Thoughts on individual conscience,
from Calvin
by Sarah Melcher
[3-13-01]
The author
is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at Xavier University in
Cincinnati. She is an ordained
minister
in the P.C. U.S.A. and a graduate of Louisville Presbyterian
Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and of
Emory University (Ph.D.).
On the issue of using amendments to the Constitution
of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. in order to settle issues of morality,
I refer my colleagues to Jean Calvin's discussion in Book IV, chapter X,
in the Institutes of the Christian Religion. In this lengthy
discussion on the freedom of the individual's conscience before God,
Calvin cautions the Church against heaping up laws to bind the
consciences of human beings. By promulgating one law after another to
bind the morality of our fellow Christians, "thus the Kingdom of
Christ (as I have just suggested) is invaded; thus the freedom given by
him to the consciences of believers is utterly oppressed and cast
down."
Elsewhere in the same chapter (X), Calvin states,
"Now let us return to human laws. If they were passed to lay
scruples upon us, as if the observance of these laws were necessary of
itself, we say that something unlawful is laid upon conscience. For our
consciences do not have to do with men [sic] but with God alone."
The clear intent of Amendment O is to so constrain the
behaviors of fellow Presbyterians, so that they reflect the moral
judgment made by a supposed majority. By virtue of a simple majority
vote, Amendment O allows no church to make moral decisions about how its
church property shall be used. The important theological process that
should take place in decision-making, where individual churches weigh
their current circumstances in conversation with Scripture and the
traditions of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., while seeking the guidance
of the Holy Spirit, is utterly circumvented by Amendment O.
By voting in favor of Amendment O, we are saying that
we do not trust individual churches to make moral decisions in the
matter of homosexual relationships.
In my opinion, Amendment O represents an encroachment
upon pastoral prerogatives, as well as an encroachment upon the freedom
of the individual's conscience before God. Let us find some other means
to settle our disputes about moral behavior, than to constrain the
choices of others through the imposition of the will of a simple
majority.
