Lack of Institutional Control

Major university/college athletics are governed by the NCAA. The NCAA has a set of rules that are to be enforced. Just this week the University of Washington announced that four football students are academically ineligible—they did not meet NCAA rules concerning academics. A university can be hit with severe penalties if they have numerous infractions across their athletic programs. The NCAA has a title for this type of problem—“lack of institutional control.”

Has the PCUSA reached the point where there is a lack of institutional control?

1. The NCAA has a set of rules that must be followed. The PCUSA now has a set of rules that any ordaining body can say are not an essential part of the Reformed Tradition.

2. The GA Stated Clerk has not stated whether, in his opinion, the approved PUP report allows ordaining bodies to ordain sexually active LGBT persons.

3. The August 2006 issue of Presbyterians Today says that the ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians “is possible even now…”

4. The General Assembly Council appoints the board members for Westminster/John Knox Press (WJKP). There has been no public apology by WJKP over the publication of The Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11 by David Ray Griffin. No one has been fired. The book is still being published. The GA Council has issued no statement about the book and its publication.

5. The main writer of the Trinity paper has said that the paper was “fuzzy” and “rough” in key areas. This is the same staff person who was with the group that met with Hezbollah in 2004. Why is this staff person still employed by the PCUSA?

6. The Redwoods Presbytery Permanent Judicial Commission acquitted the Rev. Jane Spahr of the charges against her pertaining to performing a “marriage” of gay couples and lesbian couples. She admitted that she has performed such marriages.

The list could go on and on!

The NCAA has a list of acts that demonstrate a lack of institutional controls. That list includes:

1. “A person with compliance responsibilities fails to establish a proper system for compliance or fails to monitor the operations of a compliance system appropriately.”
2. “A person with compliance responsibilities does not take steps to alter the system of compliance when there are indications the system is not working.”
3. “A supervisor with overall responsibility for compliance, in assigning duties to subordinates, so divides responsibilities that, as a practical matter, no one is, or appears to be, directly in charge.”
4. ‘Compliance duties are assigned to a subordinate who lacks sufficient authority to have the confidence or respect of others.”
5. “The institution fails to make clear, by its words and its actions, that those personnel who willfully violate NCAA rules, or who are grossly negligent in applying those rules, will be disciplined and made subject to discharge.”
6. “The institution fails to make clear that any individual involved in its intercollegiate athletics program has a duty to report any perceived violations of NCAA rules and can do so without fear of reprisals of any kind.”
7. “A director of athletics or any other individual with compliance responsibilities fails to investigate or direct an investigation of a possible significant violation of NCAA rules or fails to report a violation properly."
8. “A head coach fails to create and maintain an atmosphere for compliance within the program the coach supervises or fails to monitor the activities of assistant coaches regarding compliance.”

It is laughable that a sports group like the NCAA is run better than the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). A “church” should have higher standards of conduct than any other organization.