Double exposure
September 10, 1998
The National Network of Presbyterian Women (NNPCW) was given an extension after an emotional demonstration at the eleventh hour of the 1998 General Assembly. But it may well have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Commissioners at the General Assembly meeting were only aware of NNPCW’s printed material when they cast (and later reconsidered) their vote to deny further funding to the organization. Now they’re learning a whole lot more about its computerized material.
NNPCW’s Internet site listed “recommended resources” that would dismay most Presbyterians. Replete with ReImagining’s ideology, NNPCW’s recommended dogmas are identical with those declared beyond the boundaries of Christian faith by the 1994 General Assembly. Also included among NNPCW’s resources were links to Internet locations that promote lesbian sexual activity and provide a computer gateway to hard core pornography. The Layman discovered and recorded this material. Shortly thereafter, all contents of NNPCW’s site disappeared.
Curtis Kearns, director of the National Ministries Division, the agency in which NNPCW is located, says no member of his staff advocates pornography. Kearns admits to only one fault, that NNPCW did not include on its web site a disclaimer absolving the denomination of responsibility for any offensive material that viewers might encounter. This defense in our mind is woefully inadequate to the seriousness of the matter. We can only hope that Kearns will amend his view when privy to the explicit nature of the material that this organization recommended for viewing by Presbyterian college women.
Kearns’ limited defense has been augmented by other NNPCW supporters who remind us that pornography on the Internet is a fact of life. In a recent PresbyNet communication, a minister suggested that the situation was analogous to that of his downtown church which is only a few blocks away from a porno shop. Our proximity to the porno shop does not mean that my church supports pornography, he argued.
That illustration is irrelevant to the NNPCW case. In an accurate analogy, this minister’s deacons would provide free transportation from the sanctuary to the porno shop and hold the door open for church members. That’s what an Internet link accomplishes. NNPCW not only recommended sites containing offensive material, it helped college women get there.
But the NNPCW case goes beyond mere questions of technology. Moderator Oldenburg, Vice Moderator Mead, and the General Assembly Council investigating committee must dig deeper into the core values of this organization. What possible rationale led NNPCW staff members to create this web site? What message is this organization seeking to convey to Presbyterian college women? With what culture does NNPCW identify?
Active participants in Internet communications understand that cyberspace is a constellation of cultures. It is not difficult to ascertain just what values each of those cultures represents. In most cases, a web site’s links represent organizations and activities that its architects believe are culturally contiguous.
Assessing links is like taking note of a person’s friends. In this case NNPCW’s friends are not friends of the church. They represent a culture that is alien to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the manner of life that he requires.
We do not ask for an end to NNPCW. Like any other, this organization is free to promote its passions in the marketplace of ideas. But it does not have a right to claim offerings dedicated by Presbyterians for the proclamation of the Gospel.
The 1998 General Assembly made a wise and faithful decision when it originally voted to deny funding to NNPCW. Now that it has called for a second look, we pray that decision will be reinstated.