New Wineskins Initiative releases draft document on ethical imperatives
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, March 24, 2005
The New Wineskins Initiative has released a draft document on ethical imperatives that will be voted on by delegates to a national convocation considering a “bold new design” for the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The convocation, with the theme “Following Christ into the 21st Century,” will be held June 15-18 at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minn., a growing 4,100-member congregation whose senior pastor is the Rev. John Crosby.
Other draft documents that will be acted on by the convocation propose new statements of faith essentials and a revised constitution that calls for greater flexibility, a new approach to leadership development at the congregational level and a pared-down, adaptive service structure at the national level.
While the convocation will include preaching, prayer and worship, the focus will be on how evangelical Presbyterians respond to what the group’s leaders called “grave concerns about the health and effectiveness of our present organization” in theology, mission and structure.
The group’s “Declaration of Ethical Imperatives,” which lists 13 areas, begins with: “Genuine Christian faith is more than mere assent to propositions of truth. Saving faith issues forth in an ethical life: a life of love, obedience, and holiness.”
The draft document includes a section of prohibitions that “suggest useful boundaries for Christian behavior in all times and circumstances. In order to honor God, we discourage one another from the following sins,” and then lists such categories as:
Idolatry: “Love of God requires that the Lord alone be adored and worshipped. We reject the worship of anything other than God, including: work; wealth; health; success; progress; family; race; nation; political ideologies; economic systems; religious institutions and structures. We reject the practice of tolerance that refuses to discriminate between good and evil, and of embracing sin in the name of diversity. We reject those forms of pluralism and syncretism that misrepresent God as revealed in Scripture.”
Sexual immorality: “Love of neighbor requires that the sanctity of marriage be honored. The Lord our God is the source of our sexuality, which is to be cherished and expressed in the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman; all other sexual interaction falls outside of this biblical norm. We reject such practices as premarital and extramarital intercourse, homosexuality, bisexuality, adultery, polygamy, pornography, sexual objectification, predatory behavior and abuse.”
Bloodshed: “Love of neighbor also requires that the sanctity of life be honored. The Lord is the author and giver of life. We affirm all human life to be sacred to God. We therefore, reject all practices in which life is diminished, demeaned or indiscriminately destroyed. Abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, domestic violence, oppression, acts of revenge, unjust wars are symptoms of an ethos of death that repudiates God’s culture of life. So too are destructive speech, unforgiveness, treating people as objects, and all unjust partiality against persons based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender or social class.”
The group’s members said the convocation is likely to have an international flavor, as the plans include inviting guests and speakers from Presbyterian churches around the world. More information about the convocation is available on a special convocation Web site.
For further information, contact “Following Christ into the 21st Century” at 888-754-9693, or 7435 E. Oxford Ct., Wichita, Kan. 67226.