 Horizons  The Layman – Volume 37, Number 2 – Posted June 2, 2004
As I look at the horizon of the PCUSA’s past, I can’t see much before 1978, the year I first noticed that there was something happening beyond our own congregation. One Sunday our pastor led us in prayer for the upcoming General Assembly and the defeat of the proposed recommendation to ordain people who engage in homosexual behavior. The news that this was even being considered, let alone commended, jolted me to full attention. The assembly did not adopt the proposal; instead, the understanding of Scripture that teaches such behavior is sin became the definitive guidance of our denomination. In the 26 years since, our denomination’s horizon has been filled with many failed, but unceasing, attempts to overturn that policy. Besides seemingly endless overtures, there have been piles of cases from the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission that have sought to apply that policy, but those now appear to be worthless because they have not been enforced. As I turn toward the PCUSA’s future horizon, I see in the immediate foreground this June assembly’s cluster of new overtures to repeal both the Book of Order standard of sexual behavior of officers (G-6. 0106b) and the authoritative interpretation behind it. This year, again, our denomination’s understanding of the fundamental ordering of human sexuality is up for grabs. And no help appears on the horizon. Not from the Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity, which seems to be moving toward continuing “dialogue” for another 26 years. And not from the current Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick. Although the clerk’s duty is to preserve and defend the constitution, Rev. Kirkpatrick has not only been silent when he should have spoken, he has also said damaging and wrong things when he has deigned to speak. In July, 1998, he issued Advisory Opinion #19, which said that there was no definition for “chastity” or “repentance,” so each governing body could find its own. The Covenant Network and others have followed that lead to encourage each candidate and ordaining body to do what is right in their own eyes – making up their own meanings, as well as just using deceptive answers. In December, 2002, Stated Clerk Kirkpatrick replaced that license to evade with new advice that the only authority to look at is the authoritative interpretation adopted in 1978, which is now the latest target of those advocating immoral sexual behavior. In both opinions the stated clerk has ignored the rest of our constitution, the first part, our Book of Confessions, which clearly sets forth the Scriptural understanding of chastity and repentance. The election of a stated clerk stands on the June horizon. There are four candidates – the current Clifton Kirkpatrick and three others who all fault Kirkpatrick’s nonfeasance and poor performance and offer a change of scenery: Rev. Bob Davis, Rev. Rus Howard and Elder Alex Metherell. A change in prospect for the denomination seems uncertain – directly over the cliff in self-destructive refusal to obey our constitution or a decisive turning from the edge toward the solid rock of God’s Word? We could go either way as a denomination. Fortunately, we are reminded by the Psalms that we need to look elsewhere than the horizon for help: “I lift up my eyes to the hills; where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1) Our God stands beyond horizons, even beyond the cosmos. As his people, we are called to cast our eyes on him, to look up and to pray up. God reigns. He acts when his people cry out to him in their trouble. He can deliver us from our distress, whether it is caused by our foolishness or by our rebellion against God. (Psalm 107). Only he can change our landscape – making rivers into a desert, or turning parched ground into flowing springs. Let us seek his help and not fail to look above all horizons that bound us, for this assembly and for all the ordering of our ways. Peggy Hedden, a ruling elder in Columbus, Ohio, is the chairman of the board of directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. |
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