Commentary:
The causes of ‘great harm’ to the Church
by Carmen Fowler, The Layman, February 17, 2011
Seeking to further erode the sexual ethic God has ordained for His people in the Scriptures, More Light Presbyterians (MLP) made the following statement in their Christmas letter:
“The imposition of celibacy upon unmarried heterosexuals or LGBT persons along with the failure of our church to recognize same-sex marriage in the Church or within society has caused great harm to our Church, to its witness within the Christian communion and in the world.” (emphasis added)
Yes, you read that correctly, the Biblical expectation of sexual purity is regarded by the MLP as harmful to the Church and Her witness in the world. It seems the acronym LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) will no longer suffice. If you thought their agenda was limited to advocacy for self-identified homosexuals in committed monogamous relationships, think again.
The first expansion was to include bisexual people who by definition prefer a multiplicity of partners. The cadre expanded again to include the transgender for whom the argument that “God made me this way” falls completely flat. Now, the LGBT lobby publicly admits that their agenda includes NCSH: non-celibate single heterosexuals.
So, we ask, if LGBT is now going to include advocacy for NCSH, why stop there? What about married heterosexuals who desire open marriages or polygamy? If the Biblical sexual standards are set aside for single people, why discriminate against married people? Why uphold the Biblical calling for fidelity in marriage? In fact, why have marriage at all?
If all sexual mores are simply culturally conditioned and marriage is no longer seen as culturally relevant to the definition of family, why argue about who is and who isn’t allowed to marry who, where, when or how often?
Why would MLP and others work so hard to do away with the constitutional standards related to sexual behavior and on the other side of things, work so hard to have particular sexual acts blessed by the church and society by advocating for same-sex marriage? If you’re going to make a consistent appeal, in terms of Christian discipleship and witness, sex either really matters or it really doesn’t matter at all.
These are weighty concerns. It’s time to wake up to what’s really going on in our denomination. The issues are foundational: Biblical authority, Christology, ecclesiology and social witness. We need to acknowledge just how serious and pervasive a problem we have and recognize that the problem we are facing is not new.
The human proclivity to sin under grace is as old as the Church itself. The apostle Paul confronts the problem and offers thorough counsel on the subject in Romans chapter 6. Paul argues that if we are genuinely alive in Christ, then we are genuinely dead to sin. Further, if we are genuinely disciples of Christ, we are slaves to righteousness. Having been justified by Christ, we are now to submit to and pursue sanctification.
What is at stake is not a sentence in the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Constitution (G-6.0106b), but a mutual agreement about the ethics and behaviors expected by Christ of His followers. Yes, He graciously and mercifully forgave the woman caught in adultery but then He commanded her to go and sin no more. Yes, He graciously and mercifully liberated us from the powers of sin and death but not that we might use that liberty as license to sin all the more.
I concur with MLP that “great harm” is being caused to our particular Presbyterian branch of the Church. I disagree with their assertion that the cause of that harm is the “imposition of celibacy upon unmarried heterosexuals or LGBT persons.”
The harm is being caused by a human-centric worldview and a failure to submit to the revealed will of God given to us in the written Word of God. It is being caused by a denial of God’s active Lordship over our physical and emotional desires and a failure to submit our lives to the Holy Spirit’s active work of bringing us into ever greater conformity with the will of God that we be holy, even as He is holy.
Some have set themselves over the Scriptures and in so doing have suppressed the truth of what God has made plain. What we are experiencing in our common life is the Biblically revealed fall-out of a truth-denying decay.
If MLP doesn’t speak for you, if you do not want the PCUSA to become an agent of public advocacy for sexual anarchy, now is the time to wake up, stand up and speak up. Vote “no” on Amendment 10-A – revising G-6.0106b, the constitutional fidelity/chastity ordination requirement; Amendment 10-1 – approving the new Form of Government; and Amendment 10-2 – amending The Book of Confessions to include the Confession of Belhar. (Resources to equip you for the debate in your presbytery can be found at http://www.reclaimbiblicalteaching.org/www.reclaimbiblicalteaching.org.)
Carmen Fowler is president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and executive editor of its publications.