Hestenes calls for sexual holiness By Parker T. Williamson The Presbyterian Layman Nov/Dec, 1997 DALLAS – Cultural sensitivity is one of the great strengths of the Presbyterian Church, said Roberta Hestenes, minister of the Solona Beach, Calif., Presbyterian Church, and a plenary speaker at Presbyterian Gathering II in Dallas. But, she continued, therein lies its greatest danger. Hestenes referred to the classic Reformed emphasis that Christians be involved in every aspect of community life. Just as the reformers made major contributions to Geneva and various cities where they established churches, so their Presbyterian descendants today exercise leadership in government, business, and academic affairs. Hestenes described a recent trip to Soweto, South Africa, in which her driver, sensing danger, kept driving around the periphery. Finally, Hestenes told her host to leave the safe road and head straight for the center. That’s what the Presbyterian Church must do, she said. “We must have a presence in the heart of our culture.” But the danger, said Hestenes, is that in immersing ourselves in the culture, Presbyterians are continually tempted to reflect rather than transform the culture. “Culturally sensitive” Christians can easily forget that they are called to be “in the world but not of the world,” she said. Hestenes suggested that the current turmoil experienced by the Presbyterian Church (USA) may be “God’s judgment on us for our lack of sexual holiness and our lack of repentance.” The California minister urged her listeners to approach their opposition to Amendment A with confession of their own sins and repentance. Any other attitude will fail, she said. She pleaded for those who engage in the Amendment A battle to be respectful of persons, even while resisting the processes with which some of those persons have strangled the denomination. She called on members of her audience to be peacemakers, but not placaters, and to express sorrow and anger when confronted with falsehood, but to avoid any expression that could be interpreted as a personal attack. |
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