Judicial crisis threatens to split PCUSA By John H. Adams The Presbyterian Layman Thursday, May 13, 1999 The Presbyterian Center, headquarters for the Presbyterian Church (USA), located at 100 Witherspoon St., Louisville, Ky. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people have turned to the courts and parliamentary bodies of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to try to accomplish what they could not gain in two national referendums. In the preliminaries, they are winning. Two court rulings and two presbytery votes have 1) authorized Presbyterian ministers to perform so-called “holy unions” of same-gender couples; 2) given the green light to a congregation to install an openly gay elder; 3) allowed a presbytery to take under care a gay seminary graduate who declared that the church must change to accommodate his sexuality and 4) overtured General Assembly to direct its agencies and “strongly encourage” other governing bodies and educational institutions “to refrain from supporting, implementing, or sponsoring therapies or ministries which attempt to alter a person’s sexual orientation.” The gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered (GLBT) coalition also hopes to deliver a knockout punch to G-6.0106b, the constitution’s standard that requires candidates for ordination “to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage ... or chastity in singleness.” Attack on constitution Three overtures will be on the docket for the 211th General Assembly when it meets in Fort Worth in June. Two would water down the language so that the “fidelity/chastity” clause would be unenforceable. A third, submitted by the Presbytery of Milwaukee, is not so subtle. It would delete the entire 84-word G-6.0l06b from the Book of Order and shun biblical and confessional statements that declare homosexual activity and adultery a sin. The flurry of efforts to eradicate the ordination standard, whether by decree of Presbyterian courts or through legislative revisions at the General Assembly, is well orchestrated, apparently well financed and bold. Those efforts are accompanied by predictions that the Presbyterian ordination standard will crumble under the crush. For instance, Chris Glaser, a gay activist who believes “coming out” should be a sacrament on a par with baptism and communion, told a gay magazine recently that “the time will come” when the PCUSA and other mainstream denominations will “adjust and change their laws to allow for the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people.” Groups merge for power The GLBT coalition is betting on sooner, not later. To that purpose, power and funding sources have been merged. Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns and More Light Churches Network, two of the most aggressive groups in the ordination battle, have consolidated into one organization called More Light Presbyterians. The Covenant Network of Presbyterians, while professing to be moderate, has proclaimed that it will assist legally and financially those who challenge the denomination’s ordination standard. Ironically, it was Covenant Network co-moderator John Buchanan who proposed a “sabbatical” from challenges to or enforcement of ordination standards. Now he repudiates that sabbatical with a take-no-prisoners assault on the ordination standards. The frontline organizations are cheered and assisted by a number of other organizations: Hesed, Voices of Sophia and Presbyterian Parents of Gays and Lesbians. Other denominations under siege The Presbyterian Church (USA) is not the only denomination under siege. Methodists recently tried and convicted a pastor for conducting “holy unions,” or same-sex marriages, and other cases are pending. In the Episcopal Church, a 300-family Brockton, Mass., congregation and its pastor have been evicted from church premises because they opposed (by withholding the diocesan assessment) ordination of active homosexuals and diocesan approval for ministers conducting holy unions. Other mainline denominations are being targeted as well by proselytizers from the United Church of Christ and, especially, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, which is in effect a denomination of, to use their own words, “gay/lesbian/bisexual/transsexual communities.” The Universal Fellowship lists 300 congregations, including two with 2,000-plus members, but its full acceptability by the mainline denominations depends on the mainliners accepting a theology compatible with its unbiblical sexual ethic. Some of the most aggressive proselytizers for the GLBT lifestyle are Presbyterian ministers who, somehow or another, acquired and held their ordination, people such as transgendered Erin Swenson, of Atlanta. Here’s his/her story, as told in an E-mail broadcast for purposes of getting speaking engagements. I am a 52 year old postoperative male to female transexual AND a Presbyterian Minister (AND a marriage and family therapist, but that’s a different topic). I was ordained in 1973 by Atlanta Presbytery (PCUS), and transitioned in 1995. My ordination was held in question by the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta (PCUSA) for 16 months while it was “studied” (read, “hopefully would go away”). In October 1996, the Presbytery confirmed my ordination (whatever that is) and continued to authorize my counseling ministry. I became parish associate at the Ormewood Park Presbyterian Church in southeast Atlanta in June 1997. I am available to churches, governing bodies, universities, and seminaries to lead workshops on gender, identity, and spirituality. I will be glad to tell my story to any group that is really interested. Erin K. Swenson, Th.M. Ph.D., Atlanta, GA Helping the gay agenda Meanwhile, some high-ranking leaders of the PCUSA are giving aid and comfort to the gay agenda in other venues. Moderator Douglas W. Oldenburg served on a task force that reviewed the program and resources of the National Network of Presbyterian College Women. Despite the Network’s open endorsement of gay and lesbian sex and its published opposition to the denomination’s ordination standards, Oldenburg helped convince the task force that the Network should receive double its funding and continued sponsorship by the denomination. That proposal will be on the agenda at the 1999 General Assembly. When he was a candidate for moderator in 1998, Oldenburg told General Assembly commissioners that he did not favor changing the ordination standard then. But he also made it clear that he did not want to close the door on the issue. And Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, where Oldenburg is president, held a “National Coming Out Day” chapel service recently. 21 actions initiated At this writing, there have been 21 actions initiated in the aftermath of the votes that established and reaffirmed our current constitutional standards. A handful concluded when ministers and officers declined to accept ordination. In some cases, they voluntarily left the PCUSA to join denominations that would accept their claim that homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism are “gifts” of God’s grace. There is an irony. Opponents of the ordination standard often alleged that it would lead to witchhunts and aggressive enforcement by evangelicals in the PCUSA. The reality is that the legal cases pending now were instigated almost entirely by people who intentionally challenged the denomination’s constitution. Those who uphold the constitution are now compelled to respond by church process.

For a brief explanation of the PCUSA judicial system, read A PCUSA court primer.

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