 Committee votes to disapprove overture on mixing marketing and religion By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Tuesday, May 27, 2003
The Monday afternoon vote on Overture 03-09 from the Presbytery of Detroit followed a lengthy debate by committee members, who first voted against an attempt to amend the motion and also voted against including a comment with the committee's disapproval. In presenting the overture to commissioners, overture advocate Kenneth Collisson said, "Our Detroit overture is about our opposition to General Motors using a particular limited type of Christian worship to sell cars." He said General Motors brought fundamentalist preacher Max Lucado to many cities. "One of our objections is the fundamentalism of Rev. Lucado … We Presbyterians have a wonderful Reformed tradition of opposing fundamentalism in our church." The Rev. Paul Peterson, an activist with the gay advocacy group That All May Freely Serve-Michigan who helped Collisson with his presentation, called the Come Together and Worship tour "the church service where the only cross is the Chevrolet logo." Later, when asked by a committee member, Peterson said he had not attended any of the services because that would require buying a ticket. "Max Lucado seems harmless on the surface," Peterson said, but "he brings people into the fundamentalist religion of Pat Robertson." He said the Web site of Lucado's church points people to other Web sites that condemn religions other than Christianity and sites that say gay men are more likely to molest children. "[Lucado] demonized people based on sexual orientation or religion, and that is contrary to the ideals of the PCUSA," Peterson said. During the question and answer period, committee member David Sallee of Sierra Blanca Presbytery asked, "Why do we need to go out of our way to be intolerant and exclusive of a conservative faith?" "I'm not attacking his right to have his ministry," Peterson said. "What I am questioning is Chevrolet paying the bill for his pulpit." Peterson said the overture was not calling for a boycott, but simply asking for a conversation about a marketing strategy. Committee member John Morrell of Redstone Presbytery spoke against approving the overture, saying that it "seems more directed against Max Lucado." He also urged his fellow committee members "to consider very carefully any ramifications." Youth Advisory Delegate Marcus Hong of Utah Presbytery,also spoke against the overture. "I actually went to the concert," he said, displaying a concert ticket that did not have a Chevrolet logo on it. He said the concert posters, which were received months in advance of the concert, had a small Chevrolet logo. "This was a chance for 5,000 Christians to get together and worship – which we did," he said. "There is no reason for this [overture]." While Hong said he was never contacted by GM or Chevrolet, he did have a concert usher approach him and ask, "What is this Jesus about?" Rev. Larry E. Summey of Salem Presbytery cautioned committee members, saying: "We need to be cautious in throwing out the term fundamentalist … We need to be careful that is the word we can cling to and say 'He is a bad guy.' I think that is an unfair characterization, even though I don't believe everything he says." The final vote was 50 in favor of disapproving the overture, and six against. |
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