PCUSA removes 'gay' condemnation from faith document
A committee in the Presbyterian Church (USA) approved on Monday changes to a translated version of a document of the Reformed Christian faith – changes opponents say are a smokescreen effort to remove a negative reference to homosexual behaviour.
PC(USA) commissioners and delegates at their biennial General Assembly went into nearly seven hours of debate on overtures, or resolutions, that called for changes to the 1962 Miller-Osterhaven translation of the Heidelberg Catechism. Much of the controversy revolved around a reference to "homosexual perversion" that is not found in the original German text.
Written in the 16th century, the Heidelberg Catechism has been translated into many languages and the PC(USA) adopted in 1967 the Miller-Osterhaven version in its Book of Confessions. Opponents of the current translation say the original text and all subsequent translations do not contain any...