Presbyterian church and gay marriage

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Meanwhile, U.S. Protestantism is being reconfigured as venerable denominations and their once-powerful agencies, whether liberal or  conservative in theology, fade while evangelicals’ independent local churches gain in influence. Men and women of deep faith and honest intelligence can and do differ on how they understand Scripture and hear the vibrant voice of the Holy Spirit on this subject.

Candidates for ordination and/or installation must be considered as individuals on a case-by-case basis; it is not permissible to establish a policy that excludes a category of persons in the abstract.

Marriage

In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Book of Order, instructions for marriage are found particularly in the “Directory for Worship.” Responsibility for decisions about whether and where to have a marriage service is granted to teaching elders and commissioned ruling elders, and to sessions.  Pastors are responsible for deciding whether they will or will not officiate at a marriage service.

Mainline denominations are weakened by losses of their conservatives, but this also tends to narrow the outlook of the broader evangelical movement. The coming clash would pit the liberals’ anti-discrimination principles against the evangelical minority's freedom of conscience claims. 

Last year’s General Assembly handily passed two significant sexuality changes to the constitution’s Book of Order that also need endorsement by 84 of the 167 regional bodies known as “presbyteries.” Amendment 24-A adds “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the categories of members guaranteed “full participation and representation” in church “governance,” alongside race, sex, age, disability, geography and “theological conviction.”

This law has already been ratified due to support from 91% of the presbyteries that have voted, according to the tabulation by the Covenant Network, which supports “diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.” 

Ratification of the more controversial Amendment 24-C also looks inevitable.

In the Reformed tradition, marriage is also a covenant in which God has an active part, and which the community of faith publicly witnesses and acknowledges.

“If they meet the requirements of the civil jurisdiction in which they intend to marry, a couple may request that a service of Christian marriage be conducted by a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), who is authorized, though not required, to act as an agent of the civil jurisdiction in recording the marriage contract.

The teaching elder witnesses the couple’s promises and pronounces God’s blessing upon their union. Our social witness stance is affirmed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

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Decades-Old Disputes Over LGBTQ Clergy: What Next For US ‘mainline’ Presbyterians?

(ANALYSIS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) is nearing the latest turning point in its half-century struggle over same-sex clergy and marriage that could give liberals powerful new leverage against traditionalists — if they choose to exercise it.

Permission is granted, but practices are not to be required.
The PC(USA) is continuing to live out the experience of members of the General Assembly’s Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church, which they shared in their report to the 217th General Assembly (2006):

[We have found that]…perspectives on questions of sexuality, ordination, and same-gender covenantal relationship are rich and complex, and our fellow task force members who hold these views are sincere, faithful, and guided by Scripture….  (lines 602-604)

1Minutes of the 219th General Assembly (2010), Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), p.

It requires presbyteries and congregations to examine the “suitability” of all candidates by determining their “ability and commitment to fulfill all requirements” that include the new 24-A rules. Tooley observes that increasingly “post-denominational” Protestants are being shaped by online sources, “often not Christian, and more attuned to contemporary political trends, for better or for worse.”

“Much of today’s hyper-polarization results from the decline of major Protestant institutions, which provided trans-generational wisdom that strove to transcend passing political moments,” Tooley contends.

The most recent Religion Census ranks such non-denominational congregations as America’s largest Protestant grouping and second only to Catholics, with 21,095,641 members in 44,319 congregations. 

Political implications of what’s been happening are analyzed this month by President Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which has long rallied the now-shrunken evangelical sector within mainline churches.

The sacrificial love that unites the couple sustains them as faithful and responsible members of the church and the wider community.

“In civil law, marriage is a contract that recognizes the rights and obligations of the married couple in society. Suggested examination questions: How would you befriend clergy colleagues “who are LGBTQIA+” or “what has the experience of transgender Christians taught you”?

His writings in 16th-century Geneva crystallized much of the Reformed thinking that came before him, including an emphasis on the grace of God in Jesus Christ and church government by representative assemblies called presbyteries.

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Presbyterians believe that Jesus Christ made it clear in his teachings we have an ethical responsibility to engage in issues of social justice.

The service will be similar to the marriage service except that the statements made shall reflect the fact that the couple is already married to one another according to the laws of the civil jurisdiction.”

