Rogers elected moderator of 213th General Assembly By Robert P. Mills The Layman Online Saturday, June 9, 2001 Minutes after calling the Confessing Church Movement "a threat to the peace, purity and unity of the church," Jack Rogers won a first ballot victory to become moderator of the 213th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Rogers received 286 votes, 55 percent. He was trailed by Nancy Maffett, with 125 votes, Andy Sale with 67 and Sandra Hawley with 46. Immediately following his election he was escorted to the platform by former moderator Freda Gardner. Confessing Church Movement 'a threat' During the question and answer session immediately preceding the vote, Ted Wardlaw, minister commissioner from Atlanta Presbytery asked the four candidates, "What is your response to the Confessing Church Movement?" Rogers answered, "It just happens that I was teaching a class on the reformed confessions this spring. I was preparing to teach on the Barmen Declaration when the Confessing Church Movement was announced. So I looked at that history again [and] I have to say to you with great sadness that there is virtually no similarity between what is being called the Confessing Church Movement in this denomination and the Confessing Church Movement to which they refer." Although many in the Confessing Church Movement take the opposite view, Rogers' assertion was greeted with a burst of applause. Rogers continued, "I'm very grieved by this movement. We have a wonderful Book of Confessions. For any group to pick out three things that they think are important and then say all the rest of us have got to say that these are the most important, that demeans our confessions. We have a wonderfully representative church government. This movement disregards that and says 'We're going to tell you what the personnel policies are going to be for the church.' That disregards our Presbyterian form of government. I'm deeply concerned about this and I think we need to take it very seriously as a threat to the peace, unity and purity of the church." Commission proposal supported In response to an earlier question, Rogers spoke in favor of a proposal made by outgoing moderator Syngman Rhee that the assembly "establish a 'commission' to help us in seeking this more excellent way, a way guided by the Spirit of Christ seeking mutual understanding and enabling us to speak the truth in love." "I'm strongly supportive of the idea of a study commission," Rogers continued, "because we're not just dealing with sexuality, we're dealing with a whole range of issues that need to be given careful thought. With 2.5 million highly intelligent and educated Presbyterians we should be able to put together a group of very wise people to help us to see the way forward as Presbyterians." Rogers has been a prominent supporter of the Covenant Network, which has as its goal the removal of the "fidelity and chastity" ordination standard from the PCUSA constitution. While not openly calling for the standard to be eliminated, he suggested moving to a form of "local option" in which "we simply allow the governing body closest to the issue to decide whether persons are in conformity to the standards or not." "We're in kind of a difficult situation now. We've put ourselves into a problem that is very difficult to get out of. I think, whatever else we do, we need to have a commission that will do the kind of in depth work for us that can help us as a church move forward," he concluded. Confessing Jesus as Lord At a press conference following his election, Rogers fielded questions about the Confessing Church Movement. After noting that he agreed with evangelicals about everything except the ordination of homosexuals, Rogers was asked about evangelical support for the Confessing Church movement. He replied, "I don't think the Confessing Church Movement represents evangelicals. I think it represents just one very tiny group within the evangelical community of the Presbyterian Church. And I think if the truth were known, a lot of other evangelicals are embarrassed by it. I do not think it is helpful to the church." Asked how confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is a threat to the church, Rogers replied, "The issue is not the affirmations. The issue is the implications that are being attached to them by the Confessing Church Movement. … The implication is that I'm supposed to be condemning of everybody who says good things about people of other religions. I don't accept the implications of that." Of the authority of Scripture Rogers said, "I do not accept the implication that you can just pick verses out of Scripture and say 'This is the clear word of God and nobody can argue with it.' That's not a responsible way to exegete Scripture, and a lot of that is being done. That's an implication of the Confessing Church Movement, that we have to agree with their interpretation of Scripture. And I don't think we do."

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