Moderator, stated clerk: Don’t focus on sex issues
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, December 10, 2001
DALLAS – General Assembly Moderator Jack B. Rogers suggests that the denomination’s Theological Task Force avoid making homosexuality a major consideration.
“We did not intend to design this task force to resolve the issue of homosexuality,” said Rogers. “I hope personally it will be a subordinate issue on your agenda.”
Rogers’ comments were made at the opening of the first session of the task force during its three-day meeting in Dallas Dec. 6-8.
Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), had a similar view.
‘Start at the deeper things’
“I hope you don’t get bogged down in arguments over sex issues and Amendment A,” Kirkpatrick said on the last day of the meeting. “That’s probably not your central calling. Our hope and dream is that you will start at the deeper things.”
He said one of the deeper things is “the common resonance that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the head of the Church.”
But Kirkpatrick also noted the acrimony in the denomination. “There are a growing number of people who really wonder if there is a future for the PCUSA … Every side is more alienated than they were a year ago,” he said. “The liberal side really doubts that there’s a place for them. Underneath it all, there is a huge yearning for a sense of breakthrough, to find, as the Apostle Paul called it, a more excellent way.”
The task force – officially known as the Theological Task Force on Peace, Purity and Unity – was created by the 2001 General Assembly when it met in Louisville in June. The assembly charged the 20-member panel to address “issues of Christology, Biblical authority and interpretation, ordination standards and power.”
Rogers’ suggestion that the task force treat as a “subordinate issue” the debate over the Book of Order‘s requirement that married officers in the denomination remain faithful to their spouses and single officers remain chaste comes during the denomination’s third national referendum in four years over the question of ordaining self-affirming, practicing homosexuals.
Early voting on Amendment A
The early voting in the referendum shows that commissioners to presbytery meetings favor the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard by even larger margins than when the standard was adopted in 1997 and reaffirmed in 1998.
At the time of the task force’s meeting, the vote was 35 to 7 against Amendment A, which would repeal the “fidelity/chastity” clause and cancel the denomination’s historic principle that homosexual activity is sinful.
While suggesting that the task force steer clear of the issue, Rogers himself has been a key figure in the debate. He formerly served as a member of the board of advisors of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, an organization devoted to repeal of the “fidelity/chastity” standard.
Further, he has called for the church and state to approve marriage for same-sex couples.
Rogers and his two immediate predecessors as moderator-Syngman Rhee (2000) and Freda Gardner (1999) – appointed the members of the task force. Gardner has also publicly favored repeal of the “fidelity/chastity” standard while Rhee has remained neutral.
‘Too well educated’
Rogers said he has heard no criticism over the appointments to the task force other than one Presbyterian who said she “thought this group was too well educated.”
“You start out with pretty much a clean slate,” he told the task force. “As for me, I am not worried about what they say about the task force now. What I care about is what they say four years from now.” The final report of the task force will be presented to the General Assembly in 2005.
Rhee and Gardner also spoke to the task force members at the outset of their first meeting.
Rhee provided the historical background, noting that the task force grew out of a proposal by a number of presbytery executives that the denomination should seek a “third way” to move beyond the contentions over the “fidelity/chastity” standard.
The Presbytery of John Calvin sent an overture to the 2001 General Assembly calling for creation of the task force. Rhee said 91 percent of the commissioners approved the overture.
“This is not another study to produce another study,” Rhee said. “The job of the task force is that of a coordinating committee – “a season of theological reflection.”
Gardner urged members of the task force to bring their “life experiences” into the discussions about the theological direction of the church.
“What has been given to you in your life experiences?” she asked. “How has God called you to use that for God’s intent for creation.”