Commissioners lobbied by PUP Task Force
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman Online, June 16, 2006
217th General Assembly
Birmingham, Ala.BIRMINGHAM — In an eleventh-hour event, the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity made a final, pre-General Assembly attempt to lobby for its controversial report that will be submitted for action during the Assembly’s week-long meeting.
Commissioners gathered at round tables of eight in Civic Center Ballroom B for the General Assembly-sponsored breakfast-through-lunch conclave. Scattered among the tables and participating in the commissioners’ discussions along with task force appointed “table facilitators” were lobbyists from the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, the Witherspoon Society and More Light Presbyterians, groups that seek the removal of the denomination’s “fidelity and chastity” standards.
The task force theme essentially repeated the message that its members have delivered to 135 presbytery meetings around the country: The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been fractured by a “winner take all” way of doing business, and it needs to find “a still more excellent way.” The task force believes that its “Recommendation 5,” keeping the denomination’s standards in place while allowing each governing body to decide whether to apply them, will bring unity to the church.
Sanderson-Doughty opposes ‘winner take all’
“Together, we discovered a joyous and life-giving alternative to the conflicted status quo,” said task force member Sara Sanderson-Doughty. “We addressed the church’s problems with one another and not against one another,” she said.
“‘Winner take all’ is neither workable nor biblically faithful,” said Sanderson-Doughty. “We can’t just tell those who lose that they just have to accept it and move on,” she said.
Sanderson-Doughty said that doing away with parliamentary procedure is “not the intention of the task force.” But she said that the denomination must get beyond the current situation in which votes are taken and “the majority says to the minority, you lost the vote and that’s the end of it.”
Achtemeier castigates ‘demonizers’
Task force member Mark Achtemeier came out swinging against unnamed Presbyterians who “demonize others.” On the top of his list were those who instill “anger, fear and outrage,” as “potent motivators” for getting people stirred up to vote on controversial issues. He castigated Presbyterians who disparage other Presbyterians’ Christianity and even go so far as to say they represent “different faiths.” Such people, said Achtemeier “are telling stories about others that are damaging and false.”
Achtemeier said that when task force members who represent different persuasions got together, they realized that such stories were not true. He said those who thought that others had abandoned Scripture learned that they do honor it. “We discovered that the debate was not over the authority of Scripture, but about making pastoral and theological judgments” when applying Scripture to certain issues. “Our shared devotion to Christ and his Word drove us together,” he said.
“The task force is challenging Presbyterians to stop telling stories about one another,” said Achtemeier. The Bible has lots of advice on how to deal with those with whom we disagree, he said. Achtemeier referred to the second chapter of Philippians, saying that Jesus “gave up all of his divine prerogatives for the sake of sinners and those who were wrong about many things.” Applying his interpretation of that passage to the way Presbyterians deal with one another, he said, “We cannot insist on our own way.”
Referring to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that calls on Christians to forbear one another in love, Achtemeier described the task force’s recommendation 5 as “a principled embrace of Biblical forbearance.” “This is our attempt to live into ‘a more excellent way,'” he said.
Achtemeier said that as heirs of the Reformation, Presbyterians should understand that “the majority is not always right,” and “God alone is Lord of the conscience.” He said that when the majority insists on its own way, it can drive minority members out of the church. “The Lord did not drive sinners away,” he said.
Achtemeier said that when the majority drives dissenters away, it loses its opportunity to bring them closer to the truth. But the truth may be with the minority, he surmised, so driving dissenters away could deprive the majority of the truth.
No advocacy here
Task force member John Wilkinson assured the audience that he and his colleagues were not trying to advocate for the passage of their report, but merely to explain it. He then contested the allegation that the report is undermining the denomination’s ordination standards: “We have not changed the standards,” he insisted. “They remain in place. This is not a change in church policy.”
Wilkinson said there is a difference between establishing standards and applying them. According to the task force recommendation, a governing body can decide not to apply one of the church’s standards because it is “not essential for them,” but the standard, although not applied by this particular governing body, remains in the Book of Order. “It has not been changed,” he said.
Nothing is being changed
Task force member Stacy Johnson insisted that recommendation 5 “was not written to address G-6.0106(b) [the fidelity and chastity ordination standard] but to clarify what already exists in the Book of Order.” Johnson expressed his pleasure that people “across the spectrum” have applauded the report’s theological prologue, suggesting that if they accept this portion of the report, they should not oppose recommendation 5, which is merely its logical extension. “Recommendation 5 flows directly from the theological framework set forth in the prologue,” he said.
Task force member Milton Coalter responded to a question from the audience, “How large is your umbrella?” He said that the denomination has not committed itself to “essentials” since 1929. “So I would put the question back to you. In your presbytery, what are your boundaries?”
Pre-Assembly conference rules cited
In an April 21 letter to Steve Grace, moderator of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, James Berkley, interim director of Presbyterian Action, protested the task force pre-assembly event. Noting that the General Assembly has a long-standing policy of not permitting discussion of pending assembly business at official pre-assembly gatherings, Berkley said the intended meeting was a violation of that policy. He called attention to the fact that the only presenters would be members of the task force, and that this one-sided presentation clearly would be dealing with business coming before the assembly.
On May 9, Grace dismissed Berkley’s protest, stating that the content of the event “is not focused on issues that are before this year’s General Assembly,” and therefore the assembly’s “general guidelines for pre-assembly conferences” were not being violated.