Elder undertakes
$5,000 effort
to change direction of PCUSA
By John H.
Adams
The Layman
Online
Wednesday, October
6, 2004
A capsule of Spotts'
recommendations
For local church sessions
- Get involved – pay more attention to national and
presbytery issues
- Question commissioners about their votes on issues
- Protest non-democratic procedures used at presbytery meetings
- Push for presbyteries to pressure the General Assembly to
make changes
For the denomination
- Require all officials of the PCUSA to uphold basic Christian
doctrines
- Discontinue funding and support of organizations that teach
non-Christian theologies
- Disavow Sophia theology
- Require the General Assembly to provide a Biblical basis for
political actions
- Require a super majority of at least 75 percent before
approving a political statement
- Call on the General Assembly, the General Assembly Council
and the offices of the PCUSA to discontinue letters and activism
on any issue that was not expressly addressed by the General
Assembly and on any issue on which there is no significant
agreement in the church
- Reinstate annual meetings of the General Assembly
- Discontinue the policy of politically motivated divestment.
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Wilbur Owen "Will" Spotts, 32, an elder in Maryland,
is spending $5,000 – mostly his own money – to convince the
sessions of the 11,000 congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA)
that they should work to change the direction of the denomination.
Spotts, who describes himself as a "traditional" Presbyterian
committed to Reformed theology, is mailing each of the sessions a
1,575-word letter he wrote expressing
his concerns and recommending action that begins in the local church.
The Layman Online obtained a copy of Spotts' letter from a session
clerk in North Carolina and contacted Spotts at his home in North East,
Md. Spotts himself initiated no efforts to publicize his campaign.
As of Wednesday, Spotts said he had sent 5,500 sessions copies of his
letter and that he is processing the rest as quickly as possible. He
said responses have begun coming in through his email
address.
Spotts is not wealthy. He works part-time in literary criticism.
His letter focused on two issues: the participation of Moderator Rick
Ufford-Chase and Vice-Moderator Jean Marie Peacock in a Voices of Sophia
event during the 216th General Assembly and the General Assembly's
resolution calling for selective divestment of stocks in multinational
corporations doing business with Israel.
"God is good, isn't she?" Peacock said to the Voices of
Sophia group, which began as a feminist movement that substitutes a
goddess named "Sophia" for the orthodox view of the triune God
of Scripture.
Saying it was inappropriate for the moderator and vice moderator to
demonstrate their support for Voices of Sophia, Spotts wrote:
- "Prayers to Sophia, hymns to Sophia, invocations and
blessings of Sophia, the use of the names God-Sophia, Jesus-Sophia,
and the Spirit-Sophia, and the claim that Jesus acted under the
influence of the spirit Sophia (personified) are all incompatible
with Christianity. Adherents to this theology evade the charge of
worshipping other gods by saying that they are really worshiping
Sophia as an aspect of God. This is similar to the claim made by
Aaron that in worshipping the golden calf 'that [he claimed] brought
the Israelites out of Egypt' they were worshipping YHWH. It was
untrue then; it is untrue now.
- "Sophia theology is not Christian, but neo-Gnostic.
Gnosticism was an opportunistic and parasitic religious philosophy
that predated Christianity and superimposed itself onto Christian
imagery. It was not stamped out for the sake of misogyny or because
it threatened the patriarchy as some are in the habit of claiming,
but because it was fundamentally at odds with the gospel. Paul,
John, and arguably Jude opposed it in their epistles, as did the
entire early church.
- "The attendance and participation of moderators (acting in
their official capacities – which is, of course, why they were
invited to attend) in Voices of Sophia breakfasts, the Voices of
Sophia's status as an affinity group, the support they have received
from some offices of the church, and the financial backing of
seminaries that teach Sophia theology all serve as endorsements. It
is time for the PCUSA to decide if it wishes to follow the Christian
religion as we received it or if it wishes to make things up as it
goes along. To do the latter and still call itself Christian would
be an offense against the truth, against our history, and against
anyone outside the church that looks to it as a representation of
Christianity."
Spotts called the resolution for divestment and condemning Israel's
security barrier "the most extreme items to date" by the
denomination on the Israel-Palestine conflict. He added:
- "The various positions supported have ranged from the
harmless to the self-contradictory to the patently immoral. The
PCUSA has endorsed the two-state solution, the removal of
settlements, and the right of return. The upshot of this combination
calls for a Jew free Palestinian state and a multi-ethnic Israeli
state. The PCUSA has severely criticized Israel for the destruction
of olive trees, has even blamed Israel for a situation that causes
Palestinian mothers to be unable to produce milk. I do not mean to
suggest that Israel is faultless in its dealings with Palestinians,
nor that many Palestinians are not suffering. However, when even the
basic facts about history and current conditions vary according to
whom you ask and whom you believe, the situation becomes very
complicated. It strikes me as hasty to try to assign blame or urge
the implementation of simplistic solutions.
- "The condemnation of Israel's security barrier does not
seem to take into account the rulings of the Israeli Supreme Court
requiring changes in its route. It also implies that Israel does not
have a right to defend itself even passively. The divestment notion
is offensive on two fronts. First – as has been discussed at
length – this was the method employed against the South African
government. Its use in the case of Israel is intended to convey
equivalence between the two situations. It is also not entirely
moral to use monies given in the support of other causes as a weapon
to try to force a government to comply politically with the will of
the PCUSA.
- "Then there is the issue of misrepresentation: political
stances taken by the denomination are not binding on the consciences
of individual members. They often do not even represent the views of
a simple majority of members. This fact is not generally included in
letters to the president, members of Congress, leaders of other
governments, or statements to the press. Such communications are
often believed by their recipients to represent the views of
millions of voters."
Spotts said he realized his suggestions were "neither
pleasant nor easy, but if the national and presbytery leadership
genuinely are out of step with a congregation, then the elders of that
congregation share a responsibility to address the matter."
In his interview with The Layman Online, Spotts said he did not want to
identify the congregation where he serves as an elder for two reasons:
He doesn't want anyone to conclude that his opinion is shared by other
members and he doesn't want to place that congregation in the center of
a maelstrom that he may generate.
Raised as a Nazarene, educated at a Nazarene college (literature and
history), and infused with a "bit of Baptist," Spotts said he
became a Presbyterian about 10 years ago and has served as an elder for
the last four.
He said he decided to undertake his letter campaign because he believes
most Presbyterians do not agree with many of the decisions and actions
of the General Assembly or some of its leaders. Often, he added, they
respond one of two ways: they leave their churches or ignore the
problems.
Comfortable with Reformed theology and committed to the traditional
Presbyterian view of Scripture – "our soul source of
authority, our ultimate authority – without the Bible we don't have
a religion" – Spotts said he decided to do his part to raise
the standard. |