What really "won" in recent PCUSA vote was the process

Last week the Presbyterian Church made news for something other than membership declines. Most media outlets picked up news of the denomination-wide vote that ostensibly created a way for openly gay people to be ordained in the denomination.

Let me disclose first that the decision delights me. I'm in the group of Christians that finds the biblical witness about homosexual relations to be as "time bound" as the injunction against wearing two kinds of fabrics. I have found gay folk to be every bit as good (and bad) as straight folk in bearing witness to the good news of God in Jesus Christ.

That said, I read a few of the news reports and I found that they were casting the PCUSA as a "gay-friendly" denomination. While I wish it were, it's not. The principles that "won" in our denomination's recent vote had little to do with gay rights--what carried the day were the principles of majority rule and local autonomy.

Majority rule and local autonomy are not sexy ideas. There are no nonprofits with celebrity spokespeople out there advocating on their behalf. No one goes to gala fundraisers or participates in advocacy campaigns for majority rule or local autonomy.

Instead, those concepts are woven into the Presbyterian system of government. The Presbyterians came into being around the same time that folks like Alexander Hamilton and John Adams were hashing out the new American system of government. You should notice the similarities, because they are there. The PCUSA runs closer than any other denomination to the American system of representative democracy (or, some might argue, the American system runs closer to the Presbyterian system...).

In our recent vote, there was not a shred of pro-gay language in the amendment that was approved by a majority of elders and clergy in locally-held votes around the country. If there had been, I'm sad to say, it would not have passed. What did pass was an amendment to our constitution that lets local presbyteries decide acceptable behavioral standards for those who will be ordained. Recognizing that the denomination is still divided over whether it's ok to be gay, we voted to let each local body--where there is the most face-to-face accountability--establish their own level of specificity about what it means for ordination candidates to live lives that bear faithful witness to Jesus.

Folks have cheered this vote as a victory for gay rights, and perhaps secondarily, it is. Some presbyteries will ordain gay folks. But there were no "rights" established in this decision. Many presbyteries will continue to prohibit people from being ordained solely because they are gay. For "gay activists" (like myself), there is lots of work left to do before we rest.

At bottom, the vote strikes me as a victory for humility. In an age when we celebrate total victories, and our religion frequently strikes a triumphalist tone, I appreciate being part of a church tradition that has enshrined a decision-making process that allows majorities to rule, while protecting the rights of the minority.  I appreciate deeply the move toward local autonomy, where difficult and contentious conversations can be had with people who live across the street or sit across a table and where the integrity of relationships matter.

There's no "interest group" for majority rule; there's no long-term strategy envisioning the day when local autonomy will carry the day. Those ideas are simply part of the legacy that was given to modern-day Presbyterians by the wise heads who created this tradition and handed it on. I find profound peace--and no small measure of grace--in a church that enshrines these principles. They allow people who disagree with one another to be decent and humane to one another within the same institution. These days, that's no small thing. In fact, it may be the most important witness that the PCUSA can make to the world right now.

Some day, it's my hope that the PCUSA will become pro-gay. Others will work to ensure that never happens. I am still proud of my denomination for its un-sexy decision-making process--a process that showed itself again to be moderate, humble, and deeply respectful of the complexity of conflict within Christ's church.