Peter Smith of the Louisville Courier Journal reported on his blog, http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/faith/2010/ about the latest report from Presbyterian Research Services:
Peace or purity?
Nearly half of Presbyterians put equal importance on "peace, unity and purity" in a church. But among those who give them different weight, conservatives are far more likely to pick "purity," while liberals prefer "peace." Those results are among a raft of newly released data from the Research Services of the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)The results date from 2006, when the church was about to vote on recommendations from a task force whose formal name included the words in question: the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity. The task force's recommendations served as part of the ongoing debate over role of gays in ministry -- a complicated story in its own right. But the name alone prompted the question of whether a church could really have all three of those qualities together.
Among the results:
•Some 29 percent of liberals chose peace, compared with 10 percent of conservatives.
•Only 6 percent of liberals chose purity, compared with 38 percent of conservatives.
Among both categories, however, the largest group put equal weight on the three values -- a majority of liberals and a plurality of conservatives.
Smaller percentages of each group chose unity.
Among moderates, exactly 50 percent put equal weight on the three values, with those preferring one of the three fairly evenly divided among the rest.
Large majorities believe there's a place for everyone in the denomination regardless of views on controversial issues.
That sounds like a vote for unity.
At the same time, large majorities believe that "a church that is not clear about what it believes is not worth belonging to."
My response to this, a long held conviction, that the constitutional ordination question in which one promises to uphold the "Peace Unity and Purity of the Church" is actually harmful to the church's ability to adapt to the 21st century.
"Peace" is actually a hold-over from old empire values--the Pax Romana—a peace enforce by hierarchical control. Instead of peace, we should encourage creative complexity and ability to create new structures to adapt to new times. Whenever a system moves through change from chaos, it always takes a more complex form, and with creativity, truth and goodness is increased.
"Unity" is also a hierarchically imposed focus on sameness, everybody has to agree on what to think. Heresy used to mean thinking new thoughts, now it means thinking thoughts that don't conform to the unity norm. Instead of unity we should vow to promote a respectful diversity.
"Purity" is a holdover from the post exilic emphasis in the Hebrew Scriptures when the community tended to think more about following the strict laws of the Torah instead of following the spirit of Torah which included major concern for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger in our midst. Instead of purity we need to promote a generous inclusivity, in which the circle of faith grows ever larger, drawing people in instead of circling them out.
I hope the Presbyterians will be able to move to adapt to the 21st century but I fear we're going to continue to push for the top-down values of peace, unity and purity.
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