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04/20/2004: "Presbyterian choices, sort of"

The Rev. Susan Andrews, moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA, has a curious way of characterizing the choices that lay before her denomination regarding homosexuality. She told the Houston Chronicle:

"We have three choices we can mandate: that gays and lesbians be ordained and (then the church) can split. We can say gays and lesbians can never be ordained and continue to fight this battle for decades. Or we can agree to disagree by figuring out a way that those (church councils) that want to ordain gays and lesbians can do so but people who feel it is a sin don't have to and will never be forced to have a gay or lesbian elder, deacon or minister of word and sacrament."

Translation: We can ordain gays and lesbians and have conservatives leave; or we can refuse to ordain gays and lesbians and continue to deal with it year after year (because of the persistence of the people who aren't obsessed by sexuality issues); or we can ordain gays and lesbians and ghettoize conservatives. Is that really three choices?