PCUSA Gay Ordination: Transformation, not Reformation

PCUSA Gay ordination: Transformation, not Reformation

The current on-going issue in the PCUSA concerns the biennial problem of ordaining gay people who are in active sexual relationships. As each year passes, the opposition to this is diminishing which denotes a change in culture as opposed to a change in Biblical standards. And this is where I have a problem with the PCUSA church and its Louisville leaders.

They are calling this a re-formation of the church which is false. Reformation is originally a military term that refers to soldiers in the battlefield. The order for reforming is meant to bring the scattered forces together again in the midst of the battle to a basic standard formation in order to consolidate the strength of the troops. When Luther, Calvin & Knox called for the Church to be reformed, they were asking Christians throughout Europe to get back to the basics of New Testament Christianity. They weren’t seeking to change the church; they were looking to have it return to its most basic biblical principles.

Ordaining gay people is not re-formation, it is transformation because the Church is being asked to radically change from its Biblical and New Testament beliefs. Those who call it reformation are wrong, because in order to reform the church would have to get back to its biblical basics.

Homosexuality has never been a practice that was acceptable in the original Christian church, so what we are being asked to do is to radically change who we are and what we believe is right. If we take this path to accept the ordination of practicing homosexuals then we are separating ourselves from the New Testament Church. We will have transformed into something else and into something other than New Testament Christianity. Our Western culture may demand this of our society, but our churches are meant to be separate from our culture in matters of doctrine, Biblical teaching, and Christ given truth.

In essence we have to ask ourselves this important question: are we Christ’s church in the world, or are we the Western World’s Church?

PCUSA Presbytery Debates: Gay Ordination

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.

A Call to Stop Using the 'H' Word

I think that its time for people on either side of the gay debate to stop using the “H” word. It’s very easy for some people to intolerantly call other ‘homophobes’ as a means to diminish their views, make them feel guilty, and silence their opinions.

It’s used in the same intolerant and bigoted way that the ‘n’ word was expressed to subdue a whole race of people, to make them feel inferior, and to silence their protests.

‘Homophobe’ is used to destroy dialogue and people in just the same way that ‘fag’ and ‘queer’ have been expressed to label people with different lifestyles and ideas. Those words should also be eliminated in the interests of having a constructive dialogue.

I have been called a ‘Homophobe’ because I am not convinced about the ordination of actively gay people. I struggle with that issue on theological and biblical grounds, and not because I fear homosexuals. In fact, I very dearly love my younger brother and also one of my nephews in Scotland. Both of them are gay.

I have also sat, prayed, and held hands with gay men who were dying of HIV-AIDS.

I have annually supported WORLD AIDS DAY each year for many years and have been deeply moved by testimonies of gay Christian people.

I have done all this and yet when I express my struggle over gay ordination, I am labeled, quite unfairly and bigotedly, as a homophobe.

If we are going to get anywhere in this dialogue, then we all need to stop using the ‘H’ word.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A Disappointing Day

Last Saturday, the PCUSA Presbytery of East Tennessee, at Farragut Presbyterian Church, voted 81-66 in favor of ordaining gay people, in an active relationship, to eldership and ministry.

Although I value the democratic process, I must confess that the decision was disappointing to me.

Over the years, several issues have smothered mainline churches with what I call ‘theological kudzu.’ This issue of gay ordination is just another layer. The world has influenced the Church so much in recent decades ( abortion, stem cell research, and gay ordination) that it is no longer distinguishable – what we used to call ‘holy’ – from the world.

IMHO, I believe that if this trend continues, mainline churches will make themselves insignificant, both to the world that they crave, and to Christ’s True Kingdom.

O Lord, Your Church is broken,
And I am wounded, too.
I come to You for guidance
To show me what to do.
The world has been unceasing
To make the Church the same;
Yet we were made for praising,
And worshipping Your Name.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.