Complainant in Redwoods case calls outcome a ‘whitewash’
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, December 18, 2002
The Presbyterian who filed a complaint seeking to have a self-acknowledged, practicing lesbian minister ousted from the Presbyterian Church (USA) says a presbytery’s decision not to call for a trial in his case was “just a whitewash.”
The complainant, Paul Rolf Jensen, a Virginia lawyer, also criticized officials in the Presbytery of Redwoods in California for treating his complaint lightly by inviting him, in Jensen’s words, “to send us whatever you have in writing and we’ll decide whether or not to interview you.”
The presbytery’s investigating committee announced recently that it had dismissed Jensen’s complaint against the presbytery and the Rev. Kathleen “Katie” Morrison. Notwithstanding public knowledge that she was a practicing lesbian, the presbytery had previously approved Morrison’s ordination as associate minister of a congregation and as an employee of More Light Presbyterians.
Morrison had acknowledged to the committee that she was a lesbian and had a partner, but she argued that she had not violated the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard in the Constitution of the PCUSA. She said her definition of “chastity” did not mean refraining from sex with another woman.
Jensen has until early January to file a petition of review asking the presbytery’s permanent judicial commission to decide whether another investigating committee should be appointed.
But he told The Layman Online that he is not likely to file the petition for two reasons: 1) it probably would be turned down and 2) people who are opposed to a called meeting of the General Assembly would use it as example that the process is working.
As he has done in the past, Jensen emphasized that he does not believe the constitutional process is working. And he said the Redwoods case was the best example of the denomination’s failure to enforce its constitution.
“The outrage we in the denomination should have in Redwoods should be greater than any other,” said Jensen. After filing 21 complaints against church officers who publicly declared their defiance of the ordination standard, some as far back as March 2001, Jensen has seen none of those cases go to trial.
“Even Baltimore gave lip service to the rule,” Jensen said, referring to a case in which he had sought to have the Presbytery of Baltimore oust the Rev. Don Stroud, also a practicing homosexual. The investigating committee of the Baltimore Presbtery dismissed Jensen’s complaint against Stroud.