Commentary The GA's 'identity theft' By Bill Crawford, pastor First Presbyterian Church Thibodaux, La. Wednesday, September 1, 2004 While I was at the General Assembly in Richmond as an observer, three things happened that pretty much summed up my experience. The first was that someone unbeknown to me was having a considerable amount of fun with my credit card number. A woman in a neighboring city managed to buy herself a new wardrobe, she bused a friend in from Florida, and together they enjoyed the Essence Festival and a quality hotel room all on me. She also bought some exercise equipment and a jukebox. Unfortunately, she was unable to receive her computer and new air conditioner before I returned home and figured out what was going on. I share this experience because I believe it is a perfect illustration of what is going on at our General Assemblies. Credit card stolen, a plague of bats and the General Assembly. I have not written down my thoughts on the General Assembly up until this point because I needed some "space" from the event. I have been told that the GA is world unto itself and that I should not become too agitated by what it decides. I have been told of personal experiences of the debilitating experience of feeling like one's denomination has slipped its moorings and is drifting into a busy waterway. Yet until one has experienced it themselves they cannot believe the difference that lies between what we practice in our churches day after day and what we saw lifted up as normative at GA. I spent the week before the GA at my mom and dad's house in Virginia. They live in a picturesque farmhouse that my mom grew up in before there was running water. While we were there, my children played in the same creek that I played in as a child on summer vacations to Grandmas house. The beauty was not to last, however, as the bats in the attic had other plans. Over the decades, there has persisted a bat colony in the attic of this house. It has been chased from one attic to the chimney to another attic back to the chimney and now into yet another attic. This time around, my brother and brother-in-law had enough and decided to plug the exit and remove the bats. Unfortunately the 30 or 40 bats still inside were not very pleased with this arrangement. Bats began to come out of the woodwork and in one evening I removed seven from our bedroom. Why this second story? Many of us believe that with the passing of the "fidelity and chastity rule" we had plugged the hole on our denominational problems, but the reality is that the problems continue to come out of the woodwork, and, just as I spent the next three sleepless nights keeping bats away from my two children and wife, we will spend many years figuring out what problems we have running around our theological attic. PCUSA fails to plug its theological attack The big issue that I confronted at General Assembly was to observe the goings on at the Health Issues Committee, which dealt with the abortion issue. I must say I was in for a shock and a real learning curve. I wonder how many of the members in the pew know that the PCUSA and its predecessor denominations have been involved in the Pro-Choice movement from the ground floor? I was shocked to find that the glass ceiling for evangelicals described by Winfield Casey Jones on July 17th was absolutely true for all three major advocacy committees represented at that discussion. Not one member of any of the committees presented an attitude other than fervently pro-choice. And when they called for a doctor to support their opinion, whom did they call? Dr. Leroy Carhart is the man they called; he is part of the legal case against the U.S. government trying to overturn the Partial Birth Abortion Ban. How committed is he to abortion? When questioned about the necessity of abortion in the state of Kansas where he labors, Dr. Carhart asserted, "not one late term abortion was performed in Kansas that was elective." Yet a commissioner presented a damning record that showed the state of Kansas itself reported that not one of its late-term abortions performed in 1999 was performed for the purpose of, "protecting the life of the mother." Mother's life isn't the real issue in abortion debate. What I quickly learned is that one of the reasons for an abortion that is defended rabidly is the term "whenever health of the mother is involved." What is the definition of health by the advocacy committees? Their definition includes things such as stress, emotional crisis, economic health, mental health and things that frankly are true of every single birth in America and this globe. I am the father of two; the first of my children had a knot in his umbilical chord and an emergency c-section had to be performed to protect his life and that of my wife. Can we not recognize that all births are potentially risky? So by our current policy, as it is interpreted by our advocacy committees, all abortions can be justified. The debate in the committee room made this all plainly obvious, however, that information was never made known on the plenary floor. My name and number were added to the political agenda. Here is where the subtleties of GA politics eluded me. I am not accusing anyone of trying to thwart the will of the committee but the circumstances were interesting. The advocates for the majority report that came out to the plenary floor were not given the traditional honor of presenting the opinion to the floor. The moderator of the committee, who did an awesome job in the committee meeting, chose to present the report. His defense of the report had nothing to do with its personal merit or content. The reason we were told that this report deserved support was because of the hard work of the committee members. On any other item the moderator's choice would seem to be innocent but when you consider that the majority report was replaced by a vote of four can we not wonder what a vigorous explanation of the changes presented by the committee would have done for four or five of the commissioners? We are talking about late-term abortions that occur after the point of fetal viability. The report was not talking about trying to advocate for changing the laws of the nation but merely the attitude of our counsel. And even then the language did not demand anyone adhere to this opinion. This was the most balanced and neutral position ever handed to the plenary floor on abortion and it was defeated and I wondered who are we? Someone has stolen my identity and taken my name and added it to their political agenda. Little did I know that this was going on at the same time with my credit card? Why would people who claim to be my sisters and brothers force this upon me when they know I consider it murder? Could they not be satisfied with having their legal right to this behavior? The third thing that happened at GA was that the night of the debate on the Iraq war and the statement against Zionism. I was exhausted and chose to go back to my hotel room -- only to find that my magnetic yellow ribbon saying "Pray for our Troops" was missing from the back of my vehicle. The irony only struck me later as I saw our denomination declare that our president is a criminal and that our troops are participating in war crimes. If so, where are the legal charges? Where is the UN? There is no crime and, frankly, I find these statements reckless and damaging to the name of our denomination. In any other circumstances such statements would be defamation of character and would lead to legal charges. Once again, my name and my number were added to the political agenda of people who call themselves my sisters and brothers. Come see for youself at the next GA. After I returning home and discovering the identity theft, I learned a truth that many of you already know: Nobody will do anything about the crime. I learned that despite the fact that we know a physical address for deliveries, despite knowing the dress size and wardrobe of the criminal, despite knowing which hotel she stayed in during a particular week, despite knowing which bus her friend rode on to visit her, despite any number of pieces of evidence that should make her easy to catch it is still not worth the work to ferret her out. I am firmly committed to our church. I am firmly committed to its reform. After my experience at GA, I have one solution. At the next GA in Birmingham, I suggest that every church within 500 miles send at least one observer. I suggest that every confessing church send one observer. For only when we get angry enough about our identity being stolen will anything be done. Only then will we have enough desire to ferret out the problem to correct it. Until we take ownership of our problem then we really have no right to point fingers and complain only then will we see renewal at the national level. I will guarantee one other thing to you. When people read this, many will be very upset with me for having proposed it – you should ask yourself why they are afraid of us seeing what is done at GA? What we do should be done in the light of day. Let us prepare ourselves to shine that light.

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