Pastor severs ties with PCUSA pension plan over same-sex benefits provision
The Layman, July 27, 2012
A California pastor became one of the first of what may be many teaching elders in the Presbyterian Church (USA) to sever ties with the denomination’s health and retirement plan after its board agreed to offer health benefits to same-gender domestic partners.
The Rev. Mark Patterson, lead pastor of Community Presbyterian Church, Ventura, Calif., publicly released a letter he sent to the PCUSA’s Board of Pensions (BOP) last week stating that the board’s closed-door decision had forced him “to choose between staying with the BOP and its programs or submission to the Scriptures and constitution of the church.”
“My faith and conscience require me to take this second course,” Patterson said, adding that he had already procured other health insurance and pension services from another provider.
In 2010, the 219th General Assembly of the PCUSA approved an increase in mandatory dues paid to the BOP to fund spousal and dependent benefits for same-gender domestic partners and their children.
The dues hike would require all congregations to pay up to a one-percent increase of total effective salary of all plan members to fund the measure, which will provide benefits to same-sex partners equivalent to those made available to spouses and dependents of current plan members.
Since the controversial final decision in March, the BOP has sent a letter on June 6 outlining the process by which sessions and other employing agencies can formally declare their objections. Enrollment for partnered gay clergy and other church employees will begin this fall and the change will take effect Jan. 1, 2013.
“Not only will this allow organizations to officially record their position, it should also help the board estimate how many congregations and other employing organizations would seek coverage-objection status in this matter. Such an estimate would be valuable in anticipating potential effects on the benefits plan and in determining the next steps in designing an effective relief of conscience mechanism,” read the June 6 letter by the BOP.
As of July 26, 112 churches have passed and sent dissenting resolutions, according to BOP Vice President Andy Browne – about 1.6 percent of churches billed by the BOP.
In his most recent letter, Patterson pointed out that Scripture and the PCUSA’s own Book of Confessions and Book of Order all define marriage as between a man and a woman.
“The BOP has rejected all this, choosing instead to allow the beliefs of the culture and an alien theology shaped by its values, to determine the board’s policies,” Patterson said, adding that the board had adopted a position that “not even the 220th General Assembly was willing to affirm as it voted this month to maintain the traditional understanding of marriage in the constitution.”
Patterson’s letter was one of many he has written the board expressing his opposition. Shortly after the BOP decided to extend benefits in March, Patterson called the action “cowardly” in an open letter.
“The board’s callous snub and clear rejection of the faith and values held dear by many of its faithful members makes clear that the BOP cannot be trusted to adhere to the standards of Scripture and Reformed theology and thus care for our medical and retirement needs,” he wrote.
Patterson added that his church’s session was in the process of separating from the BOP.
Patterson’s latest letter comes just a few weeks after the General Assembly shot down an attempt to add a relief-of-conscience provision to the PCUSA requirement that all its member congregations provide full BOP benefits to ordained ministers serving in installed positions. The proposed relief of conscience provision would have allowed ministers who objected to the BOP’s actions on theological grounds “the freedom to have the session reallocate the amount equivalent to the cost of participation in that benefits plan to provide for similar benefits through a third-party provider separate from” the PCUSA.
The BOP had assured the GA that it would develop a process for relief-of-conscience but insists that questions about pension liability must first be answered.
In its comments to the overture, the BOP stated: “The board regrets that our members might be faced with a decision that pits their conscience against their own welfare and that of their families, but notes that the benefits provided are consistent in every respect with the urgings and policies of the denomination as expressed by its General Assemblies over the years.”
Currently, the BOP maintains an abortion relief-of-conscience fund, which allows churches which oppose the inclusion of the procedure within its health plan to divert that portion of dues to an adoption ministry. According to the BOP, $11,000 out of $160 million in benefit payments in 2009 was used for abortions. As of 2011, there were 537 churches on the BOP’s abortion-related, relief-of-conscience roll.
The BOP claims that allowing ministers to opt out on theological grounds would represent a “dramatic change in the fundamental polity of the denomination” and claims it would “compromise and jeopardize the theological foundation of the community nature of the benefits plan.”
For Patterson, that foundation has already been compromised by the BOP’s March decision.
“With this decision the BOP has turned from the standards of the church and accepted as normative and authoritative a minority view that not only rejects the Biblical and constitutional standards of the church but forces its members to follow,” he wrote.
“I cannot and will not participate in a system that requires me to reject the Scriptures, transgress the [PCUSA] Constitution and through this violate my own ordination vows,” he added.
Patterson added that his decision to sever ties grieves him and acknowledged that the BOP “has done and continues to do many good things for its members – that it cares for pastors, especially those who spent their years in small churches with little income is remarkable and deeply commendable.”
“But sadly all this is occluded and lost in the flawed policy, cultural theology and church politics the BOP has allowed to give primary determination to the shaping of its policies,” he said, adding that he will consider rejoining if the same-sex provision is rejected and reversed.
“Being forced to choose between submitting to the policies of the BOP or the authoritative standards of church is as scandalous as the choice is obvious,” he said.
A message left with the BOP was not returned as of the time of this posting.
The Board administers a $6-billion benefits and assistance program which serves 50,000 PCUSA ministers, church workers and dependents.