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Struggle over gay rights threatens to split PresbyteriansRecent Santa Rosa verdict favoring same-sex marriages portends clash many fear will cause permanent break in church |
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| By GUY KOVNER THE PRESS DEMOCRAT , Santa Rosa March 13 2006 |
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Torn by differences over gay ordination and marriage, the Presbyterian Church (USA) celebrates its 300th anniversary this year while bracing for a major exodus or even a schism, a formal split within the 2.4 million-member denomination. A church jury's exoneration of maverick minister Jane Adams Spahr on March 3 in Santa Rosa, rejecting charges that she broke church law by performing marriage ceremonies for two lesbian couples, is a harbinger of a thunderous theological clash at the Presbyterian national assembly in June at Birmingham, Ala., church members and officials say. "The pastors I know are all nervous about that," said Raymond Alden, an elder at Church of the Roses, where Spahr's trial was held. Proud of their Reform theology, history of accommodating differences and democratic structure, Presbyterians admit the battle over homosexuality may tear them apart. "The church may need to go through a schism to get over it," said James Wellman Jr., assistant professor of American religion at the University of Washington and a Presbyterian minister. The mainstream Protestant congregation's two extreme factions - gay rights advocates demanding full inclusion of sexual minorities, and conservatives calling for a return to scriptural authority - are "two groups that will not see eye-to-eye," Wellman said. Others are hopeful Presbyterianism can continue as a "diverse family of faith," tolerating differences over such issues as war and capital punishment, as well as homosexuality, said Susan Fleenor, pastor at Knox Presbyterian Church in Santa Rosa. "Our inclination is that we can live together," she said. "We're trying to represent the fullness of humanity even when we disagree." "We are not theologically lock-step," said Michael Adee, a gay elder at a Santa Fe, N.M., church. "We do not march in line to the same drum." The battle over gay rights catches the church at a vulnerable time. Membership has declined for four decades, dropping 43 percent from 4.2 million in 1960, losing an average of 41,000 people a year. Presbyterian Church membership in Sonoma County fell 19 percent, from 2,547 in 1994 to 2,054 in 2004. Officials at Presbyterian church headquarters in Louisville, Ky., said a contentious General Assembly session this summer could prompt an expansion of the exodus to 66,000 next year and 85,000 in 2008. Predominantly a denomination of older, educated, upper middle-class whites, the Presbyterian population is falling for a number of reasons, including failure to match the musical style and personal magnetism of leaders in other denominations, especially the evangelicals. Like other mainline Protestant churches, Presbyterianism is increasingly "irrelevant" to young people, church officials say. The impending exodus - and possible schism - could be triggered by Presbyterian conservatives fed up with a perceived departure from fundamental values and from treating the Bible as "the word of God," observers say. Two pastors at Santa Rosa's First Presbyterian Church joined in the outcry over the acquittal of Spahr, a 63-year-old lesbian activist from San Rafael who asserted that her conscience justified conducting same-sex weddings. In a letter to their congregation, Pastors Dale Flowers and Mike Griffin called Spahr's action "an egregious violation of our church's constitution." "It isn't," disputed Alden, who headed the seven-member church commission that heard Spahr's case. "It's a disagreement. If pressed to the extreme, (it) could lead to a schism." Flowers declined to comment. Adee, a Presbyterian gay rights advocate, hailed the Spahr verdict as "inspiring," saying it "speaks to the durability of polity and church law." "We've allowed our church to be beaten up by these anti-gay extremists and fundamentalists," said Adee, national field organizer for More Light Presbyterians, an advocacy group for gays in the church. On one thing both sides agree: The Spahr verdict is a preview of what will come if the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church's national lawmaking body, approves a major report during its 217th session June 15 to 22. Five years in the making, the 56-page report by the 20-member Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity in the Church establishes a "local option," allowing regional presbyteries to waive standards for clerical ordination if they are deemed non-essential. Among the standards that could be waived is a section of the constitution, ratified in 1997, that requires church leaders to "live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness." Parker Williamson, a Lay Committee leader, fumed over the proposal, saying it would allow anyone to flout church law, including the ban on ordaining homosexuals. "A constitution that's not binding is just a piece of paper," he said. By its own admission, the report does not resolve the homosexual ordination issue but rather proposes "ways for the church to live faithfully" while continuing a debate that started 30 years ago and "may continue for many years," the report said. The Rev. Douglas Huneke, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon and a member of the Spahr trial commission, called the report "a step forward. This is a grand opportunity for us." Adee said the report was a compromise that affirms homosexuals but "falls short of a loving, open and welcoming church." Williamson, whose committee runs on donations from 21,000 people, said the report "poured gas on the flames of a controversy." The assembly also will consider repeal of the so-called "fidelity and chastity" law, an action proposed by 21 of the nation's 173 presbyteries, including the Presbytery of the Redwoods, which includes 55 congregations from Marin County to the Oregon border. Two previous efforts to repeal the law failed by a vote among presbyteries of more than 2-to-1. A Presbyterian Church survey in 2001 found 62 percent of members oppose ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians, 25 percent favor it and 13 percent are uncertain. "My hunch is it's going to be a red hot General Assembly," Huneke said. Wellman, who is studying the success of fast-growing evangelical churches in the Pacific Northwest, said they offer a "theologically potent" message that homosexuality is a sin. "It's an absolute standard for what is right and wrong," he said. |
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| Mainline Protestant churches, including
Presbyterians, are "standing up for gays," Wellman said, as their
membership generally holds steady or ebbs. There are plenty of liberals in
the region, but they are increasingly disinclined to attend church. "They
go skiing on Sunday and get the New York Times," he said. Huneke, whose Tiburon congregation has 500 members, acknowledged an unequivocal prohibition on homosexuals makes a church appealing to some people. But such commandments are not the Presbyterian Church's style, he said. "I don't give people answers," he said. "I help them find the answers residing inside their souls." |
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Presbyterian Church at a glance The Presbyterian Church (USA) is a predominantly white, middle-aged,
well-educated, affluent mainstream Protestant denomination of 2.4 million
members in which Republicans outnumber Democrats and theological
conservatives outnumber liberals, both by 2-1 margins.
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