Open Letter
Parting thoughts on the PCUSA
By John Cowan , September 19, 2008
There may be some really good reasons to stay in the PCUSA. But, if you don’t feel at home there, consider this. Staying in the wrong denomination for whatever reason has consequences. Those with whom we associate mold our character and over time change us to be more like them. Being part of a denomination implies agreement and sends a powerful message to visitors and to our children. It may be one you really don’t want to send.
It is time to take an honest look at the PCUSA. It has a track record and we can make judgments based on its actions and its words. Like so many who are praying for change, we must ask whether there is anything to suggest that change is likely or even possible.
First of all, the PCUSA is certainly not neutral. At the General Assembly, conservative overtures go nowhere while liberal proposals leap out of committee ready for action. Once in place, a liberal overture is rarely reversed, so the denomination steadily moves to the left. The PCUSA has a chosen path and will allow itself to move only in that direction, democratically if possible, dictatorially if necessary.
The PCUSA is not a tolerant partner but an aggressive advocate of liberal theology. For them, coexistence is a temporary means to an end and not an end in itself. Under subtle but constant pressure, member congregations slowly change, and as pastors come and go the rate of change accelerates. You may always be to the right of them, but you will be inching to the left just the same.
The credo of the PCUSA is simple. Move the denomination in a liberal theological and social direction and convert all its members to this view. Its personnel fall into two camps, liberal and very liberal. Our seminaries have been largely purged of conservative influence and are committed to liberal theology. Most of our pastors are biased towards this view. New people are elected to high office but they always share the same view and move us in the same direction. The year-to-year changes have been generally imperceptible, but compared to 30 years ago, we have changed. Since its creation, the PCUSA has moved its members steadily towards the liberal left.
Perhaps the leadership of the PCUSA had this in mind from the beginning. It was never a passive organization and has always pushed change on its members. Neither is it a truly democratic organization. It looks like one and it sounds like one. It even allows voting like one but the voting process is stacked against the common people. Commissioners are picked not elected, and at the General Assembly, the number of paid staff members available to lobby them is huge. It is a well oiled machine and it all works to advance the PCUSA’s liberal agenda.
Requiring the “ownership” of our property during reunification should have sent red flags flying everywhere. It was unnecessary and foolish. But, it was a heady time and we had faith that a plan was being put in place to advance the work of the kingdom. The civil rights movement was gearing up and the legacy of slavery that had caused the split was being laid to rest. It was a time for healing and we assumed that any future conflicts could be worked out as Christ teaches. The property trust provision was more a symbol of shared commitment than a legal document having captive power.
But the founders of the PCUSA had other plans. They saw collective power. With the entire denomination speaking through Louisville, a political force was created and social change at the national level was possible. Mission became a collective effort, one that swayed governments and effected personal change by the millions. Individuals and their personal relationship with God became secondary to the power of the collective whole. Clearly, the strong arm of the trust provision was essential to guarantee cohesion while the new denomination was being turned on its head.
What was not apparent was the irresistible temptation to move beyond Christianity. In politics, numbers are critical. If social and religious groups were joined together, even more could be accomplished. The political ends would certainly justify the theological means. Ecumenism followed and, to cast an even wider net, humanism became the common denominator. The bizarre practices that surface today and the flirtations between the PCUSA and those of vastly different theological persuasions are the direct result of putting numerical power above theological purity.
In retrospect, the PCUSA never was just a religious organization. From the very beginning, it was an agenda-driven movement operating in a religious environment. It is not constrained by the rules of Scripture. Try to alter its direction and it will counter not with tolerance and compassion but with just enough force to prevail. There is a certain ruthlessness amid all the godly talk that pokes out its head where necessary to keep dissent at bay. Peace, love, charity, tolerance and all the other lofty platitudes are nice while everything is moving in their direction. But rain on their parade and it’s Katie bar the door!
Freedom is just not part of the plan. If your congregation dares to chart an independent course you’d better be prepared to fight. And, unless blocked by civil injunction, the fight will end quickly. An administrative council will be formed and it will pressure your leaders. If your session and your pastor don’t recant, they will be replaced with people who will. Your independence will come to a quick end.
Without civil protection, even preliminary discussions are risky. Unless its power is neutralized, it won’t give an inch and your efforts will fail. If it can ignore Scripture, it will certainly ignore the pleas of mere mortals, particularly if those mortals lack the foresight to use effective weapons. Stick to what it defines as the high road and fight with the weapons it provides and – surprise, surprise – you will lose every time.
Yet, despite all its skilled maneuvering the PCUSA is a failure. It is theologically bankrupt and numerically dying. The PCUSA leadership speaks only for itself and the people it seeks to influence know this. It is a talking head without a body, without a compelling mission, and totally lacking moral authority. Its secular philosophies gained no traction and its beloved liberal theology has proved self-defeating. For if God is that loving and that forgiving and everyone is saved just by