Executive Editor's column - July/August 2000

The Church is found at the end of the gauntlet

The Presbyterian Layman Volume 33, Number 4, Posted August 4, 2000

Parker T. Williamson
Executive Editor

LONG BEACH, Calif. – They were poles apart, and a police squad made sure they stayed that way. On one side was Soulforce, Mel White’s cadre of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and their supporters. On the other, a platoon of gay bashers, led by Fred Phelps. Presbyterians on their way to worship were forced to walk a gauntlet between them. “This denomination has blood on its hands,” shouted Grayson Tucker, a Presbyterian minister who has decided to turn Unitarian. “You’re a fag church,” Fred Phelps shouted back.

I looked at the two groups, each purporting to be Christian, and I wondered, “Where in the midst of all this is the Church?” Surely it was not to be found in bigotry that demeans children of God with repulsive slogans like, “God hates homos.” Did Phelps not know that for these targets of his vitriol, embracing under a rainbow of multicolor balloons, the Lord Jesus gave his life?

Nor did the Church reveal itself among demonstrators who had come to revile the sanctity of marriage. Their demeanor trumped that of Phelps, a Primitive Baptist and disbarred lawyer, yet their message was no less lethal. The Church is certainly not killing gay and lesbian young people by telling them that their sexual behavior is wrong. To the contrary, that message can save their lives.

This was a media event, luring the secular press into a feeding frenzy. Alert to the opportunity, a Presbyterian News Service employee shepherded reporters toward Rev. Douglas Oldenburg for an “official” interpretation. Oldenburg is a former moderator who, during his term of office, permitted some of these same demonstrators to disrupt his General Assembly.

Thompson speaks at Soulforce rally

This cacophony of cat calls interpreted by one-sided interviews made hot copy for the local news, but it left me cold. My questions remained, “Where is the Church? Who speaks for the Church?” The gauntlet that stretched before me suggested only two options, hate-church or the cult of the autonomous self. Which one shall we choose?

Soulforce powered up its loud speakers, and Phelps, his bull horn. “It is past time that we equalized the rights and privileges of our people” said former General Assembly Moderator William P. Thompson.

“Thank God for AIDS,” shouted Phelps antiphonally.

“These are marriages. These are weddings,” lesbian “evangelist” Jane Spahr said of Presbyterian “holy union ceremonies.” “Let’s call them what they are.”

Member of Phelps’ group protests Soulforce

“You’ll burn in Hell,” replied the bullhorn.

“Isn’t this fabulous?” shouted Spahr. “By God, this is fabulous!”

I walked the gauntlet, the depths of my soul grieving that it had finally come to this.

“Is this valley of dry bones all there is? Is this all that is left of the Presbyterian Church?”

I entered the arena, and as the cacophony began to fade, a new sound surfaced. First timpani, then a trumpet, an organ … and then a chorus of voices, some 9,000 strong:

“The Church’s one foundation

is Jesus Christ her Lord.

She is His new creation by water and the Word.”

Here was the Church that I longed for. Here were the people of God, singing with all their hearts, praising our Lord Jesus Christ whose body is, in fact, the Church. The lyrics couldn’t have been more appropriate:

Thousands of Presbyterians join in singing great hymns of faith

“Though with a scornful wonder

this world sees her oppressed.

By schisms rent asunder,

By heresies distressed.

Yet saints their watch are keeping,

Their cry goes up, ‘How long?’

And soon the night of weeping

shall be the morn of song.”

That is the reality that I cling to when dark forces drive us into the long night. This is God’s Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

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