Presbyterians voting chastity and marital fidelity up or down?

By JERRY DANIEL REED Senior Staff Writer

Reports that Presbyterians are in the process of voting chastity and marital fidelity up or down have been greatly exaggerated, West Texas church leaders contend.

At stake in the fate of so-called Amendment B is not the the church's continued support of its traditional stand for Bible-based sexual morality, these leaders explain. They say the issue is really whether this particular affirmation of the stand should be added to the denomination's Book of Order (church constitution).

The 171 presbyteries - regional groupings of congregations - of the Presbyterian Church (USA) are voting on Amendment B in advance of this summer's General Session. The vote of 86 presbyteries, a simple majority, will decide.

Early returns showed the measure trailing, but it soon pulled ahead. Marj Carpenter, a Big Spring layperson who was national moderator of the church in 1995-96, said Tuesday the latest tally she'd seen had 68 for to 47 against.

To overcome that deficit, opponents of the measure would have to carry 70 percent of the 56 uncounted presbyteries to eke out a one-vote win.

Still, the votes in many of the presbyteries has been close - including the 65-54 margin by which the Palo Duro Presbytery of conservative West Texas approved the proposition Jan. 25 in Plainview. Fifty-nine churches, including two in Abilene, in a 72-county area belong to the presbytery.

Pastors of the two Abilene churches, plus the presbytery's interim executive pastor, all say the issue has been widely misrepresented to the general public in some media reports.

"We are not opening the door to the ordination of homosexuals" as ministers, elders and deacons, said Dr. Clifford Stewart, pastor of First Central Presbyterian Church. "We are simply saying that the definitive guidance of the General Assembly for the last 20 years still holds," regardless of the final Amendment B vote.

That definitive guidance from the 1978 General Assembly, and confirmed by subsequent assemblies, merely reaffirmed what the church has always believed and taught, said the Rev. Jim Pitts, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Supporters see Amendment B "as something that affirms marriage, and affirms and dignifies people who are called to the single life," he said.

Some opponents object to the inclusion of a clause in the amendment barring ordination of anyone who doesn't repent of "any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin."

Stewart and the Rev. Ben McAnally of Lubbock, the presbytery's interim executive pastor, distinguished their denomination's standard of sexual morality for those it ordains and its acceptance of homosexuals as members, as well as its support for civil rights for homosexuals in secular life.

"The Presbyterian church openly receives people who are homosexuals as members, and at various times in whatever way, has supported civil rights for homosexual persons," McAnally said.

Pitts pointed out, however, that homosexual activity falls in the all-embracing category of sin that new members must renounce in joining the church.

"They have to say publicly that they renounce sin - all sin - in their lives, and the power of sin that Jesus Christ has broken in their lives," he said.

Pitts said many Presbyterians see the Book of Order's call to faithfulness as encompassing the obligation of sexual fidelity and chastity, so they see the proposed amendment as redundant and thus unneeded.

The Westminister pastor said only a small minority of Presbyterians are homosexuals - as is true in other denominations - and only a minority of the opposition to the amendment stems from those who favor the ordination of unrepentant homosexuals.

Carpenter said she favors the amendment because it strengthens the church stand on sexual morality. Not all will live up to the practice, she said, but "it doesn't hurt to set a goal and try to live up to it."

Some who favor allowing the ordination of homosexuals want to defeat Amendment B because they believe it will be easier for them to prevail at some future date if they don't have to erase such a strong provision from the church's constitution, she acknowledged.

"And some of the opposition is just the fear that their might be a witch hunt - and I don't think so," Carpenter said. "I think (Presbyterians) will go on recognizing that we're all sinners."