WHEREAS, taking these various troubling and problematic views held by those in key positions of leadership for the conference into account, these unbiblical viewpoints and teachings also then appeared to make their way into many of the breakout sessions as well, which had titles such as “Redeeming Queer Culture: An Adventure,” “Journey To Embrace: A Conversation On Empowering the Church To Embrace the LGBT+ Community In Fresh Ways,” and “Coming Out In the Shadow of the Cross: Queer Visibility as Redemptive Suffering.”

On November 3, 2018, the Central Carolina Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America approved the following overture creating a study committee to look into and recommend actions in light of the Revoice Conference.

WHEREAS, the recent Revoice 2018 Conference, held at the end of July 2018 and hosted by Memorial Presbyterian Church (PCA) in St. Louis, MO, has generated a large amount of controversy, confusion, and criticism within many reformed and evangelical circles;

WHEREAS, the Revoice movement aligns itself under the umbrella of the historic orthodox Christian faith: “Revoice promotes the historic Christian doctrine of marriage that honors either opposite-sex marriage or celibacy as the only viable vocations Christians can pursue in stewarding their sexuality.” (https://www.revoice.us/)

WHEREAS, at the same time, Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler very helpfully points out (with 1 Corinthians 6:11 in view) how “the mission statement and website of the conference refer over and over again to ‘LGBT people’ and uses the language of ‘sexual minorities’ and even ‘queer Christians’”, language that further “implies that Christians can be identified in an ongoing manner with a sexual identity that is contrary to Scripture.” (https://albertmohler.com/…/torn-two-cultures-revoice-lgbt-…/; https://www.revoice.us/)

WHEREAS, specifically, the conference’s usage of the term “sexual minority” (even on its own website) seems to speak of it as a “settled identity,” suggesting that “sexual orientation is a constituent part of one’s identity, and a neutral, or even a positive part at that,” something which “undermines the biblical notion that a desire for something illegitimate is in itself an illegitimate desire in need of repentance and grace.” (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/…/words-labels-sexual-m…/; https://www.revoice.us/)

WHERERAS, in Revoice founder Nate Collin’s own words (during an interview discussing fallout from the conference), he explains how “one of the ways I talk about the sinful aspect of being gay in my book is calling it a disability,” a teaching that further seems to treat same-sex attraction as morally neutral, and which not in line with a Biblical understanding of temptation and sin (James 1:14-15). (https://www.christianitytoday.com/…/revoices-founder-answer…)

WHEREAS, in addition, the leaders of Revoice appear to celebrate same-sex attraction, even going so far as to suggest that it is a gift from God. At one point during the conference, founder Nate Collins asked “Is it possible that gay people today are being sent by God, like Jeremiah, to find God’s words for the church… Is it possible that gender and sexual minorities who have lived lives of costly obedience are themselves a prophetic call to the church to abandon idolatrous attitudes toward the nuclear family, toward sexual pleasure? If so, we are prophets.”
(https://albertmohler.com/…/torn-two-cultures-revoice-lgbt-…/)

WHEREAS, in his book, All But Invisible: Exploring Identity Questions at the Intersection of Faith, Gender, and Sexuality, Nate Collins also writes about how he believes “heteronormativity” is a crucial problem that must be addressed, because while “It’s one thing to say that the only kind of sexual expression permitted by Scripture is the heterosexual pattern. It’s another thing to say that heterosexual orientations as they are embedded in our fallen world are not sinful in themselves because they match the general creational pattern,” a statement that Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler rightly points out is “simply wrong,” pointing to Romans 1:26-27. (https://albertmohler.com/…/torn-two-cultures-revoice-lgbt-…/)

WHEREAS, further, this rejection of the Biblical male/female (binary) distinction is also rejected by Greg Coles, worship leader at Revoice, who writes in his own book how “’My orientation before the Fall was meant to be a gift…within God’s flawless original design there might have been eunuchs…What if God dreamed homosexuality for me, wove it into the fabric of my being as he knit me together, … I believe that God could have possibly said over me, as he did over all creation, ‘It is good.’” (https://truthxchange.com/20…/…/revoice-sliding-into-heresy/…)

WHEREAS, taking these various troubling and problematic views held by those in key positions of leadership for the conference into account, these unbiblical viewpoints and teachings also then appeared to make their way into many of the breakout sessions as well, which had titles such as “Redeeming Queer Culture: An Adventure,” “Journey To Embrace: A Conversation On Empowering the Church To Embrace the LGBT+ Community In Fresh Ways,” and “Coming Out In the Shadow of the Cross: Queer Visibility as Redemptive Suffering.” (https://www.challies.com/…/the-controversy-behind-the-revo…/)

MOVED, that Central Carolina Presbytery form an ad interim Study Committee to explore the 2018 Revoice Conference and to report its findings to Central Carolina Presbytery and recommend any action that the Presbytery might take.