NNPCW: No stranger to controversy By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Wednesday, August 4, 1999 The NNPCW has generated its share of controversy in the past two years. In 1998, General Assembly commissioners decided that the Network's materials were contrary to the PCUSA's biblical and confessional standards. They voted to end sponsorship and funding. But a tearful, late-night demonstration resulted in a reprieve. Young Women Speak NNPCW materials challenged by commissioners included its official publication, Young Women Speak. A chapter on "Feminist/Womanist Theology," includes "A psalm affirming identity" which reads, "Who do people say we are? Partner to our Sister God… Mothers of mothers who age and die and return to our Primeval Mother... Daughter of the Daughter of God, the Christa of the New Creation." Other quotes from Young Women Speak included: "God is letting me know that it doesn't matter whether I have a relationship with a man or a woman, just as long as I remember that God is the center of the love," and "I view the message of the Bible to be very helpful and relevant to my society. However, I also understand that there are issues of both long ago and today that are uniquely distinct to the particular period of time," from the chapter on "Sexuality and Spirituality." The chapter on "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Life," includes quotes like, "Thus it would seem that loving members of the same sex is neither more nor less sinful than loving members of the opposite sex." "Is it possible that all you need is a good gay lover?" "If you've never been sexual with a person of the same sex, how do you know you wouldn't prefer that?" Other recommended resources The following quotations were taken from speeches and books of people who have been recommended as resources by the National Network of Presbyterian College Women. "We must keep in mind as we go, now and forevermore that the body of Christa cannot be, and should never become, an exclusively or uniquely Christian body," from Touching our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God, by Carter Heyward, a self-described lesbian activist and professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. "We are learning that to be ecumenical is to move beyond the boundaries of Christianity. You see, yesterday's heresies are becoming tomorrow's Book of Order," from a speech made by Mary Ann Lundy to Voices of Sophia during the 1997 General Assembly in Syracuse. "I don't think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff," from a speech by Delores Williams at the 1993 ReImagining Conference. Williams is a Presbyterian professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York and author of Womanist Theology: Black Women's Voices. "Jesus in reality was not God … Jesus was human like us, and also, like us, he was infused with God, with sacred spirit, and in that sense was divine, and he had a clue," from a speech made at the 1998 ReImagining Conference by Carter Heyward. The 1998 reprieve Moderator Douglas W. Oldenburg allowed an adjournment-eve demonstration, orchestrated with the help of GA staff, which built sympathy for the college women's group as they tearfully sang "This Little Light of Mine." Scores of liberal activists held hands and formed a ring around the commissioners. A vote on the last day of the Assembly gave the Network a reprieve until the 1999 General Assembly. Since last year's Assembly, the Network has removed its web site, which provided a gateway to hardcore pornography, and declared its official publication, Young Women Speak, out of print. The task force appointed to review the NNPCW found that the group's resources "clearly violated the policies of the PCUSA, being inconsistent with the church's confessional standards, lacking in biblical and theological foundation, and failing to provide balanced, accurate resources for study or further discussion." However, they recommended that the 1999 Assembly give the Network a new lease on life and twice as much money. The 1999 Assembly voted 344-178-16 to continue PCUSA sponsorship of the campus organization, but directed the Women's Ministry Program Area and representatives of the Evangelism, Justice and Partnership subcommittees of the National Ministries Division to conduct annual reviews of the NNPCW. The Women's Ministry Program Area was also selected for review by the Assembly. Commissioners referred a Commissioner's Resolution to the General Assembly Council calling for the formation of "a fact-finding committee" to look into concerns and questions raised about the denomination's Women's Ministries Program Area. More recently, a Network representative participated in the selection of the recent Women of Faith Awards which were given to Jane Spahr, Letty Russell and Jane Dempsey Douglass. Spahr and Russell are self-professed lesbians.

Respond to this article

News From the PCUSA · Home · News · PLC Publications · The Presbyterian Layman Online Reviews · Archives · History of the Lay Committee · Feedback · Links