Harvard preacher urges: Ordain gays, risk schism
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, November 5, 2001
PASADENA, Calif. – Harvard preacher Peter G. Gomes told the Covenant Network of Presbyterians that it should “go to the brink” – even if it leads to schism – to end the Presbyterian Church’s prohibition against ordaining self-affirming, practicing homosexuals and adulterers.
Furthermore, Gomes, who says he is a homosexual, deems the issue so important that the cause should never be abandoned even if presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (USA) defeat Amendment 01-A this year. The presbyteries defeated similar proposals by 55 percent in 1997 and by nearly 65 percent in 1998.
Gomes, an American Baptist whose own denomination does not ordain homosexuals, was the keynote speaker during the second day of the Covenant Network Conference on Nov. 1-3 at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
“You have an apparent unity that is at risk here,” he said. “You may have to go to the brink for that Christian principle. Do not be intimidated by that. Recognize the risk and proceed.”
Gomes gave what he suggested was a Biblical framework for arguing that the ordination of homosexuals is warranted.
Arguing that interpretations that oppose ordination of homosexuals are “at best a dubious construction, at worst divisive,” Gomes said, “We do not need to leave Scripture … We have Scripture on our side.”
Rather than focus on Scripture that clearly describes homosexual activity as sinful, he said, Presbyterians should focus on three Biblical themes that emphasize inclusiveness.
First, he said, everyone is created in the image of God. “If we are created in the image of God, it is our duty to honor the image of God in all people.”
Second, “we do live in a fallen world.” Recognizing the fallenness of all people should evoke “one fundamental Biblical principle” – modesty. “I think you must love your enemies into extinction.”
Third, “redemption is inevitable … it is possible even for the church to be redeemed. We do not give up. Redemption is not inevitable without the faithful work of the people.”
“The business at hand is to persuade Presbyterians to do the right thing,” he said.
Quoting James I, son of Mary Queen of Scots, – “There is nothing more dangerous than a Presbyterian rising off his knees” – Gomes urged Presbyterians to pray and work hard to overturn the constitutional ordination standard.
He used one story to dissuade Presbyterians from paying too much attention to the past. When he was judging a student oratory contest, Gomes noted that one speaker listed a number of great people and then asked what they had in common. After a long pause, the student said, “They’re all dead – this is our moment.”
In a like manner, Gomes said, this is the moment for Presbyterians to break new ground on the ordination issue.
“Change is inevitable. Change to the right is God’s desire. The right will prevail. You cannot grow weary of well-doing. It is not a question of if. It is a question of when.”
Gomes emphasized that theme of “moment” by noting that attendance at The Memorial Church of Harvard, where he is Pusey Minister, has skyrocketed since Sept. 11.
People are flocking there and to other churches because they want to hear – and they hear in different ways. “It is both a moment that is a crisis and an opportunity,” he said.
During a question-and-answer session, Gomes, an African American, was asked why most other black Christians do not agree with his views about homosexuality and ordination.
He attributed that to “our own peculiar history” and an effort by blacks to convince whites that “they have nothing to fear from us … We’re not amoral. To prove that we are even as conservative as you are.”
He said that his assessment is not appreciated by the black community.
Gomes was also asked why few blacks were involved with the Covenant Network, which compares its campaign against ordaining homosexuals to the civil rights movement. He said they “don’t dare take steps that would increase our marginality, like joining the Covenant Network.”
Gomes was also asked to suggest how the Covenant Network might enlist more young people. With two or three exceptions, the 300 people who attended the Covenant Network Conference were white. Most were over 60 years old.
He answered with a call to inclusiveness, but added that the real issue wasn’t race or age – it’s a replay of the fundamentalist/modernist debate of the 1920s.
“It’s the same argument that Charles Hodge and all his pals were arguing in 1848. You have made the Bible a pope. You have never resolved the fundamentalist/modernist controversy in the Presbyterian Church.”
He said evangelicals cling to their orthodox interpretation of Scripture out of fear – “a fear that everything that they hold dear about their identity with the authority of Scripture will fall apart” if they are suddenly convinced that Moses did not write the Pentateuch or other modernist interpretations.