{"id":48,"date":"2008-06-30T16:25:41","date_gmt":"2008-06-30T21:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marktime.org\/?p=48"},"modified":"2009-02-17T10:37:35","modified_gmt":"2009-02-17T15:37:35","slug":"general-assembly-reactions-its-too-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/?p=48","title":{"rendered":"General Assembly Reactions – it’s too early"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear blog readers,<\/p>\n

This past weekend, and even into this week, many bloggers will be writing about what happened at General Assembly.\u00a0 A significant number will write or have written about how upset they are or how joyful they are about what happened.<\/p>\n

I want to make one recommendation – wait.\u00a0 Don’t take these first emotional reactions too seriously.\u00a0 As they say on Battlestar Galactica, “this has all happened before; it will happen again.”\u00a0 The dust has not even begun to settle.<\/p>\n

Let me use a fellow blogger as an example.\u00a0 (Toby – if you object let me know and I’ll delete this from this post.)<\/p>\n

On Friday evening, an upset blogger wrote that he would suspend blogging<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, he recanted and started blogging again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many others are posting the blog equivalent of tearing hair and rending garments.\u00a0 Let’s be real – many people have been hurt by this sea change in the denomination.\u00a0 Others will be hurt in the future by either the events now set in motion or the backlash against them.
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\nStill others are failing to be good winners, and are insulting their conservative opposition either before or after the emotional reaction of the folks on the losing side.\u00a0 Come on, folks.\u00a0 We don’t do this.<\/p>\n

A few important reminders:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Most of the changes are simply a reminder of what our polity has traditionally been, and how it has worked.\u00a0 For too many years we took the ordination decisions out of the hands of the presbytery or session, and put them in the hands of the text of a rule book.\u00a0 These actions return us to the days when people made individual judgments about people.<\/li>\n
  2. The presbyteries have to approve the removal of G-6.0106b.\u00a0 Some say that the removal of the old Authoritative Interpretations makes that clause moot – I don’t think so.\u00a0 It seems to me that fidelity and chastity are STILL the law of the land.\u00a0 Others say that the ability to scruple makes that clause moot – this idea may have more merit but will require a test case.<\/li>\n
  3. Nobody will be required to ordain a gay person against the will of the ordaining minister.\u00a0 One quietly passed interpretation points out that a session moderator (pastor, or some temporary replacement or supply) is obligated to ordain whoever the congregation elects as long as the session approves their examination.\u00a0 This interpretation ALSO points out the session’s requirement to understand the conscience of the moderator and to make arrangements for someone else to perform ordinations where necessary – ironically under the “outdo one another in honoring one another’s decisions” clause of the PUP report.\u00a0 I find this situation unlikely in the extreme – I really can’t see a session forcing a minister to ordain a gay person against their will.\u00a0 In that case, the church is ready for the COM to take a look at the whole congregation\/pastor relationship – it’s probably broken in many ways.\u00a0 Any session that cares about their pastor would make alternate arrangements in this situation, and any pastor would do well to reconsider their call if they are in a congregation that elects someone that they disapprove of to such a degree that they will not ordain them.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I urge my fellow progressives not to celebrate too loudly.\u00a0 Your cheers and in some cases jeers are painful to conservatives.\u00a0 Be a good winner.<\/p>\n

    I also urge my conservative peers not to give up.\u00a0 You are doing what you believe to be the most faithful thing right now (as are the progressives).\u00a0 Don’t take any hasty actions.\u00a0 Take time to hear God’s call for you.\u00a0 Then do what you need to do.