Mark J. Davis: Call for Tolerance & Compromise
In his Letter to the Editor of the Cumberland Presbyterian magazine, Mark J Davis critiques a faction's insistence on excluding LGBTQ Christians from leadership roles, despite the constitutional rejection of such measures by presbyteries. Davis advocates for a return to the denomination's tradition of tolerance and compromise, urging a focus on real ministry rather than internal power struggles. To the editor: “Let it go to Presbyteries. It is their right to decide on our direction and future.” This was the demand from a group of Cumberland Presbyterians who, unsatisfied with a Statement on Homosexuality approved by the 165th General Assembly (although they apparently subscribe to most of the text), nevertheless consider exclusion of LGBTQ Christians from leadership positions in the denomination one of their highest priorities in ministry. One can only assume that their exhilaration at having successfully fomented the split of one of our presbyteries over the issue now leads them to their efforts to extend what they surely know will be further discord and ugliness wrought by that split to the entire denomination. But we are, after all, Presbyterian in our government, so we did. We did let the question of whether or not we would be a denomination known for codifying exclusion in our foundational documents go to our presbyteries, “to decide on our direction and future.” And despite what by many accounts was a very aggressive (and, I would argue, unseemly) effort at lobbying on behalf of exclusion, the presbyteries responded to that constitutional question by saying, NO. But now, I understand that having failed in that effort, that same group of Cumberland Presbyterians has apparently decided that the only way to get their way—to indulge their preoccupation with the sexual orientation of others whom they rarely know personally, or with whatever sexual activity may or