A New Moderator Is Elected

The PC(USA) has a new Moderator, Cindy Bolbach. See her web site for more information here. You can see the Presbyterians for Renewal evaluation of her here.

The voting process was atrocious. Many of our electronic voting devices were malfunctioning. This was an issue in San Jose, and you'd think the GA folks would get it right after two years, right?

At one point after the second ballot, a motion was made to "vote someone off the island." That is, to throw out the lowest vote getter in each round. The motion was properly seconded, and then voted on. With all 712 delegates there, it needed 475 to pass. 391 voted for the motion, so it failed. Then one brave commissioner essentially asked if all the votes were being counted. Meaning, a 2/3 majority needed to pass the motion, but 2/3 of what number? If it was the total of votes cast, the 391 would surely have been at least 2/3. So we proceeded for some time with some "experiments" on how many people were actually voting electronically. The results for each "test" did not reassure us that the system properly functioned. However, on the fourth ballot, the election was closed, as one candidate had achieved over 50% of the vote. As a sidebar, I cannot imagine how long this would have taken by hand, even with Scantron cards or some such device.

My impressions. Of the six candidates, I had Bolbach personally listed as #5. However, there were some strengths in her.

She was the only elder, and she kept her answers short. (Any preachers out there paying attention??) She had also been a part of a company that transformed from communicating by paper to a company that went completely electronic, and she led the way, so she has some leadership skills. Her answers were self-effacing, and showed great self-awareness. For example, one question was, "What would be the result if you were NOT elected moderator?" Her answer: "Complete and utter chaos." The assembly roared with laughter.

However, she was not an inspiring speaker, and her candidating speech was pretty plain. Of more concern to me was her support of gay marriage. She didn't come right out and say it, but she did answer a question about the issue in a straightforward way, indicating that with five states and the District of Columbia now legalizing same-sex marriage, the church needs to "do something" about this. The More Light Presbyterians (who favor gay ordination and marriage) and one of their supporters John Shuck, rated Bolbach as the second most gay-friendly candidate for moderator.

This concerns me only a little. The moderator is a figurehead, and while has some bully pulpit opportunities, can do nothing by herself concerning the situation other than persuade others.

Of the other candidates, Julia Leeth, the sixth candidate from Santa Barbara Presbytery, and the dark horse conservative, did surprisingly well. She gave good answers, and garnered the second most votes, and was actually gaining some momentum when Bolbach broke the 50% barrier on the 4th ballot.

Rev. Dr. Jin S. Kim was my second favorite. He is a Korean pastor of Church of All Nations in Minneapolis. He is wicked smart and really funny, in a dry way. But his answers were very dark. He essentially followed Phyllis Tickle in spanking the PC(USA) for how we do things, and that we need to get radical. I liked him immediately, but he was not a good figurehead for the next two years. He said his critiques of the church were a "lover's quarrel." To the question, "What would be the result if you were NOT elected moderator?" His answer: "Nothing. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church." I was disappointed he didn't get more votes.


The only other candidate who stood out to me was Rev. Maggie Palmer Lauterer. She was rated as the most gay-friendly candidate, and clearly (to me) did the best of all the candidates in answering questions. She was winsome, charming, told stories, and really presented herself well. She, too, was for gay marriage, but in the end, she was unable to articulate this clearly, and I think lost some of the YAD votes.

You can see the other candidates here.

Overall, an interesting process. As I pray daily for the President of the United States, whether I voted for him or not, I will pray for the Moderator.

It will be a tough week for her. And Bruce Reyes-Chow will be a tough act to follow. He has been an excellent moderator. I do not agree with him on much theologically, but he "gets" modern culture and the ways to communicate. I think Bruce, the techie moderator, has done a very fine job.

It has been increasingly aggravating to me to see how poorly conservatives package our message. The evangelical gospel is really good news. The progressive gospel is far more humanistic and I think ultimately narcissistic. And yet, time after time, our message comes across badly.

For the Five Tuesdays in June, the Presbyterian Outlook did a series of Webinars on hot button issues for this General Assembly. I saw four of them. And in each case, the "progressive" side had a more focused presentation, and a presentation that was well put together. The evangelical presentations looked like the Powerpoints were made by second graders. I cannot begin to tell you how insulting that is for folks watching a Webinar! (A webinar is a live seminar on the web, hence, web-inar. Get it?)

Look, if this was being presented to the folks back home in rural North Carolina, perhaps white backgrounds and multiple fonts and cheesy clip-art would go over just great. "Look, ma, the preacher has a Powerpoint thingy!" But for techie folks who would actually login to a Webinar, they expect not just good content,  but also Powerpoints and graphics that look like someone actually put some thought into it.

And the response is always the same. "The Bible says....." This is terrific, and I whole-heartedly agree with their points. But there are no stories of how this truth of the gospel actually has changed people's lives. There is no aspirational content to the pitch, just scare-'em's about "if we don't vote this way, things will really get bad."

So both the message and the delivery of the message is actually out of sync with an audience who is relatively open to hearing the arguments. Folks, we simply must do better.

Side note last: I believe the GA tech team is using MediaShout. And they have really had problems. Delays of longer than a few seconds between slides being used for a litany are common. More egregious to me are the typo's. I have counted over a dozen so far. Tonight during the commissioning was one like, "you are commissioned too pray....." Huh? I intend to talk with the tech team tomorrow about this. (Thanks for the lessons, Rich!) It is really inexcusable at a national conference with two years to prepare, that simple Powerpoint slides have typo's in them. It reflects poorly on us, I am afraid.


I did see Heather and Tudor today, along with Eric Hoy, and Grace and Dakota Santana-Grace, and Sandy Tice, and Andy Wilson, pastor of La Crescenta Presbyterian Church where Jeff DeSurra is serving this summer.

Well, it is 12:30 a.m. Minnesota time, and I best get to bed. Tomorrow is a bit more relaxed, with morning worship and communion at 10:00 a.m., then lunch, then business until 4:30 p.m., then a picnic and fireworks at Nicollet Island. Sounds fun! [SDG-JS]