2020.07 | Can I Get a Second?

After our 155th Annual Meeting last Sunday, your Pastoral Team was marveling at how archaic and unfamiliar parliamentary procedure is to most of us these days.

We found ourselves remembering times when it worked well, especially at very large meetings, and times when it didn’t work well, which is often the case when many and contradictory amendments are offered to the main motion.

The basic principle of parliamentary procedure is that two people are absolutely necessary to do anything.  A motion must be made by one person and seconded by another person in order for the discussion to even begin.  The same is true for any change or amendment to the main motion; there must be two people who want to make a change:  the person who makes the motion to amend and someone who is willing to second that motion.  Then and only then does the entire group discuss the amendment.  The requirement that there be a “second” applies to almost every motion, up to and including motions to end discussion (call the question) or to end the meeting (adjourn).

My educated guess is that the requirement to have motions seconded was to avoid those situations where one person would disrupt a meeting with endless motions to vote, amend, or reconsider what the vast majority of attendees wanted to accomplish.

I had an “aha” moment about the necessity of a second at last week’s Bible Study.  We’ve been reading the Gospel of Matthew, comparing it to the Gospel of Mark that we read last Fall.  One thing we’ve noticed is that Matthew frequently doubles the people involved in situations involving telling others or testimony, especially about miracles.  In Mark, one demon-possessed man is healed but in Matthew, two demon possessed men are healed.  Likewise, in Mark, one blind man is healed but in Matthew, two blind men are healed and go on their way to tell others.  Bible scholars debate why Matthew doubled the men in his stories but it’s highly likely that the Gospel of Matthew was written for a Jewish-Christian community that had traditions drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures’ requirements that two people are needed for testimony to be valid — Scripture that was written down at least 600 years before Christ was born!

So, you see, the need for a second to any motion can seem a trivial matter, but it’s historical roots in our faith tradition are deep.  And since U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were written by men steeped in the traditions of Christianity, it’s no wonder that we’ve inherited parliamentary procedures that emphasize that when it comes to deciding how to start a conversation or how it should continue or how it should conclude there needs to be only two people who are brave enough to raise their hands and say:  “I move...” and “I second…”  

As we celebrate the 4th of July and the brave men and women who raised their hand for freedom of religion, freedom of speech and press, and the freedom to peaceably assemble and to petition the government, let’s remember that there is no change, there is no revolution, there is no hope unless at least two of us are brave enough to say:  I move and I second.

--Pastor Pepper