Lessons in Unity
The largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States (PCUSA) is on the verge of a serious split. The upcoming General Assembly will decide on whether the PCUSA will allow historic ordination standards to be by-passed in order for homosexual men and lesbian women to be ordained as ministers of the Word. Of course, this is nothing new for mainline denominations—the Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians and others have debated the same issue for years.
The issue I find fascinating is that they all refuse to discuss the logical end to their claims. Let me explain. Being an ordained Presbyterian minister, I've been able to hear all the denominational arguments for excluding sexual orientation as part of ordination standards. The one common theme among all the arguments could be summed up in a word—unity. It is unity that those who don't believe in God's Word want to preserve among Christians. It is unity that those who want to deny Jesus' Lordship want to maintain. They argue that if we in the PCUSA allow some local ruling districts to ordain homosexuals and lesbians, then we can maintain what God has called us to foremost—unity.
Here is the logical end they aren't willing to entertain as a possibility of moving forward: Why not remove all denominational standards? Why shouldn't all the mainline denominations seek to become one denomination, similar to what the Australian Uniting Church has done? Of course, the answers would be numerous. There would be a citing of differences over baptism, the Lord's Supper, soteriology, eschatology, polity as well as many other issues. Unfortunately, this just doesn't make sense. They are willing to give in on an issue that is clear in Scripture (homosexual practice being unacceptable by God) and not on issues that are far from being clear in Scripture (polity and the sacraments).
The lesson this teaches to onlookers is that Presbyterians find rites of baptism and church government much more important (and thus worth being divisive about) than issues of sexual purity. Further, it shows the hypocrisy of those who are pushing for unity. They only want unity as they see it, which is no unity at all.