Are We Even in the Same Ballpark?

January 4, 2007 by
Filed under: Religion 

Today, Toby Brown of Texas posted a blog entry that I find very disturbing.

He handles two different situations.

First, the Rev. Janet Edwards of Pittsburgh Presbytery held a marriage ceremony between two lesbians in September of 2005.  She was subsequently charged with performing a same-sex union by members of her presbytery.  The presbytery investigated and filed charges to be tried.  She was prepared for a trial, but the presbytery judicial commission dismissed the charges on the basis of being filed 5 days too late.  The conservative side cried foul and claimed that there was a setup to make sure the charges were late, but others state that the delay was accidental.

Now, Rev. Brown from Texas has decided to join a group of ministers (presumably from all over the country) to file new charges against her.  What those charges will be is unclear, but it seems that they will involve charges that she violated her ordination vows.

Sound like double-jeopardy to you?  Yeah, me too.  I’m sure that Rev. Edwards is ready for the trial, though.

This all flies in the face of the Definitive Guidance passed last summer in response to the Peace, Unity and Purity report from the last General Assembly meeting, in which presbyteries and session were exhorted to “outdo each other in trust”.  Our system is in danger of ceasing to be a church and turning into a bad TV lawyer show if ministers from all over the country are filing charges against other ministers who aren’t in the same presbytery, or even the same synod.  Such charges should be local, filed by people who are familiar with the details of the event and the people involved.

Rev. Brown’s second assertion is that any wedding that includes Christian elements and non-Christian elements should not take place.  His specific reference is again to Rev. Edwards’ gay wedding, where one of the women was Buddhist.  Rev. Edwards did what many ministers of all denominations (including Catholic) do all the time – they marry people of their faith to people of another faith.  Often the ceremonies include elements from both traditions to make each family comfortable – the alternative being two ceremonies (which also happens).
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I am a product of a mixed marriage though not one that Rev. Brown would complain about – my wife is Catholic.  I was married in a Catholic mass (not just a ceremony – a full mass with Eucharist, though I did not partake).  The priest who married us told us about a wedding that he had performed between a Catholic and a Buddhist.  He stated that he was very clear to the participants about the issues that a mixed marriage can create, particularly if children are involved.

What bothers me most is the idea that Presbyterians are so strict that they cannot abide reaching out to people of other faiths.  This is an issue of hospitality.  If I had a Muslim visitor to my home, I would have no trouble if that person felt the need to get up at a certain hour and pray (as long as they were kind enough to try not to wake the rest of us).  Shoot, I can see Muslims in a Presbyterian church facing Mecca.  My own church houses a Jewish congregation on Saturdays, and has done so for decades.

Apparently, this is too much for Rev. Brown.  He expects that in his house, his rules will be followed (note the lowercase h).  And his definition of which houses are his seems to include all PC(USA) churches.

This leads me to wonder if I have unequally yoked myself with Presbyterians such as Rev. Brown.  (Personally, I interpret that passage to be more about morals than about religious practices, but Rev. Brown specifically mentions it in his blog post comments.)  I believe that it is a sin NOT to respect and honor the religious practices of others.  We might not choose them for ourselves or recommend them to others, but we should respect the choice of the person involved.  And when we put two people together in marriage, I would much rather recognize two religious traditions in one ceremony than drive one or the other person away from their faith.

So that leaves the question – did I make a mistake joining a denomination that has a significant number of leaders who hold such a different belief about people of other religions?  Did I make a mistake joining a denomination that has a signficant number of leaders who view respecting other religions as sin?

Let me know what you think.  I really am wondering whether my new Presbyterian membership is a mistake.

