The issue must be settled

This issue has raged too long already in the life of our church, and it must be settled. It must be resolved, for the sake of the peace and unity of the PCANZ. If the Assembly does not settle it, then the secular law courts will do so for us. More importantly, it must be resolved for what is at stake, biblically and theologically. The homosexual issue is not central, but it has major implications in all sorts of other areas.

At stake is whether or not the PCANZ will accept the plain teaching of Scripture, and whether - in this matter - the PCANZ will remain in continuity with a two thousand year stream of orthodox Christian faith and practice. Our integrity is at stake.

This issue is not about whether we should hate homosexuals as people. The Christian answer to hate must always be a resounding "no". Hostility and harshness are simply not on. We must have sympathy and compassion for those who are caught up in this sin.

About 1% of the population, for a variety of reasons, struggle with homosexual leanings. Sometimes they have been seduced, when young. Maybe they have had a poor relationship with the parent of the same gender. They can be described as having a homosexual "orientation", a vulnerability in that area. Only some of these people act out their homosexual desires. Some manage to live in self-control and purity. Some marry, some stay single. The issue is not about such people.

 The issue is about those who actively pursue sexual relationships with those of the same gender, those who are "practising homosexuals". The spirit of their lifestyle is summed up in Romans 1:

 "women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men"

The issue is whether people who unashamedly practise and embrace such a lifestyle are suitable persons to be church leaders.

This issue is not about whether homosexual people may be members. It is not about including or excluding anyone from the church. The church must always be a community of welcome, compassion, and the transforming grace of Christ. Assembly has already stressed that, in 1985 and 1991. The issue is about whether practising homosexuals should be leaders in the church - and that depends on whether a homosexual lifestyle is sinful (or not) in the eyes of God. On that, if we are to interpret Scripture responsibly, there can be only one answer...

 The historic Christian understanding, directly drawn from Scripture, is that God sees homosexual practice as wrong. While there have been many attempts to evade or distort the plain teaching of scripture, in both the Old and the New Testaments, many liberal scholars would now agree with what is frankly admitted by Walter Winks:

In Genesis 3 (and elsewhere, eg. Romans 1 & 8) it is revealed that humanity has fallen into disobedience and spiritual blindness, and creation has lost its perfection. A tarnished and troubled human sexuality is part of that general fallenness and corruption - human sexual behaviour has often become compulsive, self-serving, and enslaving.

 In a city of notorious immorality, a mob of men surrounded Lot's house and prepared to push in the door, yelling:

"Where are the men who came to you tonight. Bring them out to us, that we may know them." [Genesis 19:5]

Some want to interpret this story as meaning something else, but their attempts are far from convincing. The verb "know" clearly refers to sexual intercourse in this passage, and is used three times that way in three different verses. Scripture interprets Scripture, and Scripture gives the only true interpretation of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah:

"Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities...acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust." [Jude 1:7]

The Old Testament law was sent to tutor us in the ways of God. God's people are called to be holy. The Law condemns heterosexual sin. It also clearly prohibits homosexual acts.

It is true that we do not have any recorded comment on homosexuality by Jesus himself. In the Jewish context of his day, homosexuality was very rare, and it was not necessary for Jesus to comment. But he did refer to Sodom and Gomorrah, and he did uphold the moral law of the Old Testament generally. He spoke strongly against lust (Mt.5:8, 27-28) and licence (Mt.5:17-20,7:21-23).

His general attitude to sexual sin is shown in his attitude to the woman caught in adultery (John 8): grace, compassion, and a clear call to repentance:

"Go, and sin no more." [John 8:11]

When we get to the apostle Paul, we find plenty of references to homosexuality, and to sexual sin in general. That is because Paul was moving out into a Gentile, Graeco-Roman context, where sexual immorality of every kind was extremely common, at all levels of society. It was a society not unlike our own, at least in the Western world. In fact, it was arguably worse. It is recorded, for instance, that 14 out of the first 15 Roman emperors were involved in this particular vice.

 The classic New Testament passage on the matter is in Romans 1:18-31. You can't get it any clearer. The passage begins with a general picture of how human beings have fallen away from God, and have become darkened in their thinking, and have worshipped things and idols rather than the true and living God:

"They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served what is created rather than the Creator, who is to be praised for ever!" [Romans 1:24]

Having become foolish and blind, human beings got into all sorts of sin, including sexual immorality.

 "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their bodies to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves." [Romans 1:24]

And then the apostle clearly refers to homosexual and lesbian sin, as a prime example of the depravity and corruption that humanity has fallen into. It is the symbol of a humanity in rebellion against God, in revolt against the Creator, in revolt against all that is good and pure, and in an act of self-destruction:

"For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error." [Romans 1:26-27]

These verses could not be plainer. Homosexual and lesbian desires and acts are utterly wrong in the eyes of God. There is no way that we can accept what God considers abhorrent. It is not, of course, the only sin. Verses 29 to 31 list many other sins.

