BOP increase: N.Y. church will
withhold double portion in protest
The Layman, September 20, 2010
The session of Colonial Village Presbyterian Church in Niagara Falls, N.Y., is among the first to take a public stand against the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s decision to provide benefits for same-sex partners of Board of Pensions (BOP) plan members.
The 219th General Assembly (GA) ordered a congregational dues increase of up to 1 percent, scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2012, in order to fund same-sex benefits. Dues payments to the BOP are mandatory.
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The GA also advised the BOP to offer a “relief of conscience” provision for congregations that do not want their dues funding something that’s contrary to their beliefs, but the BOP has yet to come up with such a plan.
It is possible that the BOP will offer something similar to the relief of conscience that it offers to congregations that oppose its funding of abortion procedures at any stage of the pregnancy and for any reason. That plan channels a portion of dues paid by objecting congregations into a special account that does not fund abortions. But critics of the plan say that it is essentially a shell game, since the BOP continues to fully implement its abortion provision by using a greater percentage of non-objecting congregational dues to fund it.
“Pro-life Presbyterians already know that the BOP ‘relief of conscience’ process does not assuage our grief over abortions paid for with member tithes,” an article on the organization’s Web site states. “ROC provides a method of registering protest, but does not solve the moral dilemma created by the mandatory nature of the Click here to read the full text of Colonial Village’s letter plan.”
Unwilling to wait for the BOP to announce a plan, the session of Colonial Village church has come up with its own relief of conscience.
Describing the 1-percent increase as “robbery,” the session will keep its dues at the current rate and will decrease its overall per capita and general mission giving to higher governing bodies by deducting an amount equal to 2 percent of its BOP dues beginning Jan. 1, 2011. According to Colonial Village’s letter, the 2-percent figure is based on Exodus 22:7, which calls for double restitution in the case of theft.
“We understand gay and lesbian lifestyles to be proscribed by the Bible as sexually immoral,” the letter states. “The Bible says that we are to flee sexual immorality, but our General Assembly has moved to embrace the acceptance and approval of active and ongoing, intimate and immoral, same-sex relationships by mandating this increase in pension dues.”
In addition to Parsons, copies of the letter were sent to the stated clerks of the Presbytery of Western New York and the Synod of the Northeast, as well as Presbyterian News Service, Presbyterian Outlook and The Layman.