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Comments

4 Comments on Are We Even in the Same Ballpark?

  1. jodie on Thu, 4th Jan 2007 7:24 pm

    2. Hi Mark,

    No I do not think you made a mistake. The PCUSA is like a huge library. It lets lots of people in the door across the entire spectrum between fundamentalist and new age. There is a congregation for you no matter where you are in your walk with God. The militant liberals and the militant conservatives are loud minorities. They each love to torment each other and love to hate that the other even exists. Personally I think they deserve each other. The truth is the administrative offices of the PCUSA got out of touch with their faith and the majority of the constituency of the denomination first, years ago, and nothing the conservatives throw at them now is really undeserved. However most of the members, elders, and pastors of the denomination think both are weird and stay out of the fray. They trust that Jesus is ultimately in charge of the Church and will make things right in his own way and on his own time.

    My own personal involvement is one of intellectual curiosity. There is always something to be learned from studying the boundary conditions of a system and its behavior near those boundaries. But it is not where I get my spiritual sustenance.

    Church politics is pure poison for the Christian soul however,and it can be fatal. How much of it you can take before getting sick varies from person to person. It is dangerous in that you can overdose long before you start feeling the effects. If you find yourself feeling ill you definitely want to pay attention. My recommendation if that is the case is to lay off of it for a while. Seriously.

    Jodie

  2. Paul on Fri, 5th Jan 2007 11:52 am

    3. Mark,
    I responded in a response to our personal email, but now that I’ve discovered the response part of the blog, I thought I would add this following thought(s).

    One of the TOUGHEST things I’ve found is tolerating the intolerant! I ABSOLUTELY agree that we, as Christians and Presbyterians, need to not only tolerate, but honor and respect others, their thoughts, their faith, their practices and their religions.

    Of course, when it gets to the SPECIFICS of that tolerance, honor and respect, it gets more difficult. Tolerating, honoring and respecting those of Eastern religions is relatively (but not always)easy, since they are relatively tolerant, honoring and respecting. Tolerating, honoring and respecting folk who are bigoted, or who claim to be ‘like’ me when they SEEM so very unlike me (like Rush Limbaugh, for instance) or tolerating, honoring and respecting folk who are involved in what I personally consider ‘sin’ (whether it is intolerance like Limbaugh, fanaticism like bin Laden, corruption like Abramioff, sexual sin like Paris Hilton, greed like any of the oil companies, or WHATEVER) is much more difficult. That is all the more reason I NEED to understand the grace of God through Jesus Christ, FOR ME, and therefore for ALL these others (including all I’ve named above). Therefore I may not pre-judge (prejudice) them, since that is up to God.

    Being in the same CHURCH as some of these may be tough, and is yet a FURTHER challenge to MY FAITH to being accepting. Hence I come back to the ONLY test in matters of faith that I have found reliable, and that is the one asked in the questions for Affirmation of Faith: “Who is your Savior and Lord?” You personally have answered that well in your own Statement of Faith, IMHO!!! lol…

    Peace,
    Paul

  3. Gannet on Fri, 5th Jan 2007 7:30 pm

    4. OK, I finally figured out where your blog is. (When you comment on mine, the link from your name doesn’t work.)

    Anyway…interesting set of didcussions. We are doing a 5-part series on the spiritual practice of community in a pluralistic world (How do we honor both ourselves with our own beliefs and committments and others whose beliefs and committments differ radically from ours?)starting this Sunday, starting with an intro (moi) and then Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim speakers.

    I think that if we are called to belong to a church and denomination, then we are also called to find ways of being with those whose views differ from our own, because they will surely be there. I sometimes feel as you do…but our God is a god of abundance and generosity.

  4. John Stuart on Wed, 10th Jan 2007 11:22 pm

    5. “Shoot, I can see Muslims in a Presbyterian church facing Mecca. My own church houses a Jewish congregation on Saturdays, and has done so for decades.”

    Way back in 1990 in my first parish in Scotland, a group of Muslims came to my manse door. They were walking throughout Scotland as part of a pilgrimage. They asked to stay over at the church and on Sunday morning whilst our congregation held its normal service, they had a prayer time (mats and all) in our Session room. Afterwards, they shared a beautiful halal meal with my wife and I.

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