In what may be its clearest move in a long line of recommendations that conservative Presbyterians give their money to anything but the denomination, the Presbyterian Lay Committee has adopted a "Declaration of Conscience."

The statement opens with a declaration that "spiritual schism exists within the Presbyterian Church (USA) because of a deep and irreconcilable disunion among its members over the person and work of Jesus Christ, the authority of God's Word written, and God's call to a holy life. We are two faiths within one denomination." The statement concludes that "without systemic change, the PCUSA will collapse."

In light of the coming collapse, the Lay Committee urges "those who remain committed to reform and renewal of the PCUSA and those who are seriously studying new forms of our connectional life ... to work together for the glory of God and the strengthening of His witness in the world."

The concrete way of doing this, of course, is the tactic that the Lay Committee has pressed for years: encouraging Presbyterians to use their dollars for anything but "the General Assembly per-capita budget or the unrestricted mission budget of the PCUSA."

Click here for the full text of the Lay Committee statement.

Presbyterian Outlook reports that W. Robert "Rob" Martin has been installed as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, Calif.

Amnesty International has condemned the growing presence and influence of US security forces in Latin America. According to a report titled "The Human Rights Implications of US Training of Foreign Military and Police Forces," each year the US trains 100,000 police and soldiers from 150 countries, a significant increase since 9-11. Mexico is the second leading recipient of military training, trailing only Colombia. In 1999, Mexico received US$918 million for advanced combat training and arms.

The School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, is one of the principal training facilities. The School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) is planning a massive peaceful demonstration in front of Fort Benning on November 21-22.

For more information, see http://www.soaw.org/.

We recently announced the appearance of Joe Hough, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, on the PBS show NOW with Bill Moyers.

In the interview, Hough talked about the intersection of politics and religion, and why he thinks it is the duty of Christians, Jews and Muslims to join to fight growing economic inequality, why he's critical of how some political pundits are using Christianity to justify their actions, and why he suspects that the time for a non-destructive, civil disobedience may be near.

Hough said, for instance, that "the growing gap between the rich and the poor which has become almost obscene by anybody's standards, and the stated intentional policy of bankrupting the government so that in the future there'll be no money for anything the federal government would decide to do," should move the great Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to work together in faithfulness to their prophetic tradition.

The transcript of the interview is now posted on the Common Dreams website.

We have been warned often enough lately that pointing to the lies by our President and his administration is tantamount to treason. Well, one recent letter to the editor in the St. Cloud (MN) Times, said that those who claim that the President has lied to us "are bordering on treason." But Witherspoon Issues Analyst Gene TeSelle, undeterred by the threats of the Patriot Acts present and yet to come, offers a glimpse of five recent books that explore what they all view as the lies propagated and perpetuated by our current administration. To quote no less a patriot than Patrick Henry, "If this be treason, make the most of it."

Jim Heer sends this comment on Walter Wink's booklet, Homosexuality and the Bible - and on Wink's discussion of our ethos of violence today.

Doug,
Thanks for passing the word along about Walter Wink's brief, excellent statement on homosexuality. My wife and I went with a UCC couple (retired friends) to hear Walter Wink last night at the Univ. of Washington and I picked up his little booklet there.

By the way, his assessment of the national ethos of violence and the political situation at the moment is stellar - and the place was so packed that half the crowd had to go to another lecture hall and watch him on a screen.

At a Question & Answer reception afterwards, I asked him, "With everything we're hearing and reading, our feeling is despair. Do you have a word of hope?" His response was, "In despair, we usually experience God speaking to us and leading us most vividly." My wife and I felt more hopeful in being aware of what he is doing and saying. AND what you are doing, too!

Joe Hough, the president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City and one of the major speakers at the Witherspoon 30^th Anniversary Conference in Louisville, in March of 2003, will be on a segment of Bill Moyers Now, on PBS, this Friday, Oct. 24, on 8pm.

