Viewpoint
October 28, 2005

Trying to pull the wool over the sheep's eyes
By Rev. Susan Cyre

I'm astounded! Well, okay, I'm angry as well! The Peace, Unity and Purity report is an insult to every Presbyterian, every session and every presbytery. It holds in contempt the repeatedly expressed will of the whole church. The report denies that it is proposing local option while local option is exactly what it is proposing. And worse, it is doing this without the consent of the presbyteries that repeatedly have rejected local option.

The report recommends that the commissioners to the next General Assembly adopt a new "authoritative interpretation" of the Constitution that would permit governing bodies to determine if a candidate has departed from the scriptural and constitution standards for fitness for office and if so, whether these departures "constitute a failure to adhere to the essentials of Reformed faith." In other words, this is "local option"-every session and presbytery can ordain whoever they want.

This authoritative interpretation is clearly aimed at permitting the ordination of unrepentant practicing homosexuals but it has further implications; it deconstructs the whole Constitution. If it is approved, a presbytery considering a candidate who prefers "milk and honey" (recall Re-Imagining) to bread and wine, may very well decide that the bread and wine are not "essentials of Reformed faith." Or, if a candidate prefers Sophia to the Trinity or rejects Jesus' atonement because of the "blood dripping and weird stuff" (again recall Re-Imagining) a presbytery may decide the Trinity and the atonement are not "essentials of Reformed faith."

The preface to the Book of Order states, "SHALL... signify practice that is mandated." Every candidate for Minister of the Word and Sacrament understands that "shall" means "shall" and "shall not" means "shall not" in the Constitution, but that will not longer be the case. If this authoritative interpretation is approved, every presbytery in every case of doctrine, practice or polity will decide for itself if "shall" means "doesn't need to" and "shall not" means "possibly can."

The Book of Order section on ordination standards, G6-0106b, says "Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained…" If this authoritative interpretation is passed, a presbytery is free to change the "shall not" to "shall" by simply deciding that refraining from homosexual practice is not an "essential of Reformed faith."

The Peace, Unity and Purity Report is recommending an "authoritative interpretation" of the Constitution that allows exactly the opposite of the words of the Constitution--words that have been voted on repeatedly by the whole church.

The very practice that presbyteries have again and again rejected overwhelmingly, the Task Force is suggesting be done by the fiat of the General Assembly. Majorities of the 2.4 million-member PCUSA voted to put G6.0106b into the Constitution (by 54%) and larger majorities protected it through various attempts to change or remove it (66% and 73%). Now the Task Force has put the same old agenda in a new wrapper and suggested that 260 commissioners (it only takes a majority vote of GA to issue an authoritative interpretation) should pass an "authoritative interpretation" that directly contradicts the repeated, overwhelming votes of presbyteries. Every Presbyterian should be irate at this shabby ploy.

Since 1976 there have been at least 68 attempts to allow "local option" through court cases, GA reports, overtures and commissioner resolutions. These have all failed.

There have been sexuality task forces, like the one that produced the 1991 "justice-love" report that would have approved any sexual relation that was mutual. That report was soundly rejected.

The very year that G-6.0106b was placed in the Book of Order by a vote of 54% of the presbyteries, 1997, the General Assembly sent to the presbyteries an amendment that would have changed "fidelity and chastity" in G6.0106b to "fidelity and integrity in marriage or singleness, and in all relationships of life." This would have allowed each presbytery to decide what integrity meant for a particular candidate – essentially, local option. This amendment was rejected by 66% of the presbyteries.

In 2001 there was an attempt to delete G6.0106b from the Book of Order. If that amendment had been approved and a subsequent authoritative interpretation approved, ordination of practicing homosexuals would have been allowed at the discretion of individual presbyteries – local option. By the largest margin ever, 73%, presbyteries voted to reject the amendment and instead, maintain uniform, biblical ordination standards across the church.

Now the Task Force is traveling around the country trying to gain support for this end run around the will of the whole church. Every presbytery should elect wise commissioners to General Assembly who will uphold the Constitution as the conscience of the whole church and reject this improper attempt to nullify the thoroughly expressed will of the whole church.