Beware the distractions from God’s will
The Layman April 2006 Volume 39, Number 2, May 8, 2006
For they sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind. Hosea 8:7
This has been a long two years – the longest without a meeting of its national governing body in the history of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and its predecessor denominations. It has been a bleak biennium. The denomination’s self-sown winds have endangered the very existence of the PCUSA as a Christian body.
Yet, the first sail raised at the 217th General Assembly in Birmingham on June 15-22 will be the denomination’s continued manipulation of two of its pet projects. Commissioners will attend lengthy sessions to hear the latest spin on the controversial report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity and the resolution by the 216th General Assembly calling on the denomination to penalize Israel by unloading PCUSA holdings in corporations that do business with that state. Together, those events are docketed for more than six hours of PCUSA self-justification.
In addition, the General Assembly planners have set aside one full plenary session for “education and information” and planned a series of joint events with Cumberland Presbyterian denominations, whom the PCUSA is courting, in likelihood, for merger to plug the leaks caused by record-setting membership losses and a $9.1 million budget crisis. Expedience and propriety suggest that it would be better to resolve the family crisis before inviting guests to lunch.
Consider also that the PCUSA has arranged excursions all around Birmingham to refresh the minds of commissioners and guests about the horrors of racism, Alabama-style, in the ’60s. Perhaps that is a worthy sidetrack, but it comes tainted with a self-righteous smugness that often demeans blacks, whites, native Americans, Asians and other ethnic groups.
Meanwhile, the General Assembly calendar begs for the commissioners’ full attention during prayer, worship, study and business deliberations. What will probably happen, though, is that the burning issues that have a bearing on the life and faith of Presbyterians will be sound-bit and whisked through the meetings. The distractions and self-promotions can only lull some commissioners into believing their undivided attention to the essential concerns of the church is unnecessary.
There was a time when Presbyterians took these matters more seriously. Dust off your Westminster Confession, Larger Catechism and Shorter Catechism, and consider those who produced the confessional standards used by the Presbyterian Church (USA) from 1789 until 1967.
They were England’s finest theologians – both Anglican and Puritan. Their nation was at war. They were asked by Parliament to provide a theological direction in an unstable time. They met from 1643 to 1649 and produced five documents: the confession and its Shorter Catechism for those with little education and the Larger Catechism for the more educated (thus achieving “unity in diversity” for a class-conscious nation); a form of government so that business could be handled “decently and in good order;” and a Directory of Worship to help Christians worship “according to the Word of God” – by his design rather than by man’s desire.
That gift was for England, but England rejected it. With the end of its civil war, the monarchy chose itself to rule, not Scripture. But what England rejected became a gift to America. The Puritans, persecuted by England, came to America to become free to worship in spirit and truth as God intended – not as a monarchy dictated.
The PCUSA would have been in far better condition today if it had allocated six years to the General Assembly to bow before the Triune God and delve so deeply into his Word.
To encumber the hearts and minds of men and women who serve as commissioners with distractions and propaganda makes it difficult to break from the denomination’s growing fixation with a culture that is alien to the gospel and destructive to the denomination.
The stakes are too high for sideline events and Presbyterian pep parties. The commissioners will have to deal with more than 100 overtures, most of them addressing explosive issues like ordination standards, a financial crisis, record-setting membership losses, our relations with Israel and Islamic countries, abortion and church property. Many of the choices they will face will be as absolute as Joshua’s enjoinder to Israel: “Choose you this day whom you will serve.”
Those choices will not be easy. But if the commissioners will acknowledge the reality – that the PCUSA is in deep trouble, and that other assemblies and many of the denomination’s leaders have led us into this mire – perhaps they can muster in a few short days a measure of hope for revival.