Theologian featured in Soulforce video apologizes for its distribution By John H. Adams The Layman Online Wednesday, June 14, 2000 Dr. Lewis Smedes, whose comments were featured in a video mailed to General Assembly commissioners by homosexual activists, says he did not authorize the production or distribution of the video and that his comments are not applicable to issues before the assembly. In a letter to commissioners to the 212th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), beginning June 24 in Long Beach, Smedes refuted the purpose of the video and apologized for its distribution. Video edited by Soulforce Soulforce, a gay-rights organization that plans to conduct civil-disobedience demonstrations during the Sunday worship hour on June 25 at the General Assembly, edited and distributed the video to commissioners. Soulforce intended the video to demonstrate that Smedes, an ethicist who calls himself conservative and evangelical, would agree with Soulforce's demands that the PCUSA ordain practicing homosexuals and allow its ministers to conduct ceremonies to bless homosexual couples who live together. Argument is against exclusion But Smedes said nothing of the sort on the video. Rather, Smedes argued only against exclusion of homosexuals from communion -- which is the practice of his own denomination, The Christian Reformed Church. The PCUSA does not exclude homosexuals from communion or membership. Ordination and same-sex unions were addressed by the video's narrator, Mel White, the Soulforce founder who has issued a call for Los Angeles-area homosexuals to join in the demonstration against the PCUSA. The editing of the video left the impression that Smedes agreed with White's views. "Neither the original article [published in the May/June 1998 edition of Perspectives magazine] nor the video presentation of it argued on behalf of the ordination of homosexual people to ministry or of the church's public blessing of their partnerships. I might also add that I do not approve of disrupting a worship service by acts of civil disobedience." 'Intrusion into deliberations' Smedes told Presbyterian commissioners that he was "neither informed of nor consulted about this intrusion into your deliberations." "I believe that God did not intend homosexuality to be part of his good creation, but that rather, like so many other things many of us have to cope with, it is a consequence of creation's fall," Smedes said. "On the other hand, I have long believed that God embraces in his grace those Christian homosexuals who love the Savior, who without their choice are homosexual, and who are not capable of celibacy, but are trying, in committed love, to live the best life available to them." Smedes accepted responsibility "for having made the video, which, in itself I do not regret, and I am also responsible for failing to control the editing and distribution of it, which I do regret. And, so, for the distress the distribution has caused many of you, I am deeply sorry." The Book of Order of the PCUSA prohibits ordination of self-affirming, practicing homosexuals (as well as adulterers). One overture recommends that the "fidelity/chastity" ordination clause be stricken from the constitution. The General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court of the PCUSA, recently ruled that Presbyterian pastors may conduct services of blessing for homosexual couples but that they should not be called marriages or unions and that the components of the ceremony should not be comparable to those of a marriage. Three overtures before the General Assembly propose a constitutional amendment that would prohibit Presbyterian ministers from blessing homosexual couples who live together. (An earlier version of this story was posted on June 13 on The Layman Online. But it was taken off the site after The Layman Online learned that Dr. Smedes had revised his letter to commissioners.)

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