (“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.”
Margaret Wall, a San Diego minister, said her session met and considered the comments of Ficca at the Peacekeeping Conference. “We see now a confusion and frustration in a denomination now in danger of losing its focus on the one who calls us,” she said.
John Wilkinson, pastor of Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, N.Y., said, “To seek to pull out a single articulation, even a fundamental, has not worked and will not work.”
Jim Tony, a minister in the Presbytery of Chicago, supported the Jesus alone affirmation. “I hope you will find a way to ensure that what we say is a witness to what we believe, that what we say brings honor and glory to Jesus, our only comfort in life and death.”
Keith Hill, a minister in Atlanta, Ga., said Jesus’ life, teachings and death had always been viewed as scandalous – even to the disciples. Jesus’ claim as Lord of all “even has a name – the scandal of particularity,” Hill said, urging the committee to approve the overtures in response to “folks who are waiting to sanitize the gospel.”
Dennis Denny, a minister whose congregation is near San Francisco, said he lives in a county with 750,000 residents and only 35,000 Christians. “They estimate only 4 percent of the residents attend worship on Sundays. I live in a post-Christian county. Many of the people coming into my church do not know the name of Jesus Christ in the historic sense.” He said a bold affirmation by the denomination that Jesus alone is Lord and Savior would strengthen his ministry.
The Rev. Janet Adar Hansen opposed the overtures because, “I believe we cannot lock down the Lord. All language is metaphorical … Dogmatic declarations can never define who this immanent God is.”
Christy Baker of the Presbytery of Great River favored the resolutions and said, “Jesus Christ is uniquely the big deal. Only Jesus takes care of that which disconnects us from the world.
Philip Keevil, a Philadelphia pastor, said, “We are not talking about theological mission. We are talking about the essence, heart, soul and blood of the gospel.”