Ken Savage, who suggested in August 2004 that the Ministers Council engage in a Jerusalem Council, sent a letter addressed to each Ministers Council Senator on February 16, 2005. Ken is a retired pastor who once served as a PSW Senator and has been re-elected to that position for Senate 2005.
Ken's letter appears below, followed by some of the responses Senators have sent to him at his invitation. We are grateful for this exchange that deepens the Jerusalem Council opportunity for discernment and dialogue. We conduct our conversations in the spirit of this prayer:
O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing. Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
February 16, 2005
Dear Senator:
I am a Ministers Council senator from the PSW region looking forward to our meeting in August at Green Lake. We will be voting on a proposed by-law amendment which came from our region that denies the seating of a practicing gay or lesbian senator. Kate Harvey picked up on my suggestion that the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 could serve as a Biblical model for dealing with this controversial issue. The process is now happening which will lead to an August vote.
I would like to make some observations and invite your response. We are deeply divided over accepting the practice of homosexuality. Repressing the subject in the name of unity has proved to be a neurotic response. As in marriage counseling, the first step is to bring the problem to the surface so it can be discussed. We may all have to look at what we assume as well as what we believe.
The Jerusalem Council involved all the stakeholders. In Acts 15 the whole church was represented at the same time and place. What we are doing is limited. The Ministers Council does not represent all the pastors. Many in our region have dismissed it as irrelevant. Nor is it that heavy in our denominational hierachy. However, what we are doing can be strategic and a bellwether for everyone.
The Jerusalem Council involved much debate. (15:7, NRSV) I picture Jewish Christians being very emotional The problem was not solved by taking a survey but only after real head knocking. The Spirit led through applied Scripture and experience. They did not spend time on spiritual exercises implying that if hearts were right the problem would disappear. Getting to the bottom of an issue like this will take more that a two minute presentation or a 500 word essay.
The Jerusalem Council addressed the main issue. It didn't settle corallary issues that could have been raised. How Jewish and Gentile Christians should have table fellowship was addressed later by Paul in Galatians 2. Issues of Baptist polity and tradtion are real but are secondary to the main issue before us.
The Jerusalem Council came to a conclusion for the whole church. It was decided that a Gentile could become a Christian without first becoming a Jew through circumcision. It was not left up to each local church (or region) to decide. They did not end by simply listening to each other and loving each other. One position carried the day with the understanding that all would be sensitive to the others' concerns.
The Jerusalem Council is only one New Testament paradigm. If we accept this one, there are others to consider:
The issue before us is another round in the Modernist-Fundamentalist controversy of the last century. The hot button issue then was belief in the virgin birth of Jesus. The blessing of homosexual practice is the hot button issue now. In both cases the underlying issue is the nature of Biblical authority. There is no reason to discuss what the Bible teaches if it has no authority. Or if "freedom" is an absolute with no boundaries, that also short circuits the discussion. Unless we find a common denominator in the basis for and nature of Biblical authority, we will talk past each other and get nowhere.
In the Jerusalem Council Hebrew scriptures were cited that opened the door for the Gentiles. Similar doors are opened in scripture for denouncing slavery and for women in ministry. Where are the scriptural doors for the approval of homosexual practice? To refer to "Biblical" authority, we must tie the Old and New Testaments together and project the message to our own day. What are the connections? I look forward to your response.
Ken Savage
Senator from PSW