 Seeds
of paganism  The Presbyterian Layman Volume 34, Number 6, Posted October 5, 2001
In August, Mary Elva Smith, director of Women’s Ministries at Louisville headquarters, announced at a denominationally sponsored conference that she believes it is time for the church to sponsor a new event that would be similar to the first ReImagining God assembly. Smith participated in the 1993 original, during which leaders rejected the atonement of Jesus Christ, lauded lesbianism and celebrated a “milk and honey” communion service in honor of the goddess Sophia. The conference ignited a firestorm among Presbyterian congregations. While Ms. Smith proposed her global conference on feminist theology to a Presbyterian audience in Montreat, the August issue of More Light Update landed in Presbyterian mailboxes. With unbridled enthusiasm, Update applauded the recent General Assembly’s proposal (“Amendment A”) that Presbyterians remove all standards of sexual behavior from their Constitution. Included in the Update was an anonymous Presbyterian’s wistful recollection of times he spent in a gay bath house. “It’s a place where hundreds of gay men assemble to wander around dark halls and rooms and a steam room wearing nothing but towels seeking sex,” he said. “There is an atmosphere of pure sexuality, but it also has an atmosphere of acceptance. Everyone is equal, wrapped only in a towel and seeking nothing but sex. Of course, the gym-toned bodies get a lot more attention, but everyone is welcomed in this temple with its ritual of gay sexuality.” The writer ended his article with a warning that if the Presbyterian Church (USA) will not bless the relationship he enjoys with his current partner, he will “have no other option than the steam room at the gay bath house.” These themes are not foreign to those who believe the words of Scripture should frame our conduct. From Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal, to Paul’s struggle with devotees of Aphrodite and Artemis, God’s people have known that paganism breeds sexual immorality. When we turn our backs on God and prefer autonomy to obedience, we inevitably become captives to desire. “Maybe we’re talking about a different god,” Lesbian “evangelist” Jane Spahr once told a General Assembly audience. Indeed, we are. Parker T. Williamson is editor-in-chief of The Layman. |
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