The Shallow Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church: On Gay Ordination

Should homosexuals be ordained pastors in the liberal mainline denomination of Presbyterian (USA)? Does the Bible even matter? And what does their fifty-six page report by the "Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church" contribute towards this discussion of ordaining gay pastors?

A biblical church ought to follow the Bible and the Word of God. Jesus established the Church and He laid out how to “do church?in His Word.

In order to avoid ruling out Gay and Lesbian Ordination, the task force paints Scripture as being unspecific and unclear. It appears that by blurring and confusing the issue, the acceptability of ordination of those with a sinful sexual orientation would escape being seen as immoral or condemned but rather acceptable for the sake of ‘unity? over true Biblical purity (the irony of this task force’s name!).

For the purpose of this essay, ordaination will be defined as the church's recognition of one's calling to be a pastor. In regards to church leadership, the report said the Bible only teaches three things about "ordained" leadership on pages 19 to 20:

1. " 'The priesthood of all believers' in which all members are called by God to promote the ongoing health and maturation of the body of Christ," comes before ordination.
2. "Certain members of the body of Christ are called by God through the voice of the Church to lead and nurture the body in its spiritual growth and in mission."
3. "These ordained officers must adhere to confessional, governance, and disciplinary standards not required for membership."

All three things are Biblically true. Yet, the Bible has the qualification of recognizing pastors more fleshed out than these three points only. More disturbing is what they say after this:

"Beyond these themes, Scripture does not provide a thoroughly developed theology of ordination, and a theology of ordination has not been clearly and consistently articulated in the development of Reformed and Presbyterian Practice" (Pg. 20)

Brothers and sisters who are Reformed or Presbyterians can perhaps give a better historical analysis of the development of theology of Ordination practices in Presbyterian Circles than this writer can. But regardless, if you are historically aware of denominational history or not, the devastating problem is the report saying Scripture has not "thoroughly developed" its theology on ordination.

Yet the WORD OF GOD testifies of the Self Sufficiency of Scripture testifying to itself:

"So that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Tim 3:17

This task force also released article summaries and their findings of their bible studies, based upon biblical passages found relevant by the task force. Yet how surprising it would be if none of the biblical studies covered the Book of 1 Timothy (specifically Chapter 3 on qualification), 2 Timothy, and Titus (Chapter 1 on Qualification) which is relevant with Church leadership!

When the report touched on the issue of Sexual Orientation and ordination, I was amazed by the exclusion of first and second Timothy and Titus. I made the following three observations:

1. As a Church and as a Christian, how do you say the Word of God is not sufficient especially when it comes to the CHURCH itself? (2 Tim 3:17)
2. Moreover, even if you disagree with the first premise above, how can you say Scripture "does not provide" when you did not even referenced verses specific to the topic? That’s like writing a report on the birth of the United States without talking about the Revolutionary War at all!
3. And given the need for precedence from the Bible and "Presbyterian Practices" within the Presbyterian mode of affairs, how do you then establish (from "theological and biblical studies,") that "sexual orientation is, in itself no barrier to ordination(Page 20)?"

The report is poor material for a five year study and it is incredibly shallow given the time duration to work on it (2001-2006).

Since the report was released in the summer of 2006, it might find better use on a summer bonfire at the beach while fellowshipping with friends, family and loved ones. Or better yet, for such a politically liberal denomination, they might as well have not published the report at all for the good of the environment, thereby saving some paper and sparing some trees from being killed for a pathetically shallow report.

--Jimmy Li