| An Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church from one of your baptized kids |
| Written by Michael J. Adee |
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Grace and peace to all of you. I was baptized as an infant at First Presbyterian Church, Billings, Montana. I was taught faith, Scripture, the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and confirmed at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Sulphur, Louisiana.
As a kid and teenager, I loved going to church and being part of a church family. I sang in our church choir with my Dad, loved our youth group of four and the all-church potluck dinners. I had Jesus' bumper stickers on my 1963 VW bug when I was in high school. I probably annoyed some of my friends in high school and college with my Christian zeal. When I affirmed being gay in my late twenties, the Church was no longer a safe or loving place for me, so I left the Church. I give thanks to God for being loved back to faith by Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. I was ordained and installed as an Elder there. I've served as an Elder at Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati and First Presbyterian Church, Santa Fe, New Mexico. I began serving as a volunteer with More Light Presbyterians in 1991 and on staff since 1999. I would not be in the Presbyterian Church, or in any church, if not for Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church and their unconditional welcome and invitation to serve God with them. I believe the 219th General Assembly's Ordination Amendment 10-A offers this kind of unconditional welcome and invitation to faith, grace, salvation, church membership and ministry to all of God's children, not just some. I've put a lot of my heart, thought, reflection on Scripture, prayer and my life experience into why I wholeheartedly support 10-A and believe it is a gift from God for our Church right now. Our Church will more lovingly and accurately reflect God's heart with the approval of 10-A. My Top Ten Reasons to Support Amendment 10-A 1. This amendment returns our Church to the historic Presbyterian way of focusing upon faith and character as qualifications for ministry, not marital status or sexual orientation. 2. This amendment honors God's call to ministry and the recognition of gifts for ministry given by God to people regardless of gender, race, marital status, sexual orientation or other human differences. 3. This amendment allows for local congregations to call ministers, elders and deacons who can best meet the needs within their own communities. 4. This amendment affirms the moral equality of all persons and ends discrimination based upon marital status or sexual orientation. 5. This amendment affirms God's diverse creation that we can see in Scripture and in our life together in community. 6. This amendment affirms the gift of love by God to persons not limited by gender or race; and it provides support for the beautifully diverse and sacred reality of love and faithfulness experienced by couples and families in our world today. 7. This amendment allows our Church the chance to shift from 37 years of debate, legislation and judicial cases about sexual orientation and to place our energies on mission, service and a hurting world that needs our care and ministry. 8. This amendment is a helpful solution to the 14 years of departure from the historic Presbyterian standards for ordination. It's time to be honest, G-6.0106b has failed our Church. This "fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness" requirement has brought nothing but hurt, suspicion, division and driven people away from our Church. 9. This amendment affirms that God's creation, God's love, God's grace and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are available for all persons, not just some. 10. This amendment affirms Jesus' commandment for us to love God, neighbor and self; and to recognize as Jesus' taught that all persons are neighbors in God's world, no exceptions. Imagine, dream, pray and work with me for a new way of being Church and serving in our world with the passage of 10-A. with hope and grace, Michael Michael J. Adee, M.Div., Ph.D., is the Executive Director & Field Organizer of More Light Presbyterians, 369 Montezuma Avenue # 447, Santa Fe, New Mexico, michael@aol.com, www.mlp.org; http://www.amendment10a.org/ |
Comments
We in the church are not invited to decide which failures of obedience to Christ are worse than others. We are all sinners.
As I see it, some of us in the body of Christ have made it clear they are judging others by calling their lives sinful when they are simply different from the majority in their choice of partners in life and love. I believe they could understand better if they made any attempt at all to distingush fact from fiction in regard to homosexuality.
In this age of communication, we have only ourselves to blame if we do not seek truth in all matters of judgment.
One thing I do know. The Church is not charged to associate only with pure and holy citizens. We already know there is no such person on Earth.
I would like to comment on Michael Adee's "Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church" posted on the Outlook's website that reveals a huge misunderstandin g of G-6.0106b.
In Response to Michael Adee's Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church
I want to respond to Michael Adee's "Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church" posted on the website of the Outlook on April 27 in which he gives ten reasons to support Amendment 10-A. I find it to reveal huge misunderstandin gs of G-6.0106b.
1. G-6.0106 currently focuses on faith and character as qualifications for ministry. It speaks of officers being "persons of strong faith, dedicated discipleship, and love of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord" and that "Their manner of life should be a demonstration of the Christian gospel in the church and in the world" (G-6.0106a). G-6.0106b says nothing about "sexual orientation," only of sexual behavior. How can we be dedicated disciples of Jesus if we do not obey his clear teaching?
