An Award for What?
By Dr. Alan LeachDirector of Prayer and Mission Outreach, July 21, 1999
Through the so called “Women of Faith” Awards the Presbyterian Church USA has been served up another blatant rejection of Biblical truth and morality by units in Louisville and a slim majority of the GAC. Why even waste the ink responding? The answers are very simple. We still believe in a church which:
- honors God as revealed through Scripture
- strives to lead its children into a godly future
- utilizes the tithes and offerings being given across the denomination for the upbuilding of the church and the promotion of the gospel, not the financing of immoral sexual urges of small groups who have rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ.
On these points, there will be no compromise.
A Church Which Honors God
Recently I had one of those “what-is-wrong-with-this-picture” moments. I picked up the newspaper and read of a neighboring county’s legal fight to keep the Ten Commandments posted on their courthouse wall. The Commandments have been hanging there for decades. Recently the ACLU became aware of this and threatened a lawsuit unless they were removed. With almost unanimous community consent, the leaders decided the substance of these Commandments were of such importance that it was worth the expense of a legal battle.
The next day I read about the “Women of Faith” awards being sanctioned by the Presbyterian Church through a slim majority of its appointed leaders. Though it was not framed as a vote against the first two of the Ten Commandments, by the content of the awards, this is exactly what it was.
What an amazing picture. In one secular county, we have a majority of the world’s leaders valuing and fighting to maintain the law of God in the civil court. In the Presbyterian Church, we have the majority of the church’s leaders disregarding and voting to keep several of the Commandments of God out of it’s faith deliberations.
A re-imagined dialogue
Since one group of Presbyterians thinks re-imagining is the way to go, picture for moment Moses moderating the 1999 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. As in Exodus 32, the Presbyterian tribes have crossed the sea and camped. Moses has been on the mountain for several weeks. Regardless of what may be transpiring up there, a vocal core has decided they can do better. So with the help of the remaining leaders, they have crafted a little golden sophia, built an altar, and have begun to worship the idol with offerings of milk and honey, shamanistic incantations and some Canaanite sexual practices. In the middle of this worship service, enters Moses with the Commands of God.
(Curtain rises on Presbyterian tribes)
Moses: “Aaron, what is going on?”
Aaron: “Look Moses, I know this is not what you expected. But let’s not make more of it than we should. It’s really no big deal. Moses, these people have spent the last 400 years learning the ways of the Egyptians. We can’t deny them their cultural heritage. Anyway, who are we to say the Egyptians were not right? For that matter, maybe the Cannanites, Amorites, and the rest of the people in this land are manifesting a spark of divinity. Maybe we can dare to say that the Spirit of God popped this little Egyptian sophia out of the fire and has lead us to worship it?” ¹
Moses: “Then why would God have brought us out of Egypt?”
Aaron: “Maybe it had to do with ‘Justice-Love,’ I mean, deliverance from structures of oppression.”
Moses: “If that was what it was all about, surely God could have changed the political structures and left you in your homes. In case you have forgotten, He did perform incredible display of power. And how about the other slaves in Egypt? They are still toiling under those oppressive structures.”
Aaron: “Look Moses, we have been through a lot. Hundreds of years of bondage, chased by Pharoses army, and stranded here in this desert. Don’t you agree that the most important thing is to hold these tribes together. What we need is a tent big enough to accommodate several of your chiseled opinions, a little golden sophia, some Canaanite fertility rituals, and a couple of alternative worship temples. Surely we can find common ground on which we can feel each others pain and heal alienation. Maybe we can set up some round tables.”
Moses: “But the Commands God has issued are in direct conflict with this stuff. He has decreed, “You shall have no other gods before me.” “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or the earth beneath….” That definitely cuts out this celebration and that little golden sophia.”
Aaron: “Now that you bring it up, we are going to have to take a hard look and vote on these so-called commandments you are trying to impose upon us. Several tribes are already sending up overtures to delete a number of them. A consortium of northern tribes has declared themselves to be a “Commandment-free-zone.” A committee of camp scholars has reviewed your work and is accusing you of being uninformed and theologically naive. And remember Moses, these scholars have been trained in the best seminaries Egypt has to offer. Also, it pains me to have to tell you this, but you have been discussed in several executive committees. If you continue to publish these tablets, they are talking of being forced to bring charges against you for disrupting the peace and purity of the tribes.“
Moses; “Hmm. What does it accomplish to vote on what God has decreed? He is the authority. He is not asking for our debate and consent. I don’t even remember Him asking for our opinion. He demands our obedience. Either we submit to His revelation and authority. Or we rebel and invite His consequences.”
