Authority of Scripture debated
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, September 12, 2000
GLEN ELLYN, Ill. – They came to this Chicago bedroom village with opposing views about the ordination of self-affirming, practicing homosexuals and Presbyterian services to bless homosexual couples. They spent nearly 20 hours studying Ephesians, worshiping, praying and eating together.
They left without anyone’s mind being changed.
The two groups – teams selected by leaders of the Presbyterian Coalition and the Covenant Network – constructed no bridge over their deep chasm. But they did decide to meet again early in 2001 to discuss why they dispute so intensely what the Bible has to say about homosexual activity.
The only attempt to voice some kind of agreement between the evangelicals representing the Coalition and the Covenant Network’s theological liberals failed.
Shortly before the meeting ended, Deborah Block, a Milwaukee minister and co-moderator of the Covenant Network, read a letter she had written, suggesting that it be sent to denomination leaders in Louisville over the signatures of the 10 participants. The letter essentially encouraged others to follow the Glen Ellyn example of striving for “unity in diversity” to take the edge off the debate over homosexuality.
The letter would be a sign to the church of people who disagree [but are] working together,” said Laird Stuart, a San Francisco minister who is co-moderator of the Network.
Coalition team members did not agree, and they rejected sending any joint statement to the denomination. Terry Schlossberg, executive director of Presbyterians Pro-Life, said a letter acknowledging agreement was premature.
Biblical authority debated
The main issue was Biblical authority. The Coalition team members emphasized the inspiration of Scripture in all of its parts and the whole. Most of the members of the Covenant group suggested that passages about homosexual activity were no longer relevant or that they did not say what the Church has historically believed them to say.
Covenant Network team member Michael Adee of San Diego, who described himself several times as a “gay man” and a Presbyterian church elder, introduced the issue of homosexuality, saying he was “ashamed” of the Presbyterian Church (USA) because its constitution prohibits ordaining active, self-affirming homosexuals.
“As Presbyterians,” Adee said, “we’re among the most disembodied people on the planet. We don’t know how to deal with our sexuality. Heterosexuals are not comfortable in their own sexuality.” He said Presbyterians are more interested in sexuality than in children dying or environmental or economic issues.
How to define morality?
Adee was challenged. “For many of us this is not a question at all of a disembodied head or how to deal with our sexuality,” said Schlossberg. “The issues of sexuality and children dying are both moral questions, issues that raise the question: How do we define morality?”
The Covenant team members – Stuart, Block, Adee, Mitzi Henderson of More Light Churches and Pam Byers of Covenant Network – said the Bible does not define homosexual activity as immoral.
The Coalition team members – Schlossberg; Parker Williamson, executive editor of The Presbyterian Layman; Coalition Co-Moderators Jerry Andrews and Anita Bell, and Coalition Executive Coordinator William Giles – said it does.
Stuart argued that the writers of the New Testament did not understand homosexuality. “We have new knowledge and understanding. People who are gay and lesbian are as naturally gay and lesbian as I am heterosexual.” Therefore, Stuart said, the New Testament admonitions against homosexual relations are wrong. “Some passages are authoritative for life and belief and some are not,” he said.
‘Bible is not Christ’
Henderson said she came to her conclusions that Scripture was not authoritative about homosexual conduct after a son disclosed that he was gay. She told Coalition team members, “You feel very strongly that the Bible has given you the word of truth on gays and lesbians. I think you’re wrong. I keep hearing that if it’s in Scripture, that’s the end of it. The Bible is not Christ.” She said the fundamental truth is Jesus Christ – not the Christ of the Bible.
Williamson said, “Scripture is God’s Word. We know Christ through Scripture. I have problems when you promote a ‘Christ’ apart from Scripture. The Word incarnate and the Word written are not separate or opposed to one another.”
The Ephesians study set the tone for the later debate about Biblical authority. The first three chapters of Ephesians emphasize the redeeming work of Christ, especially the grace, love and mercy of God. The last three, beginning with an emphatic “Therefore,” address morality and Christian behavior. Coalition team members viewed the second three chapters as authoritative as the first three. But Covenant Network said many of the Biblical commandments were legalistic and not Christian.
Other issues raised
The discussion occasionally ranged well beyond the issues relating to homosexuality.
Adee grafted two sideline issues – ordination of divorced people and clergywomen – into the discussions. He asked how a denomination that consented to ordain divorced people and women could justify its prohibition against ordaining practicing gays. Time did not allow a full discussion of those issues, but they will be on the agenda for the next meeting.
Giles raised concerns that the Presbyterian church is “drifting more and more into universalism … [with] a general shift away from evangelism.” He also touched on the question of Biblical interpretation. “There is a more academic and philosophical approach to Scripture,” he said. “There is more accommodation to other faith traditions.”
‘Too nice … for the Gospel’
Bell agreed that there is a drift to universalism in which Jesus is regarded as merely one of many paths to God. “It’s not comfortable to say, ‘This way or the highway,'” she said. She cited a meeting of her presbytery in which a candidate for ministry answered the question, “How can one be saved?” by saying, “‘I’m still not there yet,'” but was approved for ordination. “We couldn’t get off ‘nice’ long enough to be counted for the Gospel.”
Citing the controversy over the denomination’s recent Peacemaking Conference, Williamson also said there is a trend toward accommodating different faith traditions. “What was most distressing to me,” he said, “were the damage-control statements coming out of Louisville.”
Adee took up for the denomination’s leaders, saying that its critics tended to use stereotypes just as “I get to be stereotyped as an openly gay elder. I’m real concerned about the conversation because I don’t think it’s fair or accurate.”
At one point, he strongly defended Mary Ann Lundy, former head of the Women’s Ministries Unit of the PCUSA, “as one of the most wonderful Christians I know.” Before the denomination terminated her employment, Lundy was one of the key figures in getting the denomination to help sponsor the 1993 ReImagining Conference that exalted a goddess named Sophia and proclaimed a radical feminism.
Adee said the critics of the ReImagining Conference were guilty of “demonizing” the conference participants.
But Andrews said he listened to the ReImagining tapes and concluded: “This isn’t just American Protestant liberalism gone off track. This is paganism. How can I say this is a different god without demonizing?”
Advocates of the ReImagining movement, including Voices of Sophia, have been allied with More Light Churches, the Witherspoon Society and the Covenant Network in a joint effort to overturn the denomination’s ordination standard. They also are jointly opposed to the proposed constitutional amendment that would forbid Presbyterian ministers from conducting services that bless same-gender relationships.
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