FIDELITY = CHASTITY

By Howard Chua-Eoan

The letter of the law was cast in virtue, but the spirit of the law was one of contention. "Those called to office in the church are to lead a life of obedience" to Scripture and church doctrine, read the proposed amendment to the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and "among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness." For six months, the 171 presbyteries of the 2.7 million-member church battled over these lines, one by one voting for or against them in a process tallied on the Internet, with the amendment sometimes winning or losing by just a single vote. What was at stake was not mere chastity but the ordination of a people once shunned by the church. By last week, however, the amendment won its 86th presbytery--a simple majority--and sexually active gays and lesbians were forbidden to serve as clergy, elders and deacons.

The champions of the amendment contend they set the same standard for homosexuals and heterosexuals: no sex outside wedlock. But its opponents point out a double standard: the church does not allow monogamous, same-sex couples to marry. "I feel like my church has slapped me in the face," says Scott Anderson, co-moderator of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. "This is an action rooted in fear and not in love." Anderson had been pastor of the Bethany Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, California, until members of his congregation, opposed to some of his policies, "outed" him in 1990. He had been closeted till then and involved in a seven-year relationship with another man, which ended prior to the rupture with his congregation. He left the clergy but remained a Presbyterian layman, pressing for change. Now executive director of the California Council of Churches, Anderson was buoyed for a while by allies across the country, even as liberal and conservative Presbyterians threatened secession over the issue. Then the slow-motion vote took place.

Now that the church's earlier policy against gays has been replaced by one with constitutional force, Anderson predicts some gays and lesbians will leave the church, since the amendment states that you should not hold office if "refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin." He also says the church will find itself in a hypocritical bind if it chooses to enforce "chastity" and not the 17th century bans on divorce and working on the Sabbath. Anderson, however, is not abandoning his church: "I'm in this for the long haul," even if takes "another 20 or 30 years" to defeat the other side.

The other side, though, is quite pleased with its victory. Says the Rev. Jack Haberer, pastor of Clear Lake Presbyterian Church in Houston: "We see this as reclaiming the Scriptures as central to our faith and practice." Indeed, the debate saw both sides firing interpretations of the Bible against each other. Haberer, who organized the conservative opposition, says, "Scripture teaches that this desire and practice are not God's design for humanity, and that those wrestling with such kinds of sexual confusion, along with many others, can find in Christ healing and restoration, not endorsement to continue." He came to that conclusion after counseling half a dozen gay men who had been sexually abused as youths. "In time," he says, "every one of them came not only to a place of saying 'I don't want to be that way' but to a place of feeling an attraction to the opposite sex." After that, says Haberer, "my feelings toward homosexuals became very warm. My heart broke with them." His relationship with his brother-in-law, who died of AIDS, also affected him. They disagreed about the church, but the illness convinced Haberer that "the homosexual population is very vulnerable, not only to the AIDS virus but to many other diseases. I really want the church to lovingly care about homosexuals and to help them find the freedom he never found."

Nevertheless, many Presbyterians believe that local congregations and other bodies that defy the new law will be prosecuted in church court. Scores of congregations in what is called the More Light alliance have already pledged to accept openly gay pastors and lay leaders. A wider unity among Protestant churches may have been fatally wounded by the antigay vote. In the 1960s, the Presbyterians and other denominations began forging merger plans. That was finally put to a vote along with the new "chastity" amendment--and ecumenism is almost certain to be defeated. One possible contributing cause: it would have resulted in union with the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), two denominations that have policies that allow for gay clergy. It would also have resulted in an alliance with the Episcopal Church, which has a de facto toleration policy--one, however, that is being challenged by conservatives in a dispute that will come to a boil in July. Thus, in the fierce debate over sexual orientation, Protestant Christians in America may have lost a chance to forge a historic unity.

--Reported by Richard N. Ostling

With reporting by Richard N. Ostling