Quick Reflections

I attended the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) at San Jose, CA, in June as a commissioner from John Calvin Presbytery. I have waited this long to write anything because I left the meeting so depressed from the majority who ignored the Bible in their decision making process. The result is that the church has been invade by the world (a reference to Dr. Donald Bloesch's book, The Invaded Church). Instead of the church being a prophet to the world, the world has dictated the way of the church. There is no difference any more between the morality of a sinful world and the morality of the PCUSA. We are the world.
Let me say that as an evangelical we must share in much of the blame. At this assembly we were instructed not to use the Bible because quoting from the good book turns people off. So, we tried to fight our battles without a sword. We lost! I don't know if we would have won if we had the sword. But at least we could have put up a meaningful fight.
Of interest now is the response that has been coming out from many quarters. I have tried to read from a varied amount of these responses. Most of them try to be comforting and civil. But the result of many of them is to say that issue is over. But is it?
We still have a wonderful opportunity to make a meaningful stand in our local presbyteries. If we can keep the fidelity and chastity words of G-6.0106b in the Book of Order instead of the meaningless and nebulous words being proposed with the overture coming down, there will be a barrier to ordination of GLBT persons and the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly will be able to reissue interpretations that will protect the moral position of the church. So we need to prepare to take up the sword and fight for the moral good of the PCUSA.