Minority report from marriage committee released
‘Only marriage between a man
and a woman is ordained by God’
The Layman, March 9, 2010
The intent of a “minority report” recently released by three members of the Special Committee to Study Issues of Civil Union and Christian Marriage, is to “represent the church’s Biblical, historic, and confessional position that, among all varieties of sexual relationships, only marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God and blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The special committee was formed after the 218th General Assembly asked the assembly’s moderator to appoint a committee to study the marriage, civil unions and covenanted same-gender partnerships in the Christian community. Following more than a year of meetings, the committee’s report was approved Jan. 24.
Three committee members, Rev. Tracie Mayes Stewart, Rev. William C. Teng and Elder Lisa Cooper Van Riper, voted against the report and reserved the right to file their own report.
Both reports will be presented to commissioners for approval at the 219th General Assembly in Minnesota July 3-10.
“Love is never about license and, for too many years, the PCUSA has been silent as the carnage of sexual hedonism engulfs our culture,” the minority report states.
“Let us boldly proclaim that God has a place for sex: It is within marriage between a man and woman and that commitment is for life. Let us work to support, encourage and nurture those who are not married and help them know that God’s plan for them is just as important as God’s plan for married people. Let us honor celibacy and those who practice it as engaging in a profitable spiritual discipline which may be life-long or for a season of life. Holding us all to the same Biblical standard will help strengthen the peace, unity and purity of the PCUSA and help us all grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” it says.
The report draws from the 1978 General Assembly approved statement on homosexuality – set aside by the 2008 assembly – which said:
- “homosexuality is a contradiction of God’s wise and beautiful pattern for human sexual relationships revealed in Scripture … ”
- “unrepentant homosexual practice does not accord with the requirements for ordination;”
- “Persons who manifest homosexual behavior must be treated with the profound respect and pastoral tenderness due all people of God” as they “strive toward God’s revealed will in this area of their lives and make use of all the resources of grace;”
- “There is no legal, social, or moral justification for denying homosexual persons access to the basic requirements of human existence.”
The minority report cites two reasons for the discord in the PCUSA:
- Disconnect between the theological/pastoral and advocacy strands of the 1978 report on homosexuality,
- Divergent readings of Scripture.
The report states that there are two “larger approaches to Biblical interpretation at play.” One being liberal or progressive, and the other called evangelical, conservative, orthodox or traditional: “Both approaches appeal to Scripture, although they read it differently.”
Following eight paragraphs of traditional versus progressive beliefs, the section concludes: “The pastoral model for traditionalists is: Compassion toward practicing homosexual persons means calling them, with all heterosexuals who have departed from God’s intentions, to repentance and restoration. The advocacy model is to call society away from its destructive ‘anarchy in sexual relationships’ (Confession of 1967, 9.47). For progressives the pastoral model is: Compassion means affirmation of everyone’s sexual orientation and encouragement to use it responsibly in covenanted relationships. The advocacy model is to seek the dissolution of distinctions between marriage and same-gender relationships.”
The minority report recommends that the General Assembly commend its report to “sessions and presbyteries, and urge them to engage in study of the issues presented in the report;” and commend to the denomination the “covenant as a guide by which we broken and hurting people, seeking to be faithful, might come together to discuss issues about which we disagree.”
A covenant is included in both reports, but they differ slightly. The covenant in the minority report reads:
“By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the love of God, and in the communion of the Holy Spirit, we covenant together to:
- “Honor the truth that Christ has called and God works through each member;
- “Listen to one another with openness and respect;
- “Support and pray for each other and for one another’s ministries;
- “Earnestly seek and carefully listen to each person’s discernment of God’s will found in Scripture;
- “Struggle together with perseverance to find God’s will for us even when the way is difficult;
- “Love one another even when we disagree, and to commit ourselves to the reconciliation of any broken relationships we have with one another.”
The committee’s report includes an introductory statement, “We acknowledge and confess that the Presbyterian Church (USA) displays the marks of the true Church (the gospel is rightly preached and heard, the sacraments are rightly administered, and ecclesiastical disciple is uprightly ministered). Christ has chosen each one of us here, and has called us to this place. Those whom God has joined together, let no one separate.”
It also includes an additional bullet: “Honor who we are as Presbyterians by respecting the fallible discernment of the body, bearing in mind that individual conscience, held captive to the word of God, cannot be thus bound.”