CREEDE HINSHAW: Pastors face tough choices

Pastors often must make tough choices when it comes to congregational care, balancing the requests of church members while trying to remain true to the pastor’s faith, theology and meaning of the church.

This dilemma was powerfully described (pages 707-708) in Ron Chernow’s magnificent 700-page book “Alexander Hamilton.” Most of us probably know that Hamilton was killed in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. But Hamilton’s death did not happen on the Weehawken, N.J., dueling ground. Wounded mortally, he was rowed across the river to New York City, where he died the following day in his own home.

This slow death put two pastors in an impossible bind. Hamilton pleaded to receive last rites from the Episcopal Church before he died. But two factors made it difficult for a clergyman to agree to the last wishes of this dying man. First, Hamilton had rarely darkened the doors of any church during his life. Second, he was dying as a result of an act – dueling — that was condemned by the church.

Hamilton first asked Benjamin Moore, Episcopal bishop of New York, president of Columbia College and former rector of Trinity Church, to administer the rite. Moore refused, citing church law and tradition, reasoning that it would have been the meaningless gesture of a non-church-goer who was on his deathbed due to deliberate sin.

Next, Hamilton turned to a dear friend, the Rev. John M. Mason, pastor of the Scots Presbyterian Church. When Mason entered Hamilton’s room, the dying man implored him to serve him the Lord’s Supper. Mason refused, saying that although it caused him “unutterable pain, it is a principle of our churches never to administer the Lord’s Supper privately to any person under any circumstance.”

These decisions probably appear harsh to the modern reader, but viewed from another perspective, they were the reasoned judgment of two very conscientious churchmen.

But one thing that made Hamilton so successful was his perseverance, and so he implored Bishop Moore a second time for mercy. Hamilton’s friends added to the cleric’s dilemma, insisting that it was heartless of a pastor to refuse a dying man’s last wish. Only a cruel man could make such an unjustifiable decision, they said.

Every pastor will recognize this story. Faithful and unfaithful church members make requests or demands that seem quite easy for the pastor to fulfill (baptisms, weddings, a request to join the church, etc.). But the pastor – because of his/her understanding of faith and the church — is in the uncomfortable position of either remaining true to principles and denying a person what seems so easy to grant or granting the request at the cost of cheapening or even denying the true meaning of faith and church.

Bishop Moore relented. Hamilton expressed remorse for dueling and vowed that he wanted to join the church. He did so, and thus received the sacrament and the prayers of the church before he died on July 12, 1804. As for Moore and Mason, I suspect they faced many more such decisions over the course of their ministries.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].