2. In regard to #2, again G-6.0106b does not concern sexual orientation but rather sexual conduct.
3. In regard to #3, the officer nominating committee, session and congregation are currently expected to be choosing the leaders who can best meet the needs of their community.
4. It is an obvious error to assert that G-6.0106b discriminates on the basis of marital status or sexual orientation. This statement concerns the sexual intimacy of all persons, not sexual orientation, and does not discriminate as Adee asserts.
5. G-6.0106b speaks of church leaders "lead(ing) a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church," and not of just being "guided by" the Scriptures as Amend. 10-A states. "Guided by" is a non-specific and loosely used word.
6. The current wording of G-6.0106b already "affirms the gift of love by God to persons" as not being limited by "gender or race."
There is not a single passage from Genesis through Revelation that clearly and definitely supports sexual intimacy by heterosexual or homosexual persons outside the covenant of a marriage of a man and a woman.
7. It is unlikely and naive to think that passage of Amend. 10-A will end the debate in the church about sexual behavior and enable the church to focus on mission and service in a hurting world.
8. It is flat-out inaccurate to state that Amend. 10-A will be a helpful solution to 14 years of departure from historic Presbyterian standards for ordination, since the current G-6.0106b accurately summarizes what the Scriptures clearly and consistently teach about the subject of sexual behavior. The Presbyterian Church USA has lost half of its membership (from 4.2 to 2.1 million members) from 1965. Acquisence to the seductive secular culture has played some role in this decline, perhaps a major role.
9. The Scriptures, which the current G-6.0106b affirms, are "to be obeyed" and not just be a "guide" as Amend. 10-A declares. The current G-6.0106b does not say or imply that God's grace and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are available only to "some people."
10. There should be no doubt that Jesus taught "all persons are neighbors in God's world, no exceptions." It is an outright distortion of the current G-6.0106b to suggest it implies any limitation of whom we are to love.
Michael Adee's "Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church" is unfortunately a good illustration of the misunderstandin g and distortion of the current "fidelity-in-marriage and chastity-in-singleness" statement in our Book of Order. Why is it that Presbyterian leaders do not grasp that an essential tenet of our Reformed faith is that the Scriptures, illumined by the Holy Spirit, indeed are the trustworthy and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the church universal and God's Word (to us). (Second ordination/ installation vow)? All the essential tenets of our Reformed faith rest on the foundation of this essential tenet. With such misunderstandin g, no wonder Amend. 10-A is being approved by many Presbyterians!
I find it remarkable that the executive director of More Light Presbyterians does not grasp some of the essentials of the great Reformation of the 16th century and has lost sight of what we profess in the second ordination/ installation vow. It is an essential tenet of the great Reformation that God's truth is known with assurance only through the Scriptures, illumined by the Holy Spirit, to be "the unique and authoritative witness" to Jesus Christ -- not our reason, or experience, or feelings or the contemporary findings of science.
With Amendment 10-A we are dealing not only with the important matter of sexual conduct, but with the deeper and greater issue of the source of our knowledge of God's truth.
Richard S. McConnell, HR Clarence, NY
Gay ordiantion, or the process to achieve of, in the PCUSA was never about Scripture, if it was the movement would have never gotten off first base. It always was about church government and process. It was about the creation of a "space" to allow for gay ordination, a means in the church to achieve that end for those who desire it. With that stated, one needed to change how the church speaks about marriage, family, culture to enable such. The church will have to live with the consequenses of their choices.
What the traditionalist/conservative minority in the church, and yes they are such, get over it, is now will they have their "space" as well. Space not to ordain gay and lesbians, space to deal with the matters of property and process that allows their practices to continue. If so maybe the body will know peace. If not, then the new order is indeed the tyrany of the majority without redress or due process. And there will be no peace.
The change is not as much about sexual orientation but about the authority of Scripture and PC(USA) Confessions in evaluating potential officers. The current Book of Order clarifies the confusion of our culture regarding sexual activity by affirming the historic standards the Church has used from Scripture - under the revised section G-6.0106b, officers will no longer be expected to live in obedience to Scripture and in conformance with behavioral standards from our Confessions. Agee states the proposed change "ends discrimination based upon marital status or sexual orientation." The current Book of Order does not provide for discrimination, but states the historic requirements for holy living. There is not anything in the New Testament about the “rights” of followers of Jesus? Our culture emphasizes individual “rights,” in contrast, I do not know of any Scripture text that sets forth the “rights” of disciples. So how can anyone say he/she deserves to be ordained? The New Testament focuses on grace – the unearned, unmerited gifts of God. How can sexual activity the Scripture calls sin be a gift for ordained ministry? The current Book of Order does focus on faith and character of officers - faith in God to lead us to living in ways that glorify God and character to follow Jesus's call to specific conformance to standards spelled out in the 10 Commandments.
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