The original answer to Question 87 read as follows: "Certainly not! Scripture says, 'Surely you know that the unjust will never come into possession of the kingdom of God. Make no mistake: no fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery or of homosexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers or drunkards or swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God.'" The line "homosexual perversion," a direct reference to 1 Cor 6:9-11, will be removed to open the door for the ordination of homosexuals.

The assembly then voted to change the denomination's standards for ordination, which formerly required that all PCUSA members live in "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness." That standard will be replaced by one that does not include any reference to sexual integrity.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., board member of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, on his blog Monday typified the PCUSA decision a "day of disaster" for the denomination.

"Taken together, these changes represent a disaster for this church. In capitulating to the demand that homosexuality be normalized, the church turned its back on the Bible, on its own tradition, and on the protests and prayers of its members who would, of all things, expect their ministers to exhibit "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.

"Just reflect for a moment about what the removal of those words really means. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA has just proposed to define its own denomination as a church for which those words no longer make sense."

Sadly, the PCUSA is not alone in its affirmation of gay ordination.

Anglicans in England also continue to drift radically from biblical teaching on sexuality. Many evangelicals were outraged when it was revealed this month that the civil partnership of two gay priests had been blessed in a London church with a traditional wedding liturgy. Over the weekend a conservative evangelical Anglican group declared that it will create a new body, a "church within a church," called the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, in response to the Anglican embrace of homosexuality. The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans will have its own bishops, clergy and theological colleges.

Similarly, 11 conservative Episcopalians in Richmond, Va., won a legal victory Friday when a judge upheld a Virginia law that allows the churches to secede from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia over the role of homosexuals in church. The denominational strife in Virginia dates largely to the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The denomination has adopted a general acceptance of gays. That has rankled the conservative minority within the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the 77 million-member world Anglican Communion. Many conservative parishioners have aligned with Nigeria's conservative Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola, who created the Convocation of Anglicans in North America as a haven for disaffected congregations.

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