O Happy Day and Some Tough Questions

Re: the decision today of the PCUSA General Assembly meeting in Detroit to allow pastors in states where Marriage Equality exists to freely choose to officiate at same-gender weddings without fear of ecclesiastical reprisal.

Adam Walker Cleveland, Designer

And sent to the Presbyteries an overture to amend the Book of Order by changing "man and woman" to "two people" in the marriage section.

Here's something I wrote a few moments ago and have posted in various news outlets:

I'm a PCUSA pastor (now retired), and I'm rejoicing ... I now that some sisters and brothers are lamenting right now. Well, I've lamented plenty over the years as our church failed, as I see it, on this matter. After many such failures, I believe we have made some vital mid-course corrections. Clergy in states where Marriage Equality is the law can no officiate at a same-gender marriage without fear of ecclesiastical reprisal. Over the years, I didn't leave even when my heart was heavy and I believed that the church was failing Christ. I have always practiced the Larger Loyalty that transcends the pain of the moment. Many of my conservative sisters and brothers exercise a loyalty to dogma that trumps loyalty to one another; in their hearts, they believe this is loyalty to Christ. But how can one love Christ and walk away, often with bitterness and denunciation, from one's sisters and brothers. Tough questions, for sure, required by difficult times when the pull-of-the-past is at war with the pull-of-the-future.