At this point shrieks of protest rise from the gayite tribe, the sophite tribe, and the Louite tribe. Charges are yelled of oppression, abuse, lack of love, judgementalism, and rights. Arms are locked and voices begin to stomp, “We’re queer and we’re here.” Golden sophia awards are bestowed on those deemed champions of a “re-imagined faith.” Supporting illuminaries line up to crow their open mindness and prove their enlightened worldview. Before the little golden sophia, each drops a pinch of incense into the sacred fire. Spokespersons gather at the microphone to scoff at the Commandments. Chants rise:
“We have no need of your laws or your authority!” “We have no need of your cross or your bloody sacrifice or your weird stuff” “We have no need of your deliverance or salvation!” “We have no need of You!”
Arms stretch and a hymn begins to wave around the little Egyptian idol:
“Golden sophia!” “Golden sophia!” “Come golden sophia!” “We give ourselves to you!” “Come sophia, immerse us into the depths of thy bountiful honey!” “Into it let us dip!” “Of its golden nectar, let us drink!” “From its dark richness, let us feast!”
As the chants and incantations swirl about the little silent sophia, Mount Sinai begins to shake. The sky darkens. The air thickens. Then God speaks. ²
(Curtain falls on Presbyterian tribes)
It’s About Your Children
Why do we give awards? Well, in part it is to recognize outstanding accomplishments. But there is another reason. In the awards we give today, we shape the ideals and aspirations of the future. For example, in the military, much of basic training is taken up with lectures on the heroes of combat. Does this enable a soldier to shot straighter or do more push-ups? Not at all. But it creates a dream or an ideal to which then thousands of young men and women aspire to rise. Or again, as far away as the jungles of the Philippines, I have had young people tell me of their dream to be just like their hero: Michael Jordan. In the larger scheme of things, this is what awards are all about. It is a means of holding up an ideal to which people, but particularly youth, can aspire.
In this light, the “Women of Faith” Awards might be as deadly as its “Re-imagined” twin. To illustrate, upon returning from the 1999 GA, I was told of a teenage friend of our family who had questions concerning lesbianism. What if she comes into the Presbyterian Church looking for discernment?
Imagine for a moment, on one side of the Presbyterian Church is a bookcase holding the Book of Church Order. In it she finds G.6.01066. She reads, “if you admit it, you can’t be ordained.” OK, she wasn’t interested in being ordained anyway.
So she looks to the other side of the Presbyterian Church. There she sees a huge trophy case. In it are spotlighted the pictures of three Reverends. Above their heads she reads the words, “Women of Faith. Models for Tomorrow.” On a smaller plaque she reads, “Recipients of the 1999 PCUSA Women of Faith Awards. For their tireless efforts and outstanding accomplishment in the promoting and sanctioning of lesbianism as future leaders of the Presbyterian Church. May many rise to their stature and follow in their heroic steps.”
Which speaks loudest to a sixteen year old girl looking for the church’s guidance? There is no question about it. It is the picture of one of the highest authorities in the church recognizing and awarding lesbianism as the best and highest the PCUSA has to offer. ³ In the larger scheme of things, this is what this award is all about. It is creating heroes or models of lesbian leadership to which people, particularly young people, can aspire.
Honoring God with out tithes and offerings
Why bring up the issue of tithes and offerings? As a single event, this award probably cost little. But when we begin to consider twenty years of GA’s tied up around this issue, study committees, local churches tied in knots, 174 presbyteries spending meeting after meeting in debate of sexuality, and sophia/sexuality conferences. Add to this the personnel and time spent in Louisville supporting, framing, and spinning this issue. It all adds up to millions of dollars of offerings being consumed by issues in direct opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is not even considering the hundreds of thousands who have sadly walked out of the church because they did not want their spiritual life and witness consumed by this apostasy. This issue has consumed a huge amount of the thousands of tithes and offerings which have been given by faithful Presbyterian across this country.
¹ The GAC justified their support of the “Women of Faith” Awards with this reasoning, “We even dare to believe the Holy Spirit is leading us and teaching us how to be one body in spite of our differences and conflicts.”
² If you want to read God’s response to idolatry, I invite you to read Exodus 32.
³ The justification the GAC offered in defense of their support of this award is telling. Listen to a portion of their public relations:
“While there will be many voices trying to interpret our actions this vote should in no way be construed as an endorsement of anyone’s position for or against the policies and standards of our church. That was not the issue before us.”
In other words, they were just making sure rules were being followed. The GAC can chose to spin any issue before it in any number of ways. To say their job was little more than making sure procedures were followed and to claim they had no responsibility to uphold the “policies and standards of our church,” ever how the issue came before them, is incredulous. One can only wonder if they would have taken the same “Hear-No-Evil, See-No-Evil, Speak-No-Evil” position if instead the award was being given to a Neo-Nazi or a White Supremacist?