He will talk with Moyers about the intersection of politics and religion, and why he thinks it is the duty of Christians, Jews and Muslims to join to fight growing economic inequality, why he's critical of how some political pundits are using Christianity to justify their actions, and why he suspects that the time for a non-destructive, civil disobedience may be near.

We recently posted a note about an article by James Carroll, published in the Boston Globe, observing that it "gives one of the best commentaries we've seen on the much-lamented (and praised) statement by Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, who is commanding U.S. efforts to capture the likes of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein."

That brought a strong reaction from Jim Berkley, Director of the Issues Ministry of Presbyterians for Renewal.

Are you looking for a clear, simple, scholarly statement of how the Bible might inform the church's thinking about homosexuality? If not for yourself, maybe to share with someone else?

One of the earliest - and perhaps one of the best - was published first in 1979, and then in a revised edition in 1996, by Walter Wink, Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City.

He is a United Methodist minister, works for a Presbyterian seminary, and attends Quaker meeting. For five years he served as pastor of a church in southeast Texas.

James Carroll, writing in the Boston Globe, gives one of the best commentaries we've seen on the much-lamented (and praised) statement by Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, who is commanding U.S. efforts to capture the likes of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. He acknowledges that this "my God is bigger than your God" mentality seems inherent in the monotheistic religions of revelation, with their exclusivist claims.

But, he continues, "there can be such a thing as an inclusivist religious faith that rejects this way of thinking. Instead of polarity, this other way of being religious assumes unity -- unity between God and God's creation, which serves in turn as a source of unity among God's creatures. This reconciling truth is what all the great religions -- certainly the three Abrahamic religions -- assert when they identify God, most basically, not with conflict but with love." This "respectful religious pluralism," he asserts, is desperately needed in today's world, if we're to avoid religious wars on a whole new scale.

The Rev. K.C. Ptomey Jr., pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville, has been endorsed by the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee.

Women trespassed on Army base while protesting 'terror school'

Two Presbyterian women imprisoned earlier this year for entering an Army base during a protest have been released from jail. Marilyn M. White, 56, of suburban Houston, TX, was released on Oct. 3 from a federal Prison Camp for Women in Bryan, TX. Ann Huntwork, 72, of Portland, OR, was released on Oct. 6 from the Federal Prison Camp in Dublin, CA. Both were sentenced on charges of trespassing, after they entered Fort Benning, in Columbus, GA, during a demonstration against a training facility for Latin American military officers formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA).

Paul E. Capetz has authored a brief history of Christian understandings of God, recently published by Fortress Press.

The publisher's press release elaborates:

This brief tour through three thousand years of religious history shows how the Christian doctrine of God evolved in response to tensions within the insights of monotheism. Capetz skillfully traces the sweeping insights and tumultuous tensions that underlay the Christian doctrine and remain with us still.

Click here for more detail.

Paul E. Capetz is Associate Professor of Historical Theology, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. He is author of Christian Faith as Religion: A Study in the Theologies of Calvin and Schleiermacher (1998).

Reports from the Coalition Gathering

We've added an index of our own reports.

And the Coalition has provided a very helpful index to many of the reports on their Gathering.  They even included our reports!

As a brand new member I am responding positively to the new statement called:
We will respond to God's call for justice.

Each component of the piece is well thought out and am happy to join my voice with Witherspoon. I have come 180 degrees on this issue and thank God for the light.

I will be looking for ways to increase my activism within the church (as opposed to leaving the church based on feeling left out and isolated based on my particular church). I am newly energized in my path to ordination as I recognize that I may yet have a calling within the PCUSA.

Sincerely, new member,

Jack Rubinson

Outlook National Reporter Leslie Scanlon surveys in detail the ways various congregations and presbyteries are dealing with conservative pressure to withhold their per capita contributions to the administrative costs of the General Assembly and its agencies. She also looks at some of the recent judicial decisions on the issue.

MoveOn.org in its August 18, 2003 bulletin presents a very helpful and through list of resources on the crisis in Liberia.

Click here, then scroll down a bit to the list of contents.

