What Others Are Saying
1. PCUSA: schism
or fragmentation?
2. Hate crimes: targeting Bible-believers?
The Layman
Online
Friday, October 21,
2005
Clark Cowden, whose
title is evangelist presbyter for the Presbytery of San Joaquin in
California, has written a column for
Perspectives,
the online publication of the Office of the General Assembly, contending
that schism is unlikely in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In another commentary, Robert A.J. Gagnon, a member of the faculty of
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has written an
open
letter opposing efforts to broaden federal hate-crimes legislation
to include acts that are motivated by prejudice that is based on sexual
orientation or gender identity.
Cowden's remarks on schism
Commenting on the difference between what has historically been called
schism and today's "fragmentation" of the PCUSA and other
mainline denominations, Cowden says, "When I look around the church
today, I hear people talking about competing outlooks. That is the view
of many. But, that does not adequately describe the postmodern world we
live in today. We live in a fragmented world that has fallen apart.
"The church is much more likely to splinter into five or ten or
fifteen different fragments than it is to split into two opposing camps.
The church is less like an egg that can be divided into the white and
the yolk, and more like the eggshell that fragments into many tiny
pieces. The question is not whether we will experience a schism and
split into two separate churches, but will our current fragmentation
continue to grow deeper and wider, such that we experience a formal
fragmentation of our structures? The church is like Humpty Dumpty. We
are like 'all the king's horses and all the king's men.' Can we figure
out how to put Humpty back together again?"
Cowden, who was one of the speakers at the New Wineskins Convocation in
Edina, Minn., in June, says he believes there is a remedy to
fragmentation.
"Our current connectionalism is based on property, polity, and
pensions," he says "A post-modern connectionalism that
addresses our current state of fragmentation will be based on
relationships, missional experiments, conversations, and a generous
orthodoxy. We must discover again what is strong enough and interesting
enough to connect us together with people we love, respect, admire, and
long to learn from."
Gagnon on hate crimes
legislation
Gagnon's concern is legislation sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.,
Senate Bill 1145. "The greatest threat to our civil liberties and
the future liberties of our children is once more upon us," Gagnon
says.
He lists a number of resources that are available through the Web and
urges Presbyterians to rally against the legislation.
Gagnon also provides a sample of twenty-five things that are likely to
happen if Kennedy's bill passes and "sexual orientation" and "gender
identity" become specially protected civil rights classifications
in the legal code.
They include, he says:
- 1. Large fines and eventually jail time for anyone who publicly
speaks out against homosexual activity or transgenderism, even as a
minister, if the state determines that one's message arouses people
to hate homosexual or transgendered persons. This includes messages
that cite Scripture or that refer to studies that show higher
incidences of promiscuity and disease among homosexually active men.
- 2. Suspension without pay from one's place of employment and even
outright termination if one declares in any way one's opposition to
homosexual practice or transgenderism, even if, as a white-collar
employee, one makes such a declaration in a "letter to an
editor" outside the domain of the workplace; moreover, one will
have to pay the court costs of his persecutors.
- 3. Termination from one's job if one does not support "coming
out" celebrations or "gay pride" observances in the
workplace, or if one does not attend mandatory "sensitivity"
or "diversity" training sessions that espouse acceptance
of homosexuality.
- 4. Large fines if one owns a business and does not allow GLBT ("gay,"
lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered) activists to make use of the
business's services to advance the GLBT agenda (e.g., if a privately
owned print shop refuses to print materials for homosexual
advocacy); moreover, having to pay the court costs of the government
agency that prosecutes the case.
- 5. Corporations having to institute affirmative-hire programs
for GLBTs as a necessary precaution against potential federal or
civil lawsuits for "sexual orientation" discrimination.
- 6. Forced indoctrination of children as young as kindergarten in
the public school systems into the acceptability of homosexual and
transgendered behavior and the labeling of their parents' contrary
religious views as "bigotry" and "hatred,"
through required readings, "GLBT studies," and mandatory
attendance at special diversity convocations or diversity workshops;
also, mandatory "sensitivity training" for all teachers on
the value of sexual orientation diversity.
- 7. Even parochial schools being required to accept "gay prom
dates" and "gay clubs."
- 8. Home-schooled children not being allowed to receive
certification if their parents do not teach a curriculum that
incorporates appreciation for "sexual diversity."
- 9. Loss of federal funds, including hundreds of thousands of
dollars in federal funds for student loans, for any Christian
college or seminary that does not hire homosexually active teachers,
or that forbids students to engage in homosexual practice, or that
allows a teacher at its institution to speak against homosexual
practice.
- 10. Ultimately, the threat of loss of accreditation for Christian
colleges that do not condone homosexual behavior and transgenderism.
- 11. Students and employees required to get counseling for the
alleged mental health condition of "homophobia" or risk
expulsion.
- 12. Imposition of national gay marriage by the courts, through
appeal to this newly formed federal civil liberties category of "sexual
orientation."
- 13. Being forbidden by a judge in a separation or divorce
settlement from ever speaking against homosexual practice to one's
child if one's ex-partner or spouse is openly homosexual.
- 14. Having one's child (whether a foster child, adopted child,
or, eventually, one's biological child) removed from one's house if
the parent opposes the child's declaration of homosexual identity
and activity.
- 15. Private civic organizations, as well as Christian camps and
retreat centers, being fined or shut down if they do not allow their
facilities to be used by persons or groups for homosexual activities
(e.g., to host a "wedding" by a homosexual couple or for a
meeting of a "gay choir").
- 16. Fines for any person responsible for a newspaper ad critical
of homosexual practice or transgenderism, even if the advertisement
merely quotes Scripture; also, fines for the newspaper that prints
it.
- 17. Fines for any persons with rooms for rent in their home
(e.g. a bed & breakfast) if they refuse to rent to a homosexual
couple intent on having homosexual sex on the premises.
- 18. Mayors taken to court for refusing to declare Gay Pride Days
in their cities and being forced to declare such celebrations.
- 19. Loss of charitable status for churches that seek to influence
their members to oppose pro-homosex legislation or that refuse to
marry homosexual persons.
- 20. Fines and/or loss of license for any broadcasting corporation
that criticizes, or allows its broadcasting facilities to be used
for criticism of, homosexual practice over the airwaves.
- 21. Adoption and foster agencies forbidden to give any priority
to heterosexual married couples over homosexual couples on the
grounds that such priority would be discriminatory.
- 22. Refusing the Boy Scouts and Salvation Army the use of public
facilities because of their opposition to homosexual practice and
transgenderism; moreover, censuring professionals who support such
organizations in their private lives (e.g., prohibiting judges from
involvement in any organization that "discriminates" on
the basis of "sexual orientation").
- 23. Banning from university campuses Christian organizations that
disapprove of homosexual practice (e.g., Intervarsity Christian
Fellowship, Campus Crusade).
- 24. Making it illegal for members of mental health professions
to counsel persons against a homosexual life.
- 25. Eventually special civil rights protection for other "sexual
minorities" who can claim oppression for their "orientation":
"polysexuals" (those who are in multiple partner unions),
participants in adult consensual incest, and perhaps even "pedosexuals"
(persons sexually oriented toward young adolescents or children).
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