Several committees within the Presbyterian Church (USA) are up in arms and speaking up after a proposal at their upcoming General Assembly this summer would mandate that their clergy have to be monogamous and sexually faithful to only one person.
The PCUSA church has been apostate for decades, and the new rule-CON 10- doesn’t target LGBTQ relationships, which have openly celebrated for just about as long. Instead, it targets clergy living in polygamous or polyamorous relationships, which is a growing problem in the progressive denomination.
The rule, submitted by the Sierra Blanca Presbytery, states that PC(USA) pastors must “display moral character” and, “if engaged in any relationship of a sexual nature, living in a monogamous one.”
Furthermore, the proposal asks the denomination to develop pastoral resources to help people leaving “polyamorous or polygamous situations.”
The proposal was written by Presbyterians for the Kingdom, the non-profit from @redeemed_zoomer.
This has not gone down well with several official PCUSA advisory committees, including the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, the Advocacy Committee for Women and Gender Justice, and the Advocacy Committee on LGBTQIA+ Equity, who have now spoken out against it.
The latter notes that this proposal doesn’t reflect God’s diversity and is the result of white privilege.
“This overture also imposes a narrow, culturally specific understanding of family and relationship structure that does not reflect the diversity of God’s people. Across many cultures represented within the PC(USA), family and relational structures take forms that this overture’s language would penalize or attempt to erase.
To codify one cultural norm as the singular standard for ordained ministry is not a neutral theological act. It reflects the same pattern of privileging a dominant cultural framework over the lived realities of communities of color and global Christians that the Church has been working to dismantle.”
The Advocacy Committee on Women and Gender Justice likewise notes that the insistence that clergy be monogamous is a terrible idea, writing in their dissent:
The Advocacy Committee on Women and Gender Justice cannot support this recommendation because it extends beyond the Church’s call to form disciples into an attempt to regulate the private lives and relational structures of individuals in ways that risk harm rather than healing. As a Reformed body, the PC(USA) has long affirmed that “God alone is Lord of the conscience” (Book of Order, F-3.0101), and that the role of the Church is not to impose uniformity of personal life but to cultivate communities marked by justice, accountability, and love.
This proposal frames moral character through a narrow relational mandate that does not, in itself, prevent harm, nor does it account for the reality that, “…power imbalances, emotional harm, and spiritual confusion, particularly for women, children, and historically marginalized persons,” are not unique to polyamorous relationships structures, even including those that are formally monogamous.…From a trauma-informed perspective, policies that seek to define and restrict relational structures can unintentionally reinforce systems of shame, silence, and spiritual coercion, particularly for those already navigating complex or marginalized identities.
…Faithfulness is not measured by conformity to a single relational model, but by the presence of mutuality, consent, dignity, and care. For these reasons, this recommendation does not strengthen the Church’s witness. It risks narrowing it, placing boundaries where the gospel calls us to practice humility, discernment, and trust in the work of the Spirit among God’s people.
We would like to suggest redirecting ourselves from a narrow understanding of relationships towards a more comprehensive, theological, and ethical framework for diverse flourishing families and relationships in our faith communities.
As a result of the pushback, we expect it to go down in flames.
