Gay Rights Leads Presbyterian Assembly’s Agenda

More often than not, debate over homosexual rights in the church in recent years has amounted to a kind of scriptural trench warfare where opponents line up, verse in hand, to shoot down the biblical arguments of their antagonists.

However, as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) heads into its 1993 General Assembly in Orlando, Fla., with homosexuality at the top of the agenda, developments in the outside world set the stage for debate of a more secular kind.

The June 2-9 assembly is being held as Americans are engaged in debate about President Clinton’s proposal to overturn the military’s ban on homosexuals, and some gay rights advocates in the church believe that the President’s initiative could give them a big boost.

The Rev. Lisa Bove of West Hollywood, co-moderator of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, said a perception that the church is lagging behind the military on a human rights issue--as it did on racial integration--could prove embarrassing.

“I think it’s very sad that any government institution would lead the way on human rights and drag the church behind,” said Bove, who is a lesbian and associate pastor at West Hollywood Presbyterian Church.

Delegates to the 2.9-million-member denomination’s assembly will face more than a dozen resolutions that could pave the way for approval of non-celibate homosexuals in the pulpit.

If the church continues its ban on ordaining homosexuals who are not celibate while the military considers lifting its ban, Bove said, the church could run the risk of being perceived as “the last bastion of oppression in the country.”

If the military ban is lifted, Bove said, that could further press the issue in the churches.

She said, “Being able to be ‘out’ in the military, I think, will just (tend) to garner people’s support.”

Although those such as Bove who advocate ordination of gays and lesbians see the debate in the military as a ray of hope, some church conservatives minimize the impact the military question may have on the church.

Robert Campbell, president of the conservative Presbyterian Lay Committee in Springfield, Pa., said of the debate in the military: “I don’t think it will have that much bearing on the church policies.”

Conservatives are likely to want any debate over homosexuality in the church to be fought on a strictly biblical playing field because, as Campbell said, they believe homosexual practice is diametrically opposed to the authority of Scripture.

If gays in the military is the big secular issue that could affect General Assembly debate on homosexuality, the big event inside the church was last year’s decision by the denomination’s top judicial body barring an avowed lesbian, the Rev. Jane Spahr of Oakland, from the pulpit--even though she was ordained. Bove said the ruling is having a positive impact on efforts to open pulpits to homosexuals.

“People across the country are outraged and working very hard to get the church inclusive.”

Bove vowed that efforts to officially open Presbyterian pulpits to non-celibate homosexuals will continue beyond the 1993 assembly, if necessary, “until God’s justice is done.”

Campbell said sentiment in the pews is solidly against ordaining gays who are not celibate.

If activists persist in attempts to overturn the ban, Campbell said, “more and more Presbyterians are going to get disgusted with the whole situation and leave.”