Soulforce video mailed to PCUSA commissioners By John H. Adams The Layman Online Friday, June 9, 2000 Soulforce, a gay activist group, has mailed to General Assembly commissioners a video that features a retired professor talking about why the church should not exclude homosexuals from membership. "Shall we embrace or shall we exclude?" asks Dr. Lewis Smedes, former professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary. "Shall we take in or shall we put out our Christian gays and lesbians?" In an emotional appeal with few Biblical references, Smedes answers his own question by declaring that exclusion of homosexuals has "become the greatest heresy of the Church." Exclusion not the issue But exclusion is not the issue facing the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) during its meeting June 24-July 1 in Long Beach, Calif. The PCUSA does not exclude homosexuals from membership. The only denominational requirement to become a Presbyterian is to declare publicly that Jesus Christ is Lord. And no person can be denied membership for any reason not related to profession of faith. The Soulforce video does not address the key issues before the General Assembly -- an overture to delete the constitutional requirement that officers remain faithful to their spouses in their marriages or celibate in their singleness and three overtures that, if adoptd by a majority of presbyteries, would nullify the controversial decision by the PCUSA's highest court that allows Presbyterian ministers to bless homosexual couples who live together. The Soulforce video featuring Smedes was also distributed to about 1,000 delegates to the General Conference of the United Methodist Church before their recent meeting in Cleveland. The Methodist delegates voted by two-to-one margins to prohibit ordination of self-affirming, practicing homosexuals and to forbid Methodist pastors from conducting same-sex unions. PCUSA demonstrations planned Soulforce also conducted demonstrations at the Methodist meeting. More than 200 Soulforce demonstrators were arrested on civil-disobedience charges. Mel White, leader of Soulforce, is soliciting homosexuals to demonstrate at the General Assembly. White has asked volunteers to indicate whether they would be willing to be arrested. Smedes, a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, says on the video that traditional theological interpretation of the first chapter of Romans 1 -- which condemns both male and female homosexuality -- is wrong. The description applies to people whom God had abandoned and does not apply to homosexuals who love God, Smedes says. Because of that passage, Smedes says, "People I know and love … have been harassed and treated abominably by my brothers and sisters, and they do not fit the picture St. Paul was talking about." Homosexuality a 'gift' Although science has not concluded likewise, Smedes says homosexuality is a natural condition, a "different gift, different sets of raw material." Christians who interpret Scripture less figuratively than Smedes and who do not believe that homosexuality -- or adultery -- is a "gift" have caused grief for many homosexuals, he says. Smedes cited a case in which he said one homosexual committed suicide because Christians told him his lifestyle was contrary to God's will. He also referred to a friend's self-disclosure of his homosexuality. "I love that man, admire that man, even more after reading that account," Smedes says. On the video, Smedes describes himself as being "probably as conservative and evangelical as you can find in the United States."

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