The Presbyterian Layman – September/October 2000 Volume 33, Number 5 – Posted September 29, 2000

What did God really say about marriage? It is not by accident that the marriage section of the Book of Order is nested within the Directory of Worship. That’s because Presbyterians have historically regarded a wedding as much more than a civil ceremony. It is a worship service intended to glorify God while two people – man and woman – become one in much the same sense that Christ is one with his bride, the Church. The language of the marriage section, from W-4.9000 to W-4.9006, reflects the solemnity and joy of what Scripture and our confessions say about marriage. It reinforces the ageless truth, that marriage is only between a man and a woman. It is not language that can be manipulated to say what it does not say. Nonetheless, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbyterian Church (USA) declared that Presbyterian ministers may officiate at union services of same-gender couples – as long as the services do not mention the “m-word” – marriage. In other words, if you don’t call a duck a duck, it’s not a duck. Even gay activists, who support the ruling by the PCUSA’s highest court, challenge the court’s head-in-the-sand theological whimsy. Jane Spahr, who bills herself as a lesbian evangelist, shouted at a Sunday morning demonstration outside the hall where the 2000 General Assembly was worshiping God, “These are marriages. These are weddings. And let’s call them what they are.” Fortunately, the General Assembly concluded that the court was wrong and that men and women in the PCUSA’s 173 presbyteries should vote to add the following statement, W-4.9007, to the Book of Order: “Scripture and our Confessions teach that God’s intention for all people is to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or in chastity in singleness. Church property shall not be used for, and church officers shall not take part in conducting, any ceremony or event that pronounces blessing or gives approval of the church or invokes the blessing of God upon any relationship that is inconsistent with God’s intention as expressed in the preceding sentence.” In the coming months, the men and women who are commissioners to the PCUSA’s 173 presbyteries will decide whether the denomination will remain faithful to God’s Word and his created order. The lobbying on behalf of defying God’s standard for marriage will be intense. It will begin with the query that started us all on this slippery slope, “Did God really say…?” To be faithful, there can be only one response: Indeed he did.

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