Vice-moderator candidate performs same-sex wedding
Re-defining marriage emerges as issue in moderator’s race
By Carmen Fowler LaBerge, The Layman, June 19, 2012
Spuhler McCabe performs same sex wedding
As commissioners prepare to convene as the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) on June 30 in Pittsburgh, one of the first decisions they will make is who shall serve as the moderator and vice moderator for the next two years. One candidate for vice moderator has openly defied the PCUSA’s constitution and violated her ordination vows by performing a same-sex wedding. According to court documents, the Rev. Tara Spuhler McCabe wed two women on April 28, 2012 in the District of Columbia.
Marriage, its definition and the question of whether or not the denomination will allow for pastoral discretion in performing same-sex weddings will be debated at GA. However, one thing that is not up for debate is how the PCUSA constitution currently defines marriage. Marriage is defined throughout the Book of Order and Book of confessions as between one man and one woman.
The mutually agreed upon boundaries of behavior of ordained church officers in relationship to the constitution on this matter are also clear. Well publicized recent General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission rulings (Southard and Spahr cases) have reinforced the denomination’s standards. Those rulings make Spuhler McCabe’s performance of a same-sex wedding a direct violation of the vow to abide by the church’s polity even if she personally disagrees with the current standards.
Confusion reigns about the denomination’s position on the matter in large measure because the actions of the church’s officers are not consistent with the PCUSA’s espoused theology or its polity. Individuals may hold that the current definition of marriage needs to be changed and mechanisms exist to achieve such. Individuals may also hold that pastors ought to have the discretion to do what Spuhler McCabe did in this very case: to have the liberty to marry same-sex couples in states where it is legal to do so. However, the GAPJC has made it crystal clear that unless the rules change, ordained officers are bound by the current definition.
In a 2008 case involving same-sex weddings performed by Rev. Jane Adams Spahr, the GAPJC ruled that because the PCUSA constitution defines Christian marriage exclusively as being between a man and a woman, “a same-sex ceremony can never be a marriage.”
Spahr was expressly instructed not to perform same-sex ceremonies that were understood to be equivalent to marriages, and said PCUSA ministers should not “state, imply or represent that the same-gender ceremony is an ecclesiastical marriage ceremony as defined by PCUSA polity, whether or not the civil jurisdiction allows same-gender civil marriages.”
The couple wed in D.C. by Spuhler McCabe wore white dresses, processed down the aisle, registered for wedding gifts at Macy’s and Target, posted an on-line honeymoon registry and photographs. Comments by those who attended include, “Great, fun wedding!” and “It was a beautiful wedding.” The perception of those in attendance was that a wedding had been performed that produced a marriage. That is relevant because what is represented to people by a Presbyterian minister’s actions matters. The GAPJC’s ruling in the Spahr case also stated that “the critical question is not whether the definitional question creates proscribed conduct, it is whether it is permissible to represent that one is doing what one cannot constitutionally do.” The signing of the marriage license as the officiant represents to the court that a ceremony was performed that resulted in a marriage.
Spuhler McCabe was unwilling to give The Presbyterian Outlook a straight answer to the question of whether or not she had performed a same-sex wedding. She also failed to return requests for an interview for this article.
Still seeking second highest office in the church
Spuhler McCabe continues to stand as a candidate for vice moderator of the denomination with moderator candidate Neal Presa. According to his press release, Presa only learned about Spuhler McCabe’s having officiated at the wedding of two women after his running mate notified him that The Layman was working on a story. “Tara confirmed to me that she signed the marriage license, and conducted a ceremony for the two women in accordance with the laws of the District of Columbia at a restaurant.”
However, Presa goes on to say that Spuhler McCabe’s actions do not affect his desire to see her serve in the second highest office in the denomination. “I knew when I asked Tara to serve as my vice moderator candidate that she and I had different positions on same-sex marriage. And even as she told me last week that she officiated the ceremony in question, I expressed my disagreement with her actions, but was equally adamant in my conviction that it is precisely the difference which we hold and which we both embody that the 220th General Assembly and the Presbyterian Church needs in this time and into the future.”