What It Means

Recent news articles about the General Assembly meeting in Detroit:

What Affirming Same-Sex Marriage Means for the Presbyterian Church
MaryAnn McKibben Dana
Time Magazine, June 23, 2014

“It’s important to know what the change does and doesn’t mean. Last week’s ruling (called an Authoritative Interpretation) gives pastors and churches the latitude to perform same-sex weddings, but doesn’t require anyone to do so. “The Assembly took a second action that day—we voted 71%-29% to amend our constitution’s paragraph describing marriage—an amend-ment that must be ratified by a majority of our regional bodies, called presbyteries, over the next year. In typical Presbyterian style, the language was a compromise: marriage is a civil contract between ‘two people, traditionally a man and a woman.’”

 

(CNN) -- “The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) is pulling millions of dollars in investments out of three U.S. companies tied to the Israeli oc-cupation of Palestinian territories....In a close vote at its annual assembly in Detroit on Friday, the church voted 310-303 to divest $21 million from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions….But immediately after the vote, church leaders said the decision was not a judgment against Israel. ‘In no way is this a reflection for our lack of love for our Jewish sisters and brothers,’ Moderator Heath Rada said....’We recognize the complexity of the issues, the decades-long struggle, the pain suffered and inflicted by policies and practices of both the Israeli government and the Palestinian entities….’”

I’ll borrow some of the language from Rev. Dana’s article to explain what these banner headlines mean and what they don’t. Let me say first that the media has in typical fashion sensationalized the news from Detroit. The actions, with regard to same-sex marriage, taken by the Assembly have no jurisdictional weight until they are ratified by the Presbyteries.

And the decision to divest from companies who do business with Israel is not punishment against the people of Israel. It is a protest against the policies of the Israeli Government. The General Assembly has a long-standing practice of protesting govern-ment policies, both foreign and domestic, deemed hostile to human rights and impediments to peace and justice. Our long-standing support of social witness policy puts our denomination at the forefront of peace and justice ministries and a frequent target of the media.

When the General Assembly takes an action and sends it on to the Presbyteries for ratification, or should it fail because a majority of Presbyteries vote no, the whole church can be confident the Spirit of God has led us to a decision. We are the church together. Everyone’s voice is important even though every decision isn’t unanimous.

It’s important to remember who we are and more importantly whose we are when we read banner headlines that contain the word Presbyterian.

~Harrell