By Carolyn Poteet
Monday morning, I broke away from my own committee meeting to testify before the opening hearing for the Committee on Theology and Worship. Hoping to just slide in and out, I was discouraged to find out that I would be one of the last to testify on a long list. One of the issues ahead of mine was an overture that sought to add a line from Calvin saying that "God pronounces that he adopts our infants as his children, before they are born."
A line-up of pro-choice speakers got up, and I braced myself for what I knew was coming. The most grating testimony was from one woman who reminded the committee that since the PCUSA had declared that this is just fetal tissue, not a child, then how could it be adopted? The words felt so empty and tragic to me, my heart broke. Then finally, a speaker for the overture rose, and began to quote scripture.
"The child in her womb leapt with joy... before I formed you in the womb, I knew you... I knit you together in your mother's womb..."
For a brief moment, there was quiet, and those words hung in the air and shimmered. Sola Scriptura. Those words are like not other words. I felt like Simon Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!"
Did those words change hearts? Did those words change the committee's vote? We don't know yet. The committee vote will be on Tuesday. The plenary vote will be later in the week. But moments just like this are happening in 19 committees across General Assembly.
We can and are speaking God's Word as often as we can -- as lovingly and as compassionately as we can. But it is God's job to change hearts. Please, prayer warriors, join us in prayer, that hearts of stone would be turned to hearts of flesh and that God will be glorified.