“I can find no justification for this biblically, and it hurts. It deeply hurts, honestly. I think the result will be that the (national) church will split apart . . . Today the church has become impotent. Our views and values and beliefs are no longer different from the world. Secular life has merged with Christian life and the church has become irrelevant”

Local Presbyterian pastors were unanimous in their opposition to a change in national church policy regarding ordination of homosexuals, and all predict the passage of Amendment 10-A will further fracture a church that’s been split over the issue for decades.

Amendment 10-A allows individual churches to exercise “local option,” which at some churches will mean continuing current practices regarding ordination of homosexuals, and at others, opening the door to gay clergy members and lay leaders.

Two of Pueblo’s Presbyterian churches — Westminster and First Presbyterian — belong to the Presbyterian Church USA, which approved the amendment Tuesday. Pueblo West’s Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church in Pueblo West is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America.

The Rev. Mark Spellman, pastor of Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, said the amendment illustrates further why the Presbyterian Church in America was formed in 1973.

The split was the result of widespread “opposition to the long-developing theological liberalism which denied the deity of Jesus Christ and the inerrancy and authority of the Scriptures,” Spellman said.

He said Tuesday’s vote once again poses the question of “whether or not the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice. Is the Word of God without error? Is it able to speak to every area of our lives? If it is, then we can’t pick and choose what we like or don’t like and decide based on our own whims, our own personal desires, what is right and wrong.”

Spellman said those within PCUSA who are opposed to the amendment now “belong to a denomination that gives no clear counsel concerning sexuality and purity. By dropping the ‘fidelity and chastity’ standard, the PCUSA has in effect separated itself from the Scriptures that are our ‘only rule of faith and practice.’ It separates itself from the historic Christian tradition and has become so much like the world that there appears to be no difference.”

The Rev. Adrian Washington at Westminster Presbyterian echoed Spellman’s claim and said he is painfully disturbed by the message he believes the amendment sends out to the world.

“I can find no justification for this biblically, and it hurts. It deeply hurts, honestly. I think the result will be that the (national) church will split apart . . . Today the church has become impotent. Our views and values and beliefs are no longer different from the world. Secular life has merged with Christian life and the church has become irrelevant,” Washington said, stressing that the 27-church Pueblo Presbytery, which stretches south and east to the New Mexico and Kansas borders and west to Salida, voted against the measure.

“This amendment is not going to affect the life and ministry of Westminster Presbyterian Church. We know who we are in Christ. We know that we are called to love. We know we are called to reach out to people — even those who are different from us. But in reaching out to those who are different, we do not throw out our values as followers of Christ.

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