THE HOLY WORK OF DISAGREEING

This Saturday, the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) convenes in Portland, Oregon. The General Assembly is the highest council of the church, consisting of commissioners sent from all 171 presbyteries of our denomination. It is also the oldest, regularly meeting, democratically elected government in the world - beating the U.S. Congress by one year (although since 2004 the Assembly has met every two years, not annually).

The two systems: Presbyterian government and U.S. civil government, grew up together, offspring of the same mother, the theology of John Calvin (tempered with 18th century British and French philosophy), as taught by Presbyterian minister and Princeton professor John Witherspoon. Witherspoon was not only the lone clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, he was also the principle architect of both the original Presbyterian Book of Order and, through his students James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, the U.S. Constitution.

Witherspoon taught theology, which included political theory. He believed that Calvin's tenets of Divine sovereignty and universal human sinfulness demand a republican form of government - that is, a government which checked the tendency to abuse power by limiting the reach of government and establishing "checks and balances" on its power. He also believed that as authority increased in a system of government, so should accountability. Higher levels of power in government must be exercised by increasingly broader representation of the people. For Witherspoon, unlike the European monarchs who claimed "the divine right of kings," power was derived from the consent of the governed, and should be exercised in deliberative assemblies by persons entrusted with discerning what is just and right.

It is important to remember, therefore, that both our civil and church government are designed to be tense and controversial. It is much *easier* to have a monarch settle disputes, or to enshrine a single point of view as law. But Presbyterian republicanism is very much aware that our human sinfulness will lead the former toward tyranny and the latter toward authoritarianism. No, political disagreement is a holy task, the way by which the Spirit breathes freedom, accountability, and reform into a system that left unchecked will lead to the death of freedom.

By this token, those with whom we disagree are not enemies, but partners. By actively (and prayerfully) discerning the will of God together, we make decisions in humility, knowing our proneness to error and the possibility that God could just as well be speaking through those "on the other side." It also means that when we disagree with what has been decided, we must also exercise humility, recognizing that God could be teaching us something through the voice of the majority.

There is much coming to this Assembly to spark controversy, from the morality of investing in fossil fuel producing companies to whether we should adopt new rules for worship. One thing is certain - we will disagree. But worse than a vocal and even heated disagreement are the twin poles of tyranny on the one hand and apathy on the other. What Winston Churchill said of democracy: "The worst form of government ever devised, except for all the others people have tried from time to time," applies as well to Presbyterian General Assemblies.

Stated Clerk Ted McCulloch and I will bring regular updates on the Assembly to the presbytery. But please pray as well - not for a particular outcome, but for your commissioners and for a process that seeks and follows the will of God, and strengthens the witness of the church to the love and justice of Jesus Christ.  And let us also pray for a church that is able to disagree while still recognizing the holy purpose of that disagreement in a community of forgiven sinners, including us.