Former GA moderator joins pro-gay group in Virginia
The Layman Online, July 14, 2005
Isabel Rogers, moderator of the 199th General Assembly (1987) of the Presbyterian Church (USA), has joined a group called People of Faith for Equality in Virginia that is taking up gay causes in the state, according to an account by the Associated Press.
“Plans for the mixed-denomination group include engaging voters in gay rights talks and pressuring legislators to back away from laws against same-sex couples in the commonwealth,” the AP said in a story that began by focusing on Rogers.
Isabel Rogers praised college women’s material that was banned by later General Assembly.After the 199th General Assembly elected Rogers moderator, it wasn’t long before she was trying to reshape the denomination’s policies on sexual relations.
She appointed the members of a task force on human sexuality, but was later criticized for stacking it with advocates of homosexual practice. Other members were appointed later in an effort to create better balance, but the task force still advocated for homosexual behavior, adultery and pre-marital sex in its report to the 1991 General Assembly. That report was rejected by a vote of 534-31.
Rogers, a retired professor of Christianity at Union Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian School for Christian Education in Richmond, has continued to advocate ordaining practicing homosexuals in the PCUSA. She speaks frequently to Presbyterian groups, including General Assembly committees, on behalf of gay causes and women’s issues.
A staunch feminist, Isabel wrote Toward a Liberating Faith: A Primer on Feminist Theology.
In 1998, she testified on behalf of the National Network of Presbyterian College Women, which was under fire because of its publication, Young Women Speak, that promoted lesbianism and taught that sex before and outside of marriage is morally acceptable.
“I’ve been in education for 50 years. This is Christ-centered education,” Rogers told the 210th General Assembly … I think this is a tremendously helpful document.”
But the 1999 General Assembly disagreed. It demanded that the network cease to use, distribute or republish its materials, required that it submit to theological oversight and placed it on probation for three years.