Angry gay minister wins
sanction of his ordination
By John H. Adams, The Layman, August 19, 2008
Before a synod court restored him to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, homosexual activist Paul Capetz accused Presbyterians who disagree with him of holding a “Nietzschean resentment toward all persons who dare to live life out of their strengths and passions.”
That charge and others were made by Capetz in a letter that was published on the Web site of the Witherspoon Society. Capetz sounded as if he expected the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Lakes to overturn a ruling by the Presbytery of the Twin Cities to restore him as a minister of the Word and Sacrament.
Instead, the synod court, in an August 12 decision, upheld Capetz’s reinstatement, ruling that the presbytery committed no irregularity because it was not ordaining him, but restoring him.
In his pre-decision letter, dated Jan. 19, 2008, a few days after the presbytery overwhelmingly voted to reinstate him, Capetz expressed deep resentment toward the denomination. “I’m feeling punched in the gut by the church – waiting for the PJC to overturn the presbytery’s decision restoring me to ordained minister – I can’t begin to put together into words all my thoughts and feelings – sheer disbelief and outrage may be close to the mark,” Capetz said.
He added:
I didn’t think it was possible for my estimate of the church to sink any lower than it already was. It’s been 30 years since the 1978 San Diego GA first adopted its “Definitive Guidance” after accepting the Task Force’s “minority report” and rejecting the “majority report.” And after 30 years nothing in this church has changed with respect to gay people. Unbelievable. I wish you could have been there at the presbytery meeting when I was answering questions and engaging in debate. Aside from the complete ignorance about the Reformed tradition evident on the part of those who wanted to maintain an absolute ban, there is a total unwillingness on their part even to acknowledge the human pain inflicted on people by their policies.
The other day I thought to myself, “Behind all this there is a real lovelessness toward people – these guys do not love human beings as human beings.” I wouldn’t be surprised if some kind of psychoanalytic explanation would account for what is going on: a deep discomfort with their own sexuality and I am the projected image of their fears and anxieties, or a Nietzschean resentment toward all persons who dare to live life out of their strengths and passions. Something utterly bizarre and evil is at work here. The Revs. David Bierschwale and David Lenz and Elder Carol Shanholtzer filed the remedial complaint asking the synod to declare the presbytery’s action irregular.
Capetz is a former member of the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va. Capetz relinquished his ordination in 2000 as a protest against the “fidelity/chastity” ordination requirement in the Book of Order.
In a declaration supporting his request for reinstatement, he explained why he forfeited his ordination credentials. “I was unable to construe that amendment to the constitution as implying anything other than commitment to a life of permanent celibacy on the part of homosexually-oriented persons who serve as ordained officers in the church. Aside from the fact that I am a gay man who could not in good conscience pledge a vow of celibacy, as a theologian of the church I could not then, and cannot now, affirm such an interpretation as in accord with our Protestant and Reformed tradition wherein the abolition of clerical celibacy was inextricably bound up with the Reformers’ understanding of Christian faith as articulated in the classic documents found in The Book of Confessions …”
Capetz cited a number of academic papers he had written to dispute the prohibition. “… I believe then as I do now that the theological warrants adduced in support of this constitutional amendment are seriously flawed … Finally, from my own personal anguish as a gay Christian man, I know at first hand the existential toll this amendment has taken on the lives of persons of faith and integrity who seek to discern what it means to follow a call to serve God as an ordained officer in the church.”