Identiy Theft

“Identity Theft”
By Bill Crawford
Written following the 2004 GA published here to have a web record


When I traveled to the General Assembly as an observer this summer three things happened that pretty much summed up my experience. The first was that someone unbeknown to me was having a considerable amount of fun with my credit card number. A woman in a neighboring city managed to buy herself a new wardrobe, she bused a friend in from Florida, and together they enjoyed the Essence Festival and a quality hotel room all on me. She also bought some exercise equipment and a jukebox. Unfortunately she was unable to receive her computer and new air conditioner before I returned home and figured out what was going on. I share this experience because I believe it is a perfect illustration of what is going on at our General Assemblies.

The second thing happened the week before GA at my parent’s picturesque farmhouse in rural Virginia. Our family has lived there since running water was considered the creek. We have shared the house with a colony of bats that have been chased from one attic to the chimney to another attic back to the chimney and then yet another attic. Having had enough, of their nightly raids and the smell that comes with them, we were forced to plug the hole and force them to move on once again. Unfortunately the thirty or forty bats still inside were not very pleased with this arrangement. Bats began to come out of the woodwork and in one evening I removed seven from our bedroom alone.

Why these two stories? The first relates to the idea that many of us do not share common identity within our denomination despite claims that we do. The second is that many of us believe that with the passing of the “fidelity and chastity rule” we had plugged the hole on our denominational problems but the reality is that the problems continue to come out of the woodwork and just as I spent the next three sleepless nights keeping bats away from my two children and wife we will spend many years figuring out what problems we have running around our theological attic.

One of these issues that I observed at General Assembly was to see the goings on at the Health Issues committee which dealt with the abortion issue. I must say I was in for a shock and a real learning curve. I wonder how many of the members in the pew know that the PC(USA) and its predecessor denominations have been involved in the Pro-Choice movement from the ground floor? I was shocked to find that the glass ceiling for evangelicals described by Winfield Casey Jones on July 17th was absolutely true for all three major advocacy committees represented at that discussion. Not one member of any of the committees presented an attitude other than fervently pro-choice. We as a denomination are certainly not single minded on this issue. Why are our advocacy committees?

We were talking about late term abortions that occur after the point of fetal viability. The report that came out of the GA committee was not talking about trying to advocate for changing the laws of the Nation but merely the attitude of our counsel. And even then the language did not demand anyone adhere to this opinion. This was the most balanced and neutral position ever handed to the plenary floor on abortion and it was defeated and I wondered who are we? Someone has stolen my identity and taken my name and added to their political agenda. Little did I know that this form of identity theft was going on at the same time with my credit card? Why would people who claim to be my sisters and brothers force support for abortion upon me when they know I consider it murder? Could they not be satisfied with having their legal right to this behavior?

The third thing that happened to me at GA happened the same night of the debate on the Iraq war. I was exhausted and chose to go back to my hotel room only to find that my magnetic yellow ribbon saying “Pray for our Troops” was missing from the back of my vehicle. The irony only struck me later as I saw our denomination declare that our President is a criminal and that our troops are participating in war crimes. If so where are the legal charges? Where is the UN? There is no crime and frankly I find these statements reckless and damaging to the name of our Denomination.

These three events have caused me to once again examine our denomination and my commitment to it. I have resolved that we must firmly engage our differences and re-affirm our written documents the Constitution of this Church.

After I discovered the identity theft, back home, I learned a truth that many of you already know nobody will do anything about the crime. I learned that despite the fact that we know a physical address for deliveries, despite knowing the dress size and wardrobe of the criminal, despite knowing which hotel she stayed in during a particular week, despite knowing which bus her friend rode on to visit her, despite any number of pieces of evidence that should make her easy to catch it is still not worth the work to ferret her out. No body in authority has the will to pursue this person and provide them with correction and as a result the crime of “identity theft” grows around our country. Our first question is, “do we have the resolve to enforce our policies and make them representative of the whole church?”

I believe our denomination has a bat problem. There is a theological attic that needs some clarity and the light of day. You see bats are basically benign creatures but their habitat is unhealthy to human beings. Ultimately the two cannot share the same house. When we passed G-6.0106b we stopped up the hole but we still have many bats in the house. There is a way to finish the work but it requires diligence, hard work, loving kindness, and a constant presence. Our second question is, “do we have the resolve to enforce our constitution and remain orthodox in practice as well as in written word?”

Finally I am firmly committed to our church. I am firmly committed to its reform. After my experience at GA I have one proposal. At the next GA in Birmingham I suggest that every church within 500 miles send at least one observer. I suggest that every Confessing Church send one observer. For only when we get angry enough about our identity being stolen will anything be done only then will we have enough desire to ferret out the problem to correct it. Until we take ownership of our problem then we really have no right to point fingers and complain only then will we see renewal at the national level.




Bill Crawford
Pastor
First Presbyterian Church
Thibodaux, LA.