“Most devastating of all was the culture of secrecy combined with a large population of like-minded and sexually oriented men, who worked against a culture of transparency and moral rigor. Instead, the internal culture facilitated an environment where pedophiles knew they wouldn’t be outed or called to account for their criminal behavior.”
(The Aquila Report) As an almost 30-year church member in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), I have watched and listened with great interest and concern as certain voices in the PCA have been clamoring to allow celibate homosexual pastors and church officers (the so called “Side B”). My concerns stem from my time as a member of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) from birth and my time in a Junior Seminary from thirteen to eighteen.
I spent my formative years in a communion which advocated for allowing celibate men to serve as priests as both a spiritual good and a vocational necessity (i.e., a lack of parish priests). As a spiritual good, it ran contrary to Paul’s expectation of a heteronormativity of elders. That some elders (perhaps Timothy) were unmarried was not an argument against heteronormativity but rather a reality that he simply wasn’t married. Heterosexuality in the New Testament is regarded as a natural and cultic norm. Nowhere is homosexuality given that consideration; rather, it’s always regarded as a deviation from that norm, sin, if you will.
With regard to vocational necessity, I know of no presbytery where there is a lack of trained men seeking calls to serve as pastors. In fact, most presbyteries have more than a handful of trained and qualified men looking for a pastoral call.
Research: