Task Force may begin digging into issues at its next meeting
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, February 24, 2003
DALLAS – The Theological Task Force on Peace, Purity and Unity in the Presbyterian Church (USA) held its fifth meeting in a wet, cold Dallas – and left, again, without providing an inkling of where it’s going.
But the task force did dive deeply into some of the denomination’s sticky issues – the authority and interpretation of Scripture and the use of the 11 PCUSA confessions in dealing with the nature of Scripture. Again, however, there were no sweeping conclusions, no eurekas, as the task force continued to use its self-adopted consensual format to settle such non-burning issues as its plan to produce a video for use by other Presbyterian groups. The task force members want the video to show how they have maintained an aura of goodwill despite their disagreements.
Nonetheless, the Dallas meeting – Feb. 19-22 – did produce some signs that, in August, the panel will begin forging some kind of report, which could open some cracks in the panel’s cordiality.
Just as Dallas cleared up with bright sunshine shortly before the group scattered, there was a suggestion moments before the meeting concluded that members of the task force prepare for consideration at the next meeting their own proposals on what the task force should report to the church.
“How far are we toward being able to face these decisions?” asked Dr. Mark Achtemeier, a theology professor at Dubuque Theological Seminary in Iowa. “This is an issue in our mandate. I suspect there are a number of us here who have some potential strategies in mind. Let them put them down on paper and see if they’re likely to fly or not. I don’t think that needs to be a formal process.”
The 213th General Assembly (2001) created the task force and gave it a job description: to produce a report for the denomination on, among other things, Christology, ordination and power. Those issues have been at the heart of some of the most contentious debates some Presbyterians have.
The task force was appointed with the intention of balancing membership between conservatives and liberals. Only a few task force members – namely, Achtemeier, Dr. Joseph Coalter and Mike Loudon – have spoken openly about the theological differences among members of the group.
Some of that conversation occurred after the task force met in small groups to consider how three confessions – Westminster, II Helvetic and the Confession of 1967 – addressed Biblical authority.
During its stay in Dallas, the task force read and discussed papers on Biblical authority and interpretation, including two documents written by seminary professors on whether homosexuality is condemned by Scripture. Both papers said yes, but one, by Princeton’s William Placher, said that conclusion was culturally biased. Placher favors the ordination of homosexuals. The other paper, by Richard B. Hays of Duke Divinity School, didn’t draw the cultural-bias conclusion. But Hays would not exclude active homosexuals from ordination. He favors local option by ordaining bodies.