Be Practical or Principled

There is no greater rhetorical wisdom than the exhortation to be practical or realistic. "Hey, lets be practical." What follows is often the parting with some principled position that might be inconvenient to the immediate purpose of a committee or family or General Assembly.  I have actually heard it said, "Principles be damned, we just need to do the right thing here."  The assumption is that the established rules and procedures are unreliable. Sometimes a set of principles are denigrated by such descriptive words as "red tape" or "technicalities." Principles are often inconvenient because they are unyielding to expediency. Consider the way  one GA Committee dealt with a human sexuality issue by "community building" then "consensus building." This places social pressure on participants to not break the community spirit by debating by way of a principled argument.

Goal: "Secure sexual justice (some have even called it "salvation") for gay men, lesbian women, bisexual and trans-gendered men and women."

Obstacles: The biblical teaching against homosexuality, social norms against it, civil laws against it, a psychological description of it as an aberrant disorder,  the long of history of the church leaders consistently speaking and writing against it in very stark terms, the confessions of the church, and, more recently, two interpretations of the Book of Order (78 & 93). In one voice, each have declares such behavior a sin and unrepentant practitioners of it as unfit for leadership.

"Biblical scholarship," within a ten year span, re-framed the biblical moral teachings against homosexuality so as to reverse what has always been taught by other Church scholars. A persistent and pointed campaign to put positive examples of homosexuals before the public through the arts. Through a parade of tearful testimonies and other measures of public persuasion has caused the mushy middle moderates to reverse opinions previously held.

Couple this with a politically correct culture of intimidation among scholars and students who place harsh sanctions against anyone who dares to challenge what "everyone knows to be true about gay people." There is a cumulative effect in these measures. The more effective they are, more family members begin practicing homosexuality. The more such persons confront their families with "their truth" about themselves the more middle-class families soften their previously negative views of homosexuality. To do this they must declare as one Yale seminary educated political science professor did in my hearing - "the Bible is wrong."

In our own circle, liberal and moderate Presbyterians follow the spirit of the age blindly and fall right inline with the "new thoughts" on homosexuality. Now, by their own assessment, and by standards yet to be explained, they elevated their opinion to the status of a "justice issue." All former principles, throughout time, are judged by its usefulness in freeing homosexuals from this social slavery of shame. Among their hindrances are the Book of Confessions, the Book of Order, declarations by two General Assemblies and various decisions from the church courts. We are about to change the Book of Order to make more Gay Friendly. The Confessions are easily dismissed as mere "guidance." The word of God, the written testimony is deemed inferior to the Word of God the Person of Jesus, who purportedly would, if he could, testify in favor of homosexuality. While in some Gnostic trance, they hear Jesus saying, "As long as they are enjoying themselves and harming no one I am in favor of it."

This is the prime example of how a once great movement of God, founded like no other on biblical principles has abandoned most of what was once held precious to us. Our principles, of every sort, have been traded for a handful politically expedient maneuvering. "Principle be damned, let just do the right thing."