Overture to require monogamy for clergy prompts pushback in PCUSA: 'Spiritual coercion'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, June 10, 2026

A proposed rule to mandate monogamy among ordained clergy, including those in homosexual relationships, has prompted pushback from three committees of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

The overture, which was submitted by the Presbytery of Sierra Blanca in New Mexico to be considered at the PCUSA's General Assembly later this month in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, would amend the denomination's Book of Order to require clergy "in any relationship of a sexual nature" to be "living in a monogamous one."

According to "advice and counsel" appended to the overture, the proposal has been met with resistance from the PCUSA's Advocacy Committee for Women and Gender Justice, the Advocacy Committee on LGBTQIA+ Equity and the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy.

The Advocacy Committee for Women and Gender Justice said they could not support the overture requiring monogamous relationships "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."

Citing the Book of Order's affirmation that "God alone is Lord of the conscience," the Women and Gender Justice committee said "that the role of the Church is not to impose uniformity of personal life but to cultivate communities marked by justice, accountability, and love," and argued that the overture "frames moral character through a narrow relational mandate that does not, in itself, prevent harm."

"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," the committee said.

The Advocacy Committee on LGBTQIA+ Equity said the overture "potentially creates a number of problems," accusing it of using vague language and conflating polyamory and polygamy, which they noted "are not the same thing."

In addition to citing a study suggesting people in polyamorous relationships report relationship satisfaction, the LGBTQIA+ Equity committee also accused the overture of promoting "a narrow, culturally specific understanding of family and relationship structure that does not reflect the diversity of God's people."

The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy also disapproved of the overture, instead recommending another overture to "fund and develop a comprehensive theological framework document and study guide that addresses human sexuality and gender," as well as establish "guidance for the use of inclusive and non-binary language."

More Light Presbyterians, an LGBTQ-affirming advocacy network representing hundreds of PCUSA churches, also came out against the overture, claiming in a statement last month that it "represents a step backward" and "raises significant theological, pastoral, and justice concerns."

"While framed in the language of faithfulness, it risks reinforcing narrow and culturally bound definitions of relationship that have historically been used to exclude, police, and harm queer bodies and lives," said the group, who noted they believe "God's call is not contingent upon conformity to narrow relational expectations."

The debate over polyamory in the PCUSA comes 11 years after a majority of its presbyteries approved an amendment allowing same-sex marriage in 2015, which roughly coincided with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. The same had taken place in 2011 regarding the ordination of openly LGBT individuals.

Robert Gagnon, who serves as Visiting Scholar at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Ridgeland, Mississippi, suggested in-fighting over the morality of polyamory is the logical end stage for a denomination that has rejected the biblical strictures on homosexuality.

"You can't expect to eliminate the foundation (a male-female prerequisite for all sexual unions) and then expect to hold the line on a principle of number (only two persons in a sexual union at any one time) secondarily extrapolated from the foundation that you just eliminated," wrote Gagnon, who authored The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics.

"The bigger violation of sexual ethics is the acceptance of homosexual unions, which (unlike the acceptance of polyamory) involves an assault on the very foundation of sexual ethics in Scripture that Jesus embraced," he added.