Presbyterian minister accuses Bush of lying By John H. Adams The Layman Online Friday, November 8, 2002 MINNEAPOLIS – President George W. Bush has been lying about his reasons for considering military action against Iraq's Saddam Hussein, a Presbyterian minister told the Covenant Network Conference. Anybody who believes Bush is motivated by terrorism or weapons of mass destruction "is under an illusion," said the Rev. Curtis Jones Nov. 7 during the opening worship service of the Network's three-day national conference. "There needs to be a reality check," said Jones, the pastor of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, who contended that Bush is only interested in stealing Iraq's oil reserves. "George Bush, who couldn't find oil in Texas, has his eye on someone else's vineyard," said Jones, in an allusion to the Old Testament story of the stoning of Naboth and the wicked Jezebel's instruction to her husband, Ahab, to confiscate the victim's vineyard. Jones, an African-American who wore a colorful outer garment that was crisscrossed with geometric shapes, spoke in a city that has been rife with partisan politics since the memorial service of the late Paul Wellstone. Mixing partisan politics and religion, Jones drew several amens and enthusiastic applause during his sermon at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis. The attendance was estimated at 750, which included walk-ins from local churches. Jones' text was II Corinthians 4:7-9 – "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." That's how he felt after the election Nov. 5, Jones said. "I was taken aback by the events of Tuesday," he said to a chorus of amens. "I was going to come here hoping to celebrate victory with Vice President Mondale. But we're as divided as we were during the reading of the acquittal of O.J. Simpson." Walter "Fritz" Mondale, 74, was the nation's vice president during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. He became the Democratic candidate for one of Minnesota's U.S. Senate seats after Wellstone's death. Before those developments, Mondale was scheduled to speak at the Covenant Network Conference, and officials said that still is still on the agenda for Nov. 8. Jones called the election "painful … so bad, that after listening to all the gloating on election night, I could not listen to any more Wednesday morning." In a roundabout fashion, Jones drew a link between the Republican victories in the national election and the prohibition in the Presbyterian Church (USA) against ordaining self-affirming, practicing homosexuals and adulterers. To cope, he urged those attending to realize that God's treasure is in human vessels – vessels that leak and collapse and suffer. "In fact," he said, "suffering is the norm." "When you talk about love, you're going to be crucified," he said. "My grandma used to say, 'If you don't want to be criticized, don't say nothing, don't do nothing and you won't be nothing.'" Continuing his disappointment over the Republican victories, Jones said he found it implausible that the United States considers military action against Iraq while "in Botswana, 39 percent of its people are HIV positive." Jones urged the Covenant Network to be undeterred by the national political scene or the 3-1 majority that affirmed the denomination's constitutional "fidelity/chastity" ordination standard. "If we understand the story of Gideon, it's not the numbers, but who stands with you," he said. He said lesbianism and homosexuality are part of God's creative purpose. "If someone has a problem with a gay person or a lesbian person," he said, "your problem is not with them, because they can't help who are they are. Your problem is with the God who made them." Jones lamented the fact that many other African-American Christians "have not embraced the struggle of gays and lesbians," as well as the fact that he is a minister in a denomination in which a majority of the members are Republican. Including Jones, there appeared to be fewer than a half dozen blacks at the service. Before Jones preached, the PCUSA's stated clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick, spoke briefly. He said the Covenant Network, which has been in the forefront of the effort to allow the ordination of men and women who are sexually active in same-gender relationships, was made up of "wonderful people and very good friends in Christ." "This has always been a community that has trusted me with respect and love," said Kirkpatrick, who has been criticized by evangelicals for not enforcing the constitution while hundreds of Presbyterians have publicly stated that they have defied or will defy the ordination requirements. But Kirkpatrick said conflict is normal in the life of the church. He said Jesus came into this world "not because God so loved the church, but because God so loved the world." He raised some of the same issues as Jones did later, criticizing the possibility of a "pre-emptive strike against Iraq while the gap between the rich and the poor is growing at an unprecedented level … and 40 percent of the population of South Africa is HIV-positive." Kirkpatrick concluded his remarks with his variation of the Great Commission: "Go into all the world with peace and justice."

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