There are many other New Testament passages on homosexuality. All of these are written from within a context of grace. Even within a context of grace, repentance is still required, a turning away from sin. Grace without repentance is not just "cheap", it is a delusion. There is no such thing as grace without repentance.

God calls us to himself in Jesus Christ - he forgives us, he declares us not guilty in his sight - and then he calls us to be cleaned up and made holy in our thoughts and lives. God wants us to change us into us his likeness, not to leave us in our sin. God calls those he has redeemed to be holy...

"He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body., but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." [1 Corinthians 6:6-20]

The New Testament has some excellent news: it is not necessary for anyone to remain trapped in homosexuality. There is a way out. There is a way to wholeness, and to holiness. (That also applies to all those - and there are vastly more of them - who have been enslaved by heterosexual sin.)

 This way to wholeness is the power of Christ, the power of the Gospel.

Christ can transform us

Some insist on the power of grace for forgiveness, and quite rightly so. But they need equally to insist on the power of grace to change us. We see in 1 Corinthinians that Christ is able to change those who were once enslaved by various kinds of sin and vice, including homosexual sin...

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived - neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts [ie.practising homosexuals], nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor abusers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were made holy, you were declared not guilty in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. [1 Corinthians 6:9-11]

There are many testimonies around the church of those who were as once as homosexual as they come, but who are now born again, transformed, made whole by the power of the Holy Spirit. If the church does not proclaim that liberating truth, but instead buys into the propaganda of homosexual lobby, it is condemning people to a life of bondage and unhappiness. The Church must not hold back the message of the true Gospel: it is a Gospel that sets people free.

 It is of crucial importance, because there are those within the church who are now pushing very hard to "de-sin" homosexual relationships. To do that they must set aside, or radically re-interpret, the Word of God.

The clearest signal that the church now endorses homosexual practice as acceptable and good would be for the church openly and explicitly to permit practising homosexuals to be ordained as ministers and elders - or to let it happen by default.

But there is no way most of us should agree to that. The main reason is that it would be a blatant denial of scripture. As Christians, we dare not put aside the clear teachings of God as revealed in the scriptures. We must stand on the word of God, rather than bow to secular pressures. It is a matter of basic integrity for the church.

For the church to ordain practising homosexuals would not only signal an abandonment of scriptural teaching, it would also signal a very serious distortion or denial of several key biblical doctrines, including the nature of humanity, God's pattern of marriage, the Fall, God's call to holy living, the need for repentance, and the power of Christ to transform us.

It would be easiest to be "tolerant" and to look the other way -to take the line of least resistence. But we dare not do so. The cost would be far too great. We pray that this Assembly will have the courage to resolve this matter responsibly, compassionately, and in a way that is faithful to the Word of God.

 Those (including many hetero-sexuals) who live a lifestyle that is obviously sinful are not appropriate Christian leaders. They do not demonstrate basic Gospel principles: submission to God, and the transforming power of Christ. The fact that such persons may in other respects seem suitable is besides the point.

The `Subordinate Standards' of the PCANZ (the Westminster Confession, the Larger/Shorter Catechisms etc) clearly forbid homosexual practice, and call for those in ministry to live holy lives.

 The resolutions of the 1985 and 1991 Assemblies were compassionate, biblical, and balanced...

 The 1985 Assembly affirmed to homosexuals God's love and acceptance of them as people, and affirmed the power of Jesus Christ to forgive and the Holy Spirit to transform the lives of all those involved in a homosexual lifestyle. Assembly affirmed that homosexual acts are sinful and called on the church to initiate compassionate ministry in the power of Jesus to those involved in a homosexual lifestyle.

No Presbyterian church in the world has agreed to the ordination of practising homosexuals. God forbid that the PCANZ should lead the way in trying to "de-sin" what God has called sin. Those few Union churches which have liberalised in this regard have been devastated by disharmony, instability, and numerical decline.

The 1998 Assembly should simply rule in terms consistent with the Scriptures, historic Christian sexual ethics, the Subordinate Standards, and the decisions of the 1985, 1991 and 1996 Assemblies.

We should have our say and agree with the decision made at the last Assembly in 1996.129 - "That Assembly, recognising the need for a clear ruling on practising homosexuals in leadership in the Church, rules that its courts shall not license, ordain or induct practising homosexuals. At the same time Assembly acknowledges the deep diversity of convictions in the church on issues relating to homosexuality generally and calls the church to move ahead in a spirit of gracious respect and compassion for one another."

We trust and pray that the PCANZ will accept that the best way to resolve this matter, and to ensure the peace and unity of the Church, is to do so with a brief, clear ruling, in consistency with the Word of God, the subordinate standards, the 1985, 1991 and 1996.129 decisions, and the wishes of most of the members of the church. Then, perhaps, we can all get on with our real task.