The trouble with the new proposal for ordination standards is this: there is no standard.
The new policy would allow individual presbyteries and other church courts like Session decide what their local standards are for ordination. So instead of one standard being applied throughout the denomination, we are now left with the possibility of 11,000 different standards.
For example, if an ultra-conservative Presbytery was to decide that all candidates for ministers in their Presbytery were to have divinity degrees from a fundamentalist right wing college, then this new proposal could be wholly applied and the PCUSA could not do anything to stop it.
Similarly, if a misogynistic Session was to decide that no women and only freemasons were to be nominated for church eldership, then the local Presbytery could not stop them. In both cases, the letter of the new law would be applied and the local option would trump any protests. In other words, the new proposal could be interpreted, justified, and applied in such a way that even more people could be excluded from holding ordained office.
The core of the trouble is this: replacing an unpopular law with an even worse vaguer law will cause the church more damage. Connectionalism will be lost entirely. Having one standard for ordination preserves the connectionalism. Having no standard will end up striking the shepherds and scattering the sheep.
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