In support of the current version, Dr Robert AJ Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary argues that the original German text alludes to the Scripture passage 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 which, in the New English Bible translation, lists "homosexual perversion".
"The spirit of the text of the Catechism is clear enough. It is the exact opposite of the attempt now being made to make the Confessions open to homosexual practice," Gagnon said in a written argument last week. "The attempt at retranslation is not about history and honesty but ideology and a homosexualist agenda."
Three professors - Bruce L McCormack, E David Willis, Michael D Bush - from Princeton Theological Seminary and Erskine Theological Seminary, issued a statement saying those proposing for changes fail to understand how the Book of Confessions function.
"It is not the Latin and German texts from the sixteenth century that guide our Church, but rather it is the English texts adopted by the deliberative assemblies of the Church and published in the Book of Confessions by which every officer of our Church has vowed to be guided," they said. "These English versions have been responsibly translated and carefully chosen as 'faithful expositions of what Scripture teaches us to believe and do'."
Other supporters of the current Heidelberg version also appealed to the church's longstanding condemnation of homosexuality, according to PC(USA)'s news service from the 218th General Assembly in San Jose, California.
The issue was first visited at the General Assembly in 1997 and then again in 1998. Recommendations for changes to the catechism were voted down. But this year, the Committee on Theological Issues and Institutions approved 33-26 to ask the 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA) to make changes to the 1962 version.
Meanwhile, William J Weston, a sociology professor at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, believes no one even makes anything serious of what the Heidelberg Catechism says. He went further to say that the Book of Confessions has become merely advisory and is ignored, according to his blog post Tuesday.
Thus, he argues, "The whole Heidelberg translation issue is not really about changing a serious or effective part of the Presbyterian constitution. It is a symbolic feint in the ideological struggle over normalising homosexual practice."
"What the church really needs is a confession it actually confesses. Then we can have a serious discussion of how, exactly, it is worded," Weston added.
