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Letters
August 6, 2007
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To the editor:
It is with a certain amount of fear and trembling that I respond to Rev. Gray's editorial piece "A Deeply Pernicious Heresy." Rev. Gray's letter to the church is so gracious sounding, so apparently kind, with such a patina of thoughtfulness, that at first blush one would wonder how anyone could find fault with her reasoning. What she says does "sound right" at first, until you begin to think about the implications of her perspective. While I doubt she meant it to be the case, the logical outcome of Rev. Gray's position as she enunciated it in her Presbyweb piece is antinomianism, or plainly put – lawlessness.
I cannot speak for those that Rev. Gray refers to who have said that homosexuals cannot be Christians. However, while it may not be the official position of the Presbyterian Church (USA), one could well make a good, biblical argument that acting out homoerotic desires could be (ought to be) the grounds for church discipline, and ultimately some form of excommunication from the church. In fact, it was stated in the last General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (which is, in reality, the "mother church" of American Presbyterianism) that church discipline in the PCI would make it difficult for sexually-active homosexuals to be members of the church.
Something that I find disturbing in Rev. Gray's piece is that she makes no reference whatsoever to Scripture, but only to the Book of Order's statement that no one may be excluded from membership for any other reason than one's profession of faith. Her position begs the question that I think she owes it to us to answer: Are there any forms of behavior that may bar one from church membership (pedophilia? beastiality?)? Furthermore, is Rev. Gray telling us in her article that the day of church discipline, given the Book of Order position that only one's profession of faith can be a bar to membership, is officially over? Rev. Gray's position on what she calls the "Jesus and..." heresy sounds dangerously like cheap grace.
She does go on to say, "Yes, being in a saving relationship with our Lord does require us to live a holy life. The fact that we have significant differences about what a holy life entails, however, does not entitle some of us to lock others of us out of the body of Christ."
This remark begs the question: How does the church determine what is a holy, or an unholy, life for the believer? Is homosexual behavior unholy? Scripture teaches that it is, and even says that it is a barrier to one inhereting the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9; cf. Ephesians 5:5). But are we now to tolerate it in the church on the grounds that "we have significant differences" about it? Do our "significant differences" with one another trump the authority of Scipture?
Rev. Gray's final illustration basically destroys any notion of church discipline. What Rev. Gray calls "humility" is something that many of us see as anything but humility. How can it be a humble thing to neglect calling something sin when Scripture itself does?! This is not humility, but a sophisticated form of arrogance, and dare I say "heresy," that puts us and our experiences and our "significant differences" with one another above the Word of God and the authority of Christ. This is an unholy humility that elevates us to the place promised by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, that we get to determine good and evil for ourselves rather than abide by the Word of God.
Rev. Gray had a point to make. Unfortunately, she did not make it well.
Rev. Walter L. Taylor, Pastor
Oak Island Presbyterian Church
Oak Island, North Carolina |
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