The introduction says:

This bulletin's focus is the historical context necessary to understand the dangerous situation in Liberia. Unrestrained fighting between government and rebel forces created a grave humanitarian crisis. In the capital of Monrovia, people are unable to access food, civilians are recruited to fight against their will, and the collateral damage (war-speak for murdered civilians) is in the hundreds of thousands.

The conflict in Liberia does not lend itself to simple moral judgment. Surely we would hope for an end to the military conflict and a start to peaceful self-determination, but neither the government nor the rebels are certain to bring this about. While both speak of democracy, their atrocious abuse of human rights tells observers their ambition is power and political control.

While the fighting has subsided, peace remains far away.

Click here for an earlier report on Liberia.

Dr. Jack Rogers, moderator of the 2001 General Assembly, spoke at the Covenant Network's NorthWest Regional Conference, October 11, 2003, about how he came to change his thinking about homosexuality. He traces a long, complex and thoughtful journey. Along the way makes the interesting point that some leading opponents of full respect for lgbt people (such as Robert Gagnon and Stanley J. Grenz) really base their arguments "not on Scripture, but on natural law, what they assume is the natural order of things. They depend on a Western, Aristotelian tradition for their authority."

He invites us instead to be truly biblical, beginning with the verse etched inside his wedding ring: "We love because he [God ] first loved us." (I John 4:19)

A brief report from the conference is also on the Covenant Network website.

Some want to "stay and fight" for orthodoxy and purity in the PC(USA)  

While proposals for "gracious separation" drew the attention and support of many participants in the Presbyterian Coalition Gathering in Portland, there were still important voices raised in support of the Coalition's long-held position that conservatives ought to stay in the Presbyterian Church, working in various ways to return the church not so long ago called "apostate" to traditional beliefs and morality.

We've received a number of kind comments for our reporting from the Coalition Gathering, along with a few suggestions to fill in some of our reports.

Alfred Ross, president of the Institute for Democracy Studies, which researched and published A Moment to Decide, a study of the conservative efforts to gain control of the Presbyterian Church, will be interviewed on the PBS program "NOW with Bill Moyers" this week.

NOW will air on New York's Channel 13 at 9:00 PM EST on Friday, October 10th. Please check your local listings for the date and time in your area. For more information go to http://www.pbs.org/nowor contact IDS at (212) 423-9237, http://www.idsonline.org.

Advocates for separation speak out:

A number of speakers through the day advocated for "gracious separation," while others offered their vision for a new kind of church under the title "New Wineskins."

Korean pastor says he'll stay - because racism is the issue, not sex

Mission

We are a network of concerned Presbyterians responding to God's call to do justice, and to work with hope for healing and wholeness in a world increasingly broken.

Our mission is:

Through our witness, we seek to revitalize the church's proclamation and action, informed by the full witness of the Bible and the confessions, animated by our hope for the reign of God.

NOTE: The Executive Committee plans to engage in a process of reflection and planning to name some actions and programs that will each of the specific mission areas listed above. But that may take a while!

You may want to look at the statement that this will replace, just for comparison.

"The question of whether we were misled into the war in Iraq isn't a liberal or conservative or Republican or Democratic question, it's an American one. Protecting the democracy that we ask our sons and daughters to die for is our responsibility and our trust. Demanding accountability from our leaders is our job as citizens. It's the American way. So may the truth win out."

- Bruce Springsteen

Guatemala, where "patriotism ... is often identified with militarism rather than the struggle for peace and justice" is approaching a presidential election in which retired general Efrain Rios Montt is seeking a return to power. In this threatening time, the Rev. Karla Koll, a PC(USA) mission co-worker, reports on the challenges of the time, and asks for prayers for this nation and its people.

Mark Engler, writing for TomPaine.com. Says that in spite of all the conservative calls for "personal responsibility" as the key for escaping poverty, the combination of a jobless recovery and increasingly harsh rules are creating deeper poverty. He notes that Democrats, who supported "welfare reform" under President Clinton, are unlikely to offer much resistance.

We received two thoughtful, critical comments, to which we have responded by making appropriate corrections.