Former moderator's book calls for ordaining and marrying GLBTs The Layman Online Friday, March 24, 2006 Dr. Jack B. Rogers, moderator of the 213th (2001) General Assembly, has written a book titled Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality in which he argues against Scriptural condemnation of homosexual practice. The book is published by Westminster John Knox Press, an arm of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. A brochure by the publisher urges: "Read the book that will explode the myths and heal the church." It calls Rogers a "lifelong evangelical and respected theologian" and claims that his book "could redefine the argument over homosexuality in the church and in our nation." The brochure says Rogers takes "on the most divisive issue today" and "argues unequivocally for the ordination and marriage of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender." The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) explicitly prohibits the ordination of practicing homosexuals and conducting Christian marriages for same-gender couples. The brochure lists seven endorsements, including one from V. Gene Robinson, an Episcopal minister who left his wife and children to enter into a relationship with a homosexual partner. Robinson's selection and investiture as a bishop in the Episcopal Church (USA) led to reproof from the World Anglican Communion and a growing rupture within the U.S. denomination. "For those who truly wish to know what the Bible does and does not say, this is a real find," Robinson said in his promotional blurb for the publisher. Other endorsements are made by: J. Philip Wogaman, former senior minister at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., who entered the national spotlight by becoming former President Bill Clinton's counselor during the impeachment debate. Wogaman assumed that role after Southern Baptists, Clinton's denomination, expressed their disapproval of his sexual conduct with Monica Lewinsky. Joanna M. Adams, pastor of Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta and a former co-moderator of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, an organization that was organized to seek repeal of the PCUSA's constitutional requirement that prohibits the ordination of practicing adulterers and homosexuals. Mel White, a homosexual minister and founder of Soulforce. White recruited gays to conduct a civil-disobedience demonstration at the 212th General Assembly to protest the denomination's ordination requirements. Several demonstrators were arrested, but they were quickly released. The Rev. Nancy Wilson, moderator of Metropolitan Community Church, a union of congregations comprised mostly of people in openly homosexual relationships. William C. Placher, a professor at Wabash College who was one of the keynote speakers at a Covenant Network Conference in 2000. He declared then that much of the Bible was untrue – including Paul's reference to Christ appearing to 500 people before his ascension – and argued that Biblical admonitions against homosexual behavior were incorrect "cultural assumptions." Gayraud S. Wilmore, a retired professor at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, who applauds Rogers for arguing that "not only that we can change our minds about homosexuality, but that we must." Whether or not intentional, the release of Rogers' book comes as a timely prelude to the 217th General Assembly. The commissioners will consider 23 overtures calling for repeal or modification of the ordination requirements. They will also deal with the recommendations of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity, which asks the General Assembly not to remove the standards but to allow ordaining bodies to decide on their own whether they will follow the constitutional requirements. Rogers was one of three General Assembly moderators who appointed the 20-member task force. Only five of the members of the task force identified themselves as evangelical. The Presbyterian Publishing Corp. has published a number of books by homosexual activists who deny the validity of Biblical texts opposing homosexual practice. The chairman of the board of the publishing corporation is Robert Bohl, the 1994-95 moderator of the General Assembly. Bohl once expressed a strong bias against evangelicals working for Biblical renewal in the denomination. In a speech in New York in October 2000, Bohl said, "Damn them! I wish they would go away." A more orthodox book about homosexual behavior is Robert A.J. Gagon's The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics. Another book, Given and Sent in One Love: The True Church of Jesus Christ by Gerrit Scott Dawson and Mark R. Patterson, challenges the theological conclusions of the task force. While the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation expresses its belief that Rogers' book will "heal the church," Rogers has been more of a lightning rod than healer in the past. During his year as moderator, Rogers acknowledged that his views about homosexuality and the Confessing Church Movement had a disruptive impact. After he publicly castigated the Confessing Churches, the movement grew from about 400 congregations to more than 1,300. Like Bohl, he often denigrated evangelicals, once calling them "radical fundamentalists" and comparing them to the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden's terrorist group.

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