GAC executive says initial response to Ficca
controversy was "inadequate"
Detterick says GAC will review policies for
choosing conference speakers
by Alexa Smith, Presbyterian News Service
For the full text of Detterick's statement to the
Coalition, click here.
INDIANAPOLIS -- November 2, 2000 -- The executive
director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Council
apologized Tuesday for the Council's "inadequate" initial
response to complaints about the orthodoxy of a speaker's remarks at a
summer conference in Los Angeles and said denominational conference
planners must ensure that controversial theological ideas are not
allowed to go unexamined at church events.
John Detterick addressed about 400 Presbyterians here
during a very disgruntled annual gathering of the Presbyterian
Coalition, an umbrella organization for conservative and evangelical
groups in the PC(USA) that was organized in 1993 to support a ban on the
ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians. Nowadays, the Coalition
is most visible in seeking to maintain those ordination standards, both
legislatively and judicially.
Detterick was responding to a controversy ignited last
summer when the Rev. Dirk Ficca, a Presbyterian minister from Chicago
who is executive director for the Parliament of World Religions, said at
the Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference that Jesus Christ is not the
only way to salvation.
Last month, when a Dallas church demanded that the GAC
state publicly that Jesus Christ alone is Lord and Savior, the council's
response was published widely and found lacking by many evangelicals.
Since then, the Montreat (N.C.) Presbyterian Church
has informed the GAC that it intends to file judicial charges against
the council for failing "to review the work of GA agencies and
bodies ... in light of mission directions, goals, objectives and
priorities" (Book of Order G-13.0103.e), "to warn or bear
witness against error in doctrine or immorality in practice in or
outside the church" (G-13.0103.p) and "to uphold the Great
Ends of the Church" (G-1.0200).
Detterick said the peacemaking conference was right to
focus on interfaith issues, given how much religion is a factor in many
of the world's conflicts, such as in the Balkans and in the Middle East.
The problem, he said, is that it was not a Muslim, a
Buddhist or even a Roman Catholic who offered a perspective that
"differed from our Presbyterian beliefs," which would have
been, as he said, "fine and helpful."
But Ficca is a Presbyterian minister, "and that
exacerbates our problem," he said.
From his Louisville office, Detterick told the
Presbyterian News Service that he did not promise anything comparable to
self-censorship but to find legitimate ways for controversial ideas to
be clarified and discussed.
"We need to sit down and think about what people
(might) say, if they'll push the envelope too much, raise an issue that
causes confusion. And find ways to put it into context," he said,
noting that a panel discussion after a presentation might be one way to
deal with an potentially explosive presentation.
"We must not be guilty of censorship,"
Detterick added, "but we also must be clear about who we are."
Detterick told conferees that, personally, he's
learned two things. "We must do a better job of anticipating what
speakers at conferences will likely say and be prepared to put their
comments into appropriate context, if necessary. Presbyterians are
thinking people and do need to hear other perspectives.
"People going into interfaith mission work need
to understand that's what they're going to run into," Detterick
said. "Accordingly, our conference planning must not be passive in
setting, and maintaining, who we are doctrinally," he said.
"We will do so."
He said the GAC's chair, Peter Pizor of Las Vegas,
intends to appoint a task force to evaluate conference planning
procedures and to recommend improvements. The task force will begin
meeting within 45 days. Detterick also said the issue will come before
the GAC at its scheduled Feb. 19-24 meeting.
Dettrick's remarks were music to the ears of many
attending the Coalition gathering, entitled "In Christ Alone:
Christo-exclusivity in a .com world."
The Rev. Joe Rightmyer, executive director of the
evangelical group Presbyterians for Renewal described anything less than
Christo-exclusivity as "heresy," and said he believes that
agencies of the denomination have a responsibility to promote only the
soundest of doctrine.
The Coalition's chair, the Rev. Jerry Andrews of
suburban Chicago, heard Detterick promise increasing accountability of
GA agencies, "appropriately," he said, "holding people
and the sponsoring organization accountable."
Detterick insisted the GAC is composed of people of
"great faith" who are "committed to the church and its
doctrines." He said while this matter is painful for all, it is
good for Presbyterians to be talking about theology and about
Presbyterian beliefs. "This is a good study moment for the
church," he said.
