Repealing "B"

One way for a fresh start -- cleaning the slate

by Doug Nave

[5-9-01]

One of the many overtures that offers a new beginning on the question of ordaining gay and lesbian Presbyterians comes from the Presbytery of New York City. Doug Nave, an attorney and a trustee of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, provides us with this overview of the case for changes, with a focus on Overture 01-08. We are sharing it here as a helpful presentation of the broader case for many of the other overtures as well.

In 1976, two presbyteries overtured the General Assembly for "definitive guidance" on whether they could certify or take under care inquirers for ministry who were gay. In response, after several years of study, the 1978 General Assembly adopted a "policy statement and recommendations" that "our present understanding of God's will precludes the ordination of persons who do not repent of homosexual practice."

The 1978 statement, and an essentially identical one issued in 1979 by the southern branch of the Presbyterian Church, launched nearly twenty years of bitter debate. Many believed that the statements were simply wrong, and that gay and lesbian Christians could be called to ordained service. Others felt that the statements encroached on the historic right of congregations and presbyteries to elect and ordain leaders. Others argued that the assembly statements were never intended to bind local governing bodies or, if they were, that they impermissibly sought to amend our ordination requirements without ratification by the presbyteries. Still others, obviously, felt that the statements were sound and enforceable. The conflict was acrimonious and seemingly endless.

In 1996, in an effort to stop the debates, the General Assembly sent to the presbyteries a proposed amendment to the Book of Order (Amendment B) which could prohibit, among other things, ordained service by non-celibate gay and lesbian people. The amendment passed by a narrow margin. Far from resolving the issue, it led instead to intensified conflict. Numerous congregations have passed "covenants of dissent," refusing to apply Amendment B; supporters of Amendment B have filed a growing number of judicial actions seeking to enforce and extend it; and our denomination has been racked with bitterness and strife.

It is time to ask where we have gone wrong, and how we find a better way. Overture #01-8, from New York City, suggests a solution -- that we begin again to respect the freedom of conscience, and the duty to show mutual forbearance toward one another, that grounds Presbyterian polity. The overture suggests that we have not yet reached true discernment at the national level and that while homosexuality must continue to be part of our dialogue together in congregations and presbyteries, it is time to remove homosexuality from the national agenda.

The General Assembly's Advisory Committee on the Constitution, which reviews all constitutional overtures, has opined that the New York City Overture accomplishes what it set out to do. In particular, the overture calls for both the elimination of Amendment B, through a vote of the presbyteries, and General Assembly's issuance of a new Authoritative Interpretation that rescinds the 1978/79 policy statements and actions taken by subsequent governing bodies in reliance on them. Thus, the overture clears away the accumulated actions of deeply divided agencies and restores a clean slate.

It is time to affirm the fundamental rule of Presbyterianism, that "God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it" (G-1.0301). Some argue that our denomination's present ban on ordained service is grounded in the plain language of Scripture, leaving no room for conscience. However, nearly half of the Biblical faculty in our Presbyterian seminaries, and nearly half of the faithful Presbyterians who have voted over the years in our debates, do not believe that Scripture is so clear. Indeed, many see that the same kinds of texts and interpretive methods that are used to exclude gay and lesbian people today have been used to promote the exclusion of women, slavery, racial segregation, and anti-Semitism in the past. Their serious study of Scripture, using well-accepted interpretive tools, leads many to conclude that it is time for us to reform our understanding of homosexuality just as we have reformed our understandings of gender, race, and religious differences to become a more faithful, just, and inclusive church.

Where Christians differ in their conscientious interpretation of Scripture, our Constitution's mandate is absolutely clear: "there are truths and forms with respect to which men of good character and principles may differ. And in all these we think it the duty both of private Christians and of societies to exercise mutual forbearance toward each other" (G-1.0305).

This directive is not a matter of casual indulgence. Rather, it constitutes the backbone of Protestant faith, the hard duty to examine and follow one's own conscience and to show the mutual forbearance that allows others to do likewise. It is because it is so easy to run roughshod over others' conscience, and so difficult to forbear when we believe ourselves to be self-evidently right, that the duty of forbearance constitutes part of the "Historic Principles of Church Order" opening and informing our entire Form of Government. This duty is drawn directly from the Westminster Confession of Faith (6.109), and reflects the repeated admonitions of the New Testament writers that we avoid needless controversies and internal dissension (e.g., Rom. 15:5-7, 1 Cor. 1:10-13, Eph. 4:25-32, Jas. 3:17-18).

The New York City Overture cautions that "factionalism demeans our fellowship, detracts from our witness, denies the gospel, and defeats our purpose." It affirms that "our presbyterian system cannot be allowed to disintegrate into political maneuvering, that we must speak from the authority of consensus rather than from the power of narrow majorities." And it calls on our church to "strive constantly to honor and express in our corporate life the reality of the amazing and unfathomable grace on which we all depend."

We have been fighting over the desire of gay and lesbian Christians to render ordained service now for twenty-five years, and there is little that would suggest the hope of resolution anytime soon. It is time to undertake the hard duty of forbearance. Until we have greater discernment at the denominational level than we have today, the New York City Overture suggests that we finally learn to say what Christ said about homosexuality -- nothing -- so that we can focus again on the evangelism and service to which we all have been called.