A great resource for the ordination
debates
Gene TeSelle reviews Ordination
Standards: Biblical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives – a very
thorough guide for studying and discussing the complex questions
surrounding the debates of inclusive ordination. [2-8-06]
Ordination Standards: Biblical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives
is a survey and study guide prepared by the elders of the North Como
Presbyterian Church in Roseville, Minnesota. The 556-page paperbound book is
published by iUniverse (a subsidiary of Barnes and Noble) at a price of
$46.95. Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have new and used copies at lower
prices, starting at around $35. The whole guide can also be downloaded as an
Adobe eBook for $6 per copy (go to either iUnivers or Amazon).
It's impressive, for starters, that
something like this could be done at all. It is the result of five years of
study by the elders and members of a local church. After looking into an
issue that has agitated the church for three decades, they offer here a
curriculum designed to stimulate discussion in other congregations. There
are fourteen "modules" — four dealing with biblical and theological issues,
ten with scientific.
They did not do it alone. The
bibliographies indicate how much reading, research, and consultation they
did. They had on-the-scene advice from Professors Paul Capetz and Richard
Weis of United Theological Seminary, as well as many other academics and
professional practitioners. They make much use of Jack Rogers' book
Reading the Bible and the Confessions: The Presbyterian Way(1999), and
Rogers has an endorsement on the back cover.
The opening modules look at the Bible and
the Presbyterian approach to interpreting it. To prepare us for dealing with
the contemporary debate about same-sex relationships, they look at two other
controversies, those concerning slavery and the status of women. The Bible
can be quoted on both sides of these questions, and what most of us regard
as the "right" approach was not given serious consideration until the 19th
century in the case of the former, the 20th in the case of the latter.
Then we are led, step by step, through the
history of the Presbyterian church's ordination standards, all the way to
the addition of G-6.0106b to the Book of Order, its interpretation by the
Permanent Judicial Commission, and the attempts to remove it. All the
relevant passages — study documents, General Assembly actions, judicial
decisions — are quoted, so that there is no need to hunt up the sources.
There is also a helpful explanation of the way a condemnation of "homosexual
perversion" got into Question 87 of the Heidelberg Confession (C-4.087)
although it is absent from the original texts.
This leads, quite naturally, to a
consideration of how the Bible is to be applied to the ordination standards
as they currently stand. We get detailed discussions of the image of God
(Gen. 1:27-28), Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19), the Levite's concubine (Jud.
19), several key passages from Leviticus, and the negative statements in
Paul (Rom. 1: 26-27, 1 Cor. 6:9-10).
In the case of Genesis 19 and Judges 19,
it is clear that the real issue is the violation of hospitality by
humiliating other males — proving that they are "girlie-men," to use
contemporary rhetoric. (Yes, the sin of Sodom is being perpetuated in our
own day, at least "in their hearts" (cf. Mt. 5:21-28), by those whose bumper
stickers say, "Don't be a girlie man, vote Republican.") The socially
approved way of satisfying masculine assertiveness was to substitute women
as the legitimate victims. So much for what appears, at first glance, to be
"biblical ethics." We discover that passages like these must be understood
in the light of "the circumstances in which they were set down" (C-5.010)
and the "views of life, history, and the cosmos which were then current"
(C-9.29).
In dealing with Romans 1, we are reminded
that the ancient world had no notion that same-sex attraction might be the
result of inherent dispositions. Paul, furthermore, shared the assumptions
of his time about the inferiority of women and the "natural use of women"
(yes, that's his language). This, too, requires interpretation rather than
proof-texting.
The modules on scientific perspectives are
even more detailed. Following an introduction dealing with scientific
method, we are led through topics such as homosexuality and transsexuality
in the natural world; psychological studies of prejudice, rejection, and
suicide as they affect GLBT persons; the debate between "essentialism" and "constructionism,"
genetic versus environmental factors; and the many issues surrounding
"conversion therapies." There is a detailed survey of ex-gay ministries and
individual leaders, some of whom subsequently left the movement. The last
major segment deals with issues of professional ethics in attempting
conversion therapy.
This is a thorough discussion guide.
In fact, given its length it is a discussion all by itself. In that
sense it would be suitable for solitary reading, and in the process you can
learn an awful lot! But it does invite — even requires — live discussion,
since various perspectives are explored without reaching final resolution.
As we know, there will always be new resources coming out. But that does not
mean that this guide will become out-of-date, for it envisages exactly that
kind of open-ended discussion.
Preview the first chapter and order the book at
www.iUniverse.com. Also available at
www.Amazon.com and
www.BarnesandNoble.com .
