Delivering on the Promise

Big doings at the PC(USA) General Assembly in Birmingham, AL recently. The first bit of good news was that a businessman from Denver pledged $150 million to the church. This is a whopping chunk of change. This was hyped all week. Until today.

According to the Denver Post, the man's house is being foreclosed, his assets frozen, a $100,000 lawsuit judgment against him is unpaid. Didn't anyone from the PC(USA) headquarters check the guy out before announcing this? For the PC(USA) response, see here.

Many years ago, a woman came by my church. We were broke, and facing a $1 million seismic retrofit. She wore nice clothes, and drove a nice car. She talked with our Hispanic pastor, and was greatly enamored with him. She promised to give us the million dollars, and more. She and the Hispanic pastor cooked up plans to turn the sanctuary into a TV studio. Dreams were dreamed. Visions were envisioned. Hope was restored.

Silly me, I met with her to try to discern the reality of her offer. I asked her, "What's in it for you? No one just gives away a million dollars." She had no answer.

At the time, we were drawing up plans and requesting permits from the city planning department to start the retrofit. At one point, we asked her to pay the $10,000 fee for the plans. She could not. My initial hunch that she was a scam artist was later confirmed, but this was the first tangible sign. I mean, promising a million dollars, you ought to be able to pay a measly only $10,000. So before we actually entered into any sort of contract, we had her checked out, and my suspicions were confirmed.

She, like the man in Denver, promised more than they could actually deliver, or so it appears right now. I hope this does not wind up being the the case, but it won't be the first time church people are duped in the financial realm. I hope the man who promised the gift, by all accounts a man of integrity, can actually come up with the money.

This seems, to little old me, the perfect metaphor for the recently adopted PUP report at GA. The Peace, Unity and Purity report is the culmination of three years of meetings, discussions, papers, etc. There are five recommendations, the first four are rather benign. The fifth is the problem.

The always readable and informative Mark D. Roberts has an explanation here. Key grafs:

Today's General Assembly cast two historic votes. The combination of these votes looks almost schizophrenic to anyone not familiar with the peculiar dysfunctionality of the PCUSA. On the one hand, the General Assembly voted by a strong majority (405-92) to leave the so-called "fidelity and chastity" section of our constitution intact. In plain language, the Book of Order of the PCUSA states that all ordained officers in the church must practice "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness" (G-6.0106b). This is a standard that, until today, every leadership body in the church was expected to apply without exception to every leader and potential leader. Period. This is what the General Assembly reaffirmed with a resoundingly favorable vote.

Then there's the other vote. The same General Assembly voted by a 298-221 margin to accept a portion of the Peace, Unity, and Purity Report (PUP Report) that allows governing bodies certain leeway in how they apply the standards of the Constitution. To put it in a nutshell, the rules state clearly that persons who engage in sex outside of marriage may not be ordained. But, according to today's action of the General Assembly, leadership bodies are now free to decide whether they must follow the rules or not. So, on the same day we Presbyterians reaffirmed the rules with a strong positive vote, and then voted to allow people not to follow the rules. See what I mean? It's almost schizophrenic.

Essentially, recommendation five allows local governing bodies to decide ordination standards. While these standards are set forth in our constitution, a local governing body can allow someone to be ordained even if they do not meet the standards. This could, some say "will", open a Pandora's Box of trouble in the church. Far from bringing peace, it will bring chaos.

In wanting to satisfy everyone, we will satisfy no one. In wanting to be relevant, we have become staggeringly irrelevant. Instead of standing for the truth, we have fallen for a lie. Or so it seems. Time will tell, I suppose. I take small comfort in that we have not completely abandoned biblical morality and common sense, like or Episcopalian brethren.