“Nothing herein shall compel a teaching elder to perform nor compel a session to authorize the use of church property for a marriage service that the teaching elder or the session believes is contrary to the teaching elder’s or the session’s discernment of the Holy Spirit and their understanding of the Word of God.” (W-4.9000)

The effects of the current language:

  • In keeping with our historic principles of church order and freedom of conscience, pastors and sessions will continue to be empowered to make decisions about their own participation and the use of a church’s property.
  • Pastors are permitted but not required to officiate at any wedding, including same-sex weddings, based either on conscience or the pastor’s discernment of the couple’s readiness to take on the responsibilities of marriage.
  • Sessions are permitted but not required to authorize use of the church’s property for a wedding, including same-sex weddings, for reasons of conscience or other reasons.

Summary

By its actions the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has decided that strongly differing convictions about sexuality and faithful sexual relationship are granted equal standing within this denomination, honoring the historic principles of freedom of conscience in the interpretation of Scripture, and mutual forbearance.

776.

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“Without their influence, many American Christians are prone to conflate their online-developed political preferences, often tied to hyperbolic perspectives, with Christianity.

presbyterian church and gay marriage

American Protestantism, absent strong institutions, is increasingly unmoored and intemperate.”

 

Updates

At the 223rd General Assembly in St. Louis in June 2018, the Presbyterian Church voted unanimously to pass three Overtures:

  • Overture 11-04, On Clarifying the Position of the PC(USA) Regarding Appropriate Boundaries of Religious Liberty: Acknowledges the misuse of the term “religious freedom” in denying basic human rights, and reaffirms that faith and religious liberty cannot be used to discriminate against anyone simply because of who they are.

    A couple requesting a service of Christian marriage shall receive instruction from the teaching elder, who may agree to the couple’s request only if, in the judgment of the teaching elder, the couple demonstrate sufficient understanding of the nature of the marriage covenant and commitment to living their lives together according to its values. Decisions made by the denomination have sought to find ways to make space for members of the PC(USA) together to live out those differing views with integrity.

    In 2010, the Committee on Church Orders and Ministry of the 219th General Assembly (2010) expressed for the church that “The PC(USA) has no consensus in the interpretation of Scripture on issues of same-sex practice” and made reference to “our long-standing Presbyterian commitment to freedom of conscience and mutual forbearance.”

    Discussions about sexuality and faithful sexual relationships in the PC(USA) have coalesced around three specific areas: rights in civil society, ordination to the ordered ministries of the church, and marriage.

    Rights in Civil Society

    As far back as 1978, the Presbyterian Church has called for civil rights for all people, regardless of sexual orientation.

    The Directory’s section on marriage is now as follows:

    “Marriage is a gift God has given to all humankind for the well-being of the entire human family. But the Network insists 24-C does not “compel any particular answer” or “bind” anyone’s conscience. 

    That explanation does not convince the Fellowship Community, an organization of Presbyterian evangelicals who believe Christians should be “faithful within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman as established by God at the creation” or else embrace “a celibate life as established by Jesus in the new covenant.” After many victories, this wing of the denomination lost in presbytery balloting that officially approved same-sex clergy and lay office-holders in 2011, and gay and lesbian marriages in 2015. 

    A February posting by Fellowship pastor Jerry Deck of Zionsville, Indiana, asserted, “I feel I am being lied to by the church” through “a truly disingenuous attempt to allow us to pass something that will later be used as a weapon and not as a welcome.” Whether that accusation proves true depends on how liberals in the presbyteries and local congregations exercise the new control over clergy, as well as constitutional interpretations by the Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC), the church’s supreme court. 

    When the amendments were first proposed last year, the Fellowship Community’s board warned that they would be so “devastating” for tradition-minded Presbyterians that “perhaps a thousand churches and thousands of PC (USA) pastors and [lay] elders” would be “driven out of the denomination.” In the next couple years, Presbyterians will learn whether that dire scenario is overblown. 

    Mainline Presbyterians have suffered three prior walkouts.

    Apart from the formal schisms, other dissatisfied congregations, pastors, and parishioners have drifted away one by one.

    The Presbyterians’ plight plays into the big Protestant picture.