Covenant Network's sole aim to overturn ordination standard By John H. Adams The Layman Online Saturday, June 9, 2001 LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Deborah Block, co-moderator of the Covenant Network, said the Network's sole purpose for a dinner gathering on June 9, the eve of the General Assembly, was to continue an intense effort to overturn the constitutional ordination standard of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Speaking to about 275 Presbyterians at a $40-a-head dinner in the Hyatt Regency Hotel, the Milwaukee pastor said, "Truth be told, we'd rather not be here. We are here because of G-6.0106b. We are here because 'B' is here and we will be here until 'B' is gone. Begone!" "B" is jargon for Amendment B, a constitutional amendment ratified by the PCUSA's presbyteries and became G-6.0106b in the Book of Order in 1997. That standard requires candidates for deacon, elder and minister of Word and Sacrament to maintain fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness -- in other words, prohibiting ordination of practicing adulterers or homosexuals. Block warmed up an enthusiastic audience of people affiliated with the Covenant Network, More Light Presbyterians and other groups allied in their work to dismantle or modify the constitutional ordination standard. She took a swipe at the Presbyterian Lay Committee, which presented a free address by George F. Will to a meeting of 800 people three blocks away. She called Will a "highly paid, outside agitator" and said promotional material announcing Will's presentation was a "slick, goofy flyer" that represented Will "looking like an angel." Will, a Pulitzer Prize-winning political philosopher, is an Episcopalian whose views about church and state -- and the "soul of the state" -- have often collided with those in the Church who would accommodate their beliefs to a changing culture. In contrast to Will, Block said, the Network's speakers were two distinguished former moderators -- Freda Gardner and Douglas Oldenberg -- whose only compensation for speaking at the Covenant Network dinner was their meal. Using a pluralistic concept of God -- that he is known by many names -- Gardner pictured the advocates of the ordination standard as "slow to see, quick to condemn and 'I know all the truth.'" "Maybe Jesus will shake his head and feel the pain because some do not understand," she said. "The four gospels always say more about God's grace and less about us." Gardner did urge her allies to be gracious toward those who believe the ordination standard should not be changed -- picturing the adversaries as needing to be healed. "God sent his son to die on the cross, and you are trying to figure out if the 'them' deserved to be healed." Both Gardner and Oldenberg gave anecdotes about people who once were opposed to ordaining homosexuals but changed their minds after relatives came out of the closet. They did not address Biblical passages condemning homosexual activity. Both speakers avoided any incindiary language, a stark contrast from the way Robert Bohl, former co-moderator of the Covenant Network, frequently described those who disagreed with the Network. "Damn them," Bohl once said, targeting renewal groups and especially the Presbyterian Lay Committee. "If we believe in the absolute sovereignty of God, we must not allow anything in our life to become absolute and we must allow everything to be open to re-formation," Oldenberg said. He implied that today's opponents of ordination of self-affirming, practicing homosexuals are no different from Christians who were wrong in the past. "Over the centuries, history has been filled with evidence of devout, Bible-believing Christians who have been dead wrong," he said. The Covenant Network circulated among the people at the dinner a statement titled "The Whole Bible for the Whole Human Family" that said historic Biblical teaching on homosexuality was wrong. The statement was signed by 33 seminary professors, including some who have been involved in the ReImagining God movement. "We caution the church against an interpretation of the Bible that leads the church into pronouncing judgment upon a specific behavior of a whole category of persons in the human community," the statement said. "It is the gospel of Jesus that invites gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to full communion in the church … it is the justice of Jesus that calls us to ensure that those who are invited, called and equipped are free to fulfill their ministries among us with the full recognition and support of the church."

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