First PUP draft lightly addresses gay ordination, liberation theology
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, July 20, 2005
DALLAS – The Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity on Monday began touching up draft documents of a final report.
Numerous, and mostly minor, editorial changes were suggested and were being incorporated through a consensus process as the first seven pages of the report were discussed.
Draft reports releasedAlthough the documents had been in preparation for weeks and were circulated among task force members before their meeting began Monday, they were released to the press only when members began discussing them in open session.
The two documents reviewed Monday morning were titled “Prologue: The Theological Basis of This Report” and “Theological Reflection: Discerning our Christian Identity in and for the Twenty-first Century.”
The theological section includes a brief reference to the most controversial issue – the ordination of practicing homosexuals:
“Because controversies over sexuality and ordination have been a special focus of the Task Force’s work, the Task Force has become aware of how much alienation and contempt many have experienced. The Task Force has heard a call to seek God’s forgiveness for our sin and divisive attitudes and actions. In gratitude for the good news of the gospel, the Task Force prays that God will grant the whole church the grace of reconciliation, especially with those who have been wronged.”
One suggestion called for the substitution of the word “hateful” for “divisive,” so that the phrase would say “forgiveness for our sin and hateful attitudes and action.”
Immediately after the remark about the ordination controversy, the proposed final draft quotes three confessions – the Theological Declaration of Barmen, the Theological Declaration of the Korean Church and the Confession of Belhar – as a way to challenge Presbyterians to line up on the side of justice in political and ethical disputes.
The Barmen Declaration is one of 12 creedal statements in The Book of Confessions which, with the Book of Order, constitutes the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The Korean and Belhar declarations are not in The Book of Confessions, although the General Assembly did call on Presbyterians to become familiar with Belhar, and Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick repeatedly has advocated its inclusion in the constitution.
“With the church at Barmen, we believe that ‘Jesus Christ, as he is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death,'” the draft report says.
A footnote to the Barmen citation adds, “The framers of the Theological Declaration of Barmen were responding to German Christians, who were allied with the State and who were dictating who could belong to and lead the church based on their degree of Jewish ancestry.”
“With the church in Korea, we resolve ‘that we will follow the footsteps of our Lord, living among our oppressed and poor people, standing against political oppression, and participating in the transformation of history, for this is the only way to the messianic kingdom,'” the draft states.
A footnote to the Korean statement says that it was “addressed to a situation in which a dictator in 1972 sought to undermine the rights of the Korean people.”
From Belhar, the draft affirms that “the church as the possession of God must stand where he stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ, the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.”
The footnote to the Belhar citation added, “It spoke to the racist policy of Apartheid, which placed the very meaning of the Gospel at risk.”
The Belhar Declaration, in particular, has been considered an expression of liberation theology, a belief that God sides with the “oppressed” in political and social confrontations.
The draft concluded the section that began with the reference to ordaining homosexuals and ended with the Korean, German and Belhar declarations by saying, “We stand with these churches in confessing a gospel that looks to God alone for salvation, that upholds justice and promotes righteousness, and that excludes no one from the offer of God’s judgment and grace.”
The draft made no specific statement about whether practicing homosexuals are the equivalent of oppressed Christians in Nazi Germany, North Korea or South Africa.
The final sentence in the theological reflection had an interfaith conclusion: “Today, especially as Jews, Christians and Muslims – the children of Abraham – are as much enmeshed in ongoing conflict in the world, our prayer to the God of Abraham is to hasten the promised days of messianic peace and to enable the Presbyterian Church (USA), in faith, hope and love, to be an instrument to that end.”
Through Thursday, the task force is expected to review the draft report on sexuality and ordination.