Debate over Jesus will go before full council
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, February 19, 2001
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The executive committee of the General Assembly Council wants the full council to take another stab at resolving the theological dispute that arose when a Presbyterian minister asked “What’s the big deal about Jesus?” during a denomination-sponsored Peacemaking Conference in June 2000.
The executive committee voted Feb. 18 to have a debate and possibly a vote on the issue Feb. 24, the last day of the council’s triennial meeting in Louisville.
In preparation for that discussion, the staff of the General Assembly Council distributed to executive committee members copies of a 93-page resource binder that included material ranging from defense and criticism of the conference to possible responses.
In addition, the staff circulated a petition signed by 1,548 Presbyterians who, in response to a letter from the Presbyterian Lay Committee, said the Peacemaking Conference controversy “is clearly a challenge to all individuals within the PCUSA whose beliefs still agree with the faith of our Presbyterian forefathers, and with the Lord Himself. This statement was a gauntlet laid down before all faithful Presbyterians.”
Christ alone?
The minister who made the controversial statement is Dirk Ficca of Chicago, who heads an interfaith organization that includes non-Christian and even self-described neo-pagan organizations in its membership.
As the Peacemaking Conference’s keynote speaker, Ficca questioned the Biblical and confessional theology that is anchored in Jesus’ statement as recorded in John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Ficca was advising Christians that there are valid paths to God other than through Jesus Christ.
Possible court actions
John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council, outlined to committee members the contents of the resource packet. He said 19 sessions and one presbytery responded with letters or resolutions contending that Ficca’s comment questioned salvation through Christ alone, a cornerstone doctrine in Reformed Christianity and the confessional documents of the denomination.
Several of the responses asked for the council to “cure a delinquency” – a phrase that implies some sessions might take the council to ecclesiastical court if it fails to respond appropriately. One of the sessions that indicated it might pursue the case in church court is that of Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, which, with more than 5,000 members, is one of the largest congregations in the denomination.
Freedom of conscience
During the executive committee’s discussion Feb. 18, there was no controversy over whether to send the issue to the full council. But there were indications that some council members believed it improper to insist that speakers at national conferences, even if they’re Presbyterian ministers, toe the line on Presbyterian doctrine.
Adelia D. Kelso, pastor of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Pearl River, La., said the Book of Order protects the “freedom of conscience” of ministers and officers of the church and concluded that it is “ludicrous” to question “every sentence that is stated.” She said she found nothing objectionable about Ficca’s comments. People who don’t like what someone else says “should go up and deal with it personally,” she said.
Doska Ross of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, said, “I believe we strongly value” the right of people “to say what might be on their heart in an open forum and offer food for thought. As I read his speech, I found it actually to be very stimulating.”
But Peter Pizor, chair of the General Assembly Council, urged the council to “listen, hear and discern as well as we can. It is a matter of some importance. One of the things I’m delighted with is that it is a conversation about Jesus, and that is very important as to who we are.”
A personal dilemma
The issue has been a personal dilemma for Pizor and Detterick. Shortly after the Presbyterian News Service published the first story about the controversy – including, in the reporter’s judgment, that Ficca had gone beyond the bounds of Reformed theology – Pizor and Detterick tried to calm the waters with a joint statement affirming that Jesus was the way, the truth and the life for them.
But critics attacked that statement for not affirming that Christ alone is the way, the truth and the life for the world. Later, Pizor and Detterick issued a joint statement affirming the sole sufficiency of Christ. That miffed the left flank of the PCUSA.
Conference planning defended
Since the Peacemaking Conference controversy erupted, the peacemaking staff has defended its planning for the conference. Sarah Lischerness did so again before the executive committee.
She said the conference planning team “realized we were dealing with a sensitive issue. At no time were we considering that we were trying to broaden what Presbyterians believe.”
Because the conference was designed to help Presbyterians address a pluralistic society of many faiths, some of the planners proposed prayers by people of different religions, she said. That idea was rejected, she added.
She called the Peacemaking Conference “probably one of the most highly evaluated conferences we have had in years,” and Ficca in particular got high marks.
But Jeffrey G. Bridgeman, a minister in Solvang, Calif., urged the executive committee to be sensitive to the people in the pews. “People are asking questions,” he said. “I’m listening to people’s hearts, people who want to support their church. There needs to be some kind of pastoral response to these congregations. There needs to be some kind of ongoing expression of our concern for them.”
Bridgeman warned the committee against viewing itself as the “elite” who “make decisions for the church. I think that’s a wrong picture of the church. It removes us out of a Reformed model for the church into an episcopal or autocratic or even into a congregational model.”