Presbytery wants to end funding for NNPCW By John H. Adams The Presbyterian Layman Friday, May 21, 1999 A presbytery overture agrees with the conclusions of the task force that reviewed the controversial National Network of Presbyterian College Women but not the task force’s recommendation. Stop sponsoring and funding the Network, says Overture 99-42 by the Beaver-Butler (Pa.) Presbytery. Declare that the Network’s program and philosophy are contrary to the biblical and constitutional standards of the PCUSA. ‘Clearly violated policies’ The task force reviewing the Network also concluded that the Network “clearly violated the policies of the PC (USA), being inconsistent with the church’s confessional standards, lacking in Biblical and theological foundation, and failing to provide balanced, accurate resources for study or further discussion.” Furthermore, the task force said the Network failed “to even mention Jesus Christ” in some of its foundational documents. Despite its findings, however, the task force is recommending that the Network receive a new lease on life and twice as much money. Since the hearing, a Network representative participated in the selection of Jane Spahr to receive one of three Women of Faith awards at the June General Assembly. Spahr is a “lesbian evangelist.” Commissioners at the 211th General Assembly in Fort Worth in June will decide what to do about the Network, which is, according to its own resources, at odds with Presbyterian standards on sexuality, ordination and even God – Network literature includes a prayer to a re-imagined “Christa …. our primeval mother.”
In 1998, commissioners decided that the Network’s materials were contrary to the church’s biblical and confessional policies. They voted to end sponsorship and funding. But an adjournment-eve demonstration, allowed by Moderator Douglas W. Oldenburg and orchestrated with the help of GA staff, built sympathy for the college women’s group as they tearfully sang “This Little Light of Mine.” Scores of liberal activists held hands and formed a ring around the commissioners. A vote on the last day of the 1998 General Assembly gave the Network a reprieve until the 1999 General Assembly. Since last year’s Assembly, the Network removed its web site that provided a gateway to hardcore pornography and declared its official publication, Young Women Speak, out of print. ‘Fertility goddesses’ But the Beaver-Butler Presbytery got a copy of Young Women Speak and quoted several passages in the overture. The overture concluded that the Network exalts personal experience over Scripture; advocates understandings of God “derived from fertility goddesses;” teaches that homosexual behavior is “normal, natural and moral;” works against the denomination’s ordination standards; and “distorts the plain words of the Bible.” The Beaver-Butler overture says no one from the Network “has expressed any desire” to conform to the policies of the Presbyterian Church (USA). |
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