 
‘Building Community Among Strangers’ rejected By Parker T. Williamson The Presbyterian Layman |
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CHARLOTTE – A controversial study paper that calls for building community by denying the lordship of Jesus Christ was derailed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). By a vote of 418-86, the Assembly rejected Building Community Among Strangers, a product of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP). “I don’t think tightening a few screws here and touching up a paint job there will be enough to fix this paper,” said Rev. Thomas Theriault, one of two commissioners whose objections brought the issue to the floor. “This paper needs a dramatic redirection.” A central thesis of the committee’s paper is that religious differences divide people and that Christians can affirm Jesus Christ’s lordship for themselves while affirming the validity of other people’s gods. To illustrate its point, the paper includes an image of a banquet in which the food is blessed not only in the name of Jesus, “but also in the name of Allah, the Lord Krishna, Siddhartha Buddha, and the Goddess Gaia.” When confronted by widespread criticism, committee members dropped the banquet illustration, but the theologically inclusive theme that the banquet was meant to convey continued to run through the fabric of the document. That is what led Theriault, minister commissioner from San Diego, and Louise Holert, minister commissioner from Seattle, to challenge the committee’s work before the entire General Assembly. Theriault made a motion, which he called “a friendly amendment,” that the committee produce a paper that “(1) is clearly centered around the confessional and biblical teaching about Christ as Lord of all the world and its only hope of reconciliation, and (2) embodies a tone of mutual respect for differing opinions within our church.” Holert stated that the study paper needed this change because it “blurs the lines between ‘cultural’ and ‘religious’ pluralism.” The Assembly adopted his motion. Allen Dean of Tres Rios Presbytery responded: “This amendment has been described as ‘friendly.’ With friends like this you don’t need any enemies.” Byron Schaffer, from the Presbytery of New York City agreed: “The very nature of this enterprise is to incorporate the broadest possible theological diversity.” But Glenn Weaver of Lake Michigan Presbytery declared the paper not only outside the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s confessions, but “an act of hostility against them.” Paul Pierson of San Gabriel Presbytery said, “I am a former missionary, and I find this material offensive. It is hostile to the world mission of the church.” Rev. Donald Shriver, former President of Union Theological Seminary in New York and a member of the committee that produced the study, told commissioners that he thought rewriting the paper was unnecessary and that it would cost the church a great deal of money. He said that his committee had heard from the church and would make revisions in its final policy document. “Just trust us,” he pleaded. But Theriault responded “Trust involves a track record, and the track record of this committee has been deeply troubling. We must give the world the best of what we have to offer. And our best is Jesus Christ. He is the only basis of bringing together our fractured world.” |
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The Presbyterian Layman, July/August 1998 contents |
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