PCUSA permanently blocks controversial Web site access
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, November 26, 2002
The Presbyterian Center, headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (USA), has made a controversy-provoking Web site off limits to the public.
The Web site, formerly www.pcusa.org/pcusa/ctr, has been converted to an intranet site so that it is accessible only to employees within the building that houses the Presbyterian Center and not to regular Internet users. That defunct address now sends a Web browser to the home page of the denomination, pcusa.org.
Neither the PCUSA Web search engine nor a Google site search engine will bring up the information on the concealed site.
The decision to put up a firewall between Louisville and the Presbyterians who pay the salaries of the employees at the headquarters came after The Layman Online ran stories about the staff’s Halloween celebration, which included ghoulish costumes and a “haunted hall,” and a sales promotion for performances of the controversial stage show, The Vagina Monologues.
The two stories spawned a torrent of criticism from Presbyterians, although there were a few e-mails from readers who supported the Halloween and Vagina Monologues activities.
While acknowledging that the Halloween and Vagina Monologues postings were “a sign of bad judgment,” Kathy Luecker, deputy executive director of the General Assembly Council, said The Layman Online published the information intentionally “to disparage the staff.” But she also said criticism wasn’t limited to that prompted by The Layman’s articles, and that some employees at the center also objected to the content of the site.
Even though only employees will have access to the site, Lueckert said it will be more carefully monitored. She said she is establishing a procedure in which “two or three” members of the General Assembly Council will review material before it is posted.
Before public access was denied, the www.pcusa.org/pcusa/ctr site also included employee information, commentary by administrators and news about personnel, such as birthdays. The Layman Online had checked the site for weeks without any misgivings about its content. Most of the information reviewed was helpful for understanding work policies in Louisville, which is of interest to many Presbyterians.
Employees posed as vampires, one wearing a large cross.But the Halloween posting Nov. 5 raised eyebrows. It featured a photograph of two women in macabre apparel and baring artificial fangs. One of the women was also wearing a large silver cross, a stark contrast to the feigned evil of a vampire. Jerry Van Marter, director of the Presbyterian News Service and frequently a spokesman for the denomination, was photographed wearing white facial make-up and a wizard’s hat.
In a Nov. 12 story titled “Denomination has some good advice about observing Halloween,” The Layman Online took note of an article on another PCUSA Web page that expressed concern about the trappings of Halloween. “While both heaven and hell are part of our theology, many of the traditional Halloween trappings don’t fit well with the purpose of our church,” the article said. “We don’t celebrate death, the underworld, or spirits other than the Holy One. Ours is a resurrection faith in Jesus Christ, not a descent into hell with ghosts, goblins, and ghouls.”
On Nov. 18, The Layman Online published a story titled “PCUSA promotes controversial show, The Vagina Monologues.”
The staff promoted the performance as a fundraiser for the Women’s and Children’s Center in Louisville. The Monologues is a show that has won the praise of feminists and condemnation from other perspectives for its earthy discussions of pleasure, rape and lesbianism.
One reviewer, Les Gutman of Curtain Up, described The Monologues as “a huge ‘Girls’ Night Out’ with catcalls to rival any stag night.”