Protests filed at Charlotte General Assembly By John H. Adams The Presbyterian Layman Tuesday, October 6, 1998 General Assembly Moderator Douglas Oldenburg went beyond the bounds of order and fairness by allowing an emotionally charged demonstration during the 210th General Assembly, according to official written protests recorded in the minutes of the General Assembly. Instead of permitting the demonstration, "The moderator should have adjourned the Assembly and deferred the motion to refer until morning," wrote David Philips of the Presbytery of Grand Canyon. "Some commissioners, thinking the meeting adjourned, had already left." Philips, who was one of 29 commissioners whose protests were accepted by the stated clerk, said that after the Charlotte General Assembly had voted twice against funding the National Network of Presbyterian College Women, Oldenburg "should have used the gavel and pronounced the issue closed." Excerpts from Protest Excerpts from protests included the following: Yoon Kak Cho, Cascades - "Demonstration/protest was very inappropriate." Maureen H. Christy, Lehigh - "The moderator allowed the assembly to be unfairly swayed by permitting a demonstration and points of order which played on their emotion." M. Catherine Coo, Northern New England - "The body spoke. The Moderator and Clerk said things to influence the body and allowed an emotional demonstration." John C. Dudley, Mississippi - "... I also protest the Moderator's both allowing speeches of 'personal privilege' which were in fact debate and facilitating a demonstration which included a large number of people who were neither commissioners nor advisory delegates." Daryl Fisher-Ogden, Pacific - "We have been abused emotionally into this consideration." Tod Gilmore, Donegal - "… demonstration appeared to be pre-staged to persuade a vote to reconsider." Walter Griffith, Cascades - "The Moderator in his efforts at kindness and inclusion showed partiality …" "Debate disguised as personal privilege" Walter Hackney, South Louisiana - "… debate disguised as personal privilege and singing that influenced us to move to reconsider the vote …" Ronald W. Lukat, Cincinnati - "… against the actions of the Moderator that allowed a demonstration … and his own statements of feelings of error in the assembly's action … that unduly influenced the vote to reconsider." Emily McColl, San Diego - "… All this in fact constituted argument which resulted in a false vote to reconsider." Cathy Northrup, Charlotte - "I protest the demonstration … and the allowing of several points of personal privilege which were in fact debate." R. Shane Owens, Saint Augustine - "… the demonstration, multiple points of personal privilege, and the comments of the Moderator." Bill Simonds, Grace - "… violation of fair process and abuse of the Office of Moderator .. to express his personal dismay over a vote of the Assembly which was taken twice." Mark Smith, North Puget Sound - "… A demonstration … that was emotionally manipulative. The Stated Clerk offered his own personal opinion on the College Network and was out of order." Glenn Weaver, Lake Michigan - "The protest was not part of the docket, and there is clear evidence, given the words of their song, that it was not spontaneous … In all these aspects I believe the General Assembly body was manipulated out of the bounds of the rules of order." "Playing on the Assembly's emotions" Ronald Wood, Palo Duro - "… the Moderator seemed to go against the will of the Assembly by playing on the Assembly's emotions." Nancy Worth, Pacific - "…In the effort to be compassionate, the Moderator allowed this to be handled very inappropriately." Williams Youmans, Abingdon - "The Moderator ignored the action of assembly by permitting continued debate on an action which had been completed." Sandra Young, North Puget Sound - "… the Moderator and the Stated Clerk expressed their bias clearly and forcefully to the General Assembly." W. Robert Floyd, Presbytery of the James - "… The assembly was manipulated by an improper, emotional, staged demonstration … The Moderator had prior knowledge of this inappropriately and participated in it with collusion." Katie Moffett, James - "Violation of fair process and abuse of the office of moderator." Kathy Goodrich, Lehigh - "Moderator who allowed a minority who lost in honest process to manipulate and speak without the concurrence of the body gathered." Mary Sickels, Beaver-Butler - "… I believe these actions and statements were a betrayal of trust we placed in our moderator." Jimmy Shelbourn, Homestead - " … a commissioner from Chicago was allowed to use 'personal privilege' to debate an action already taken. The Moderator should have ruled him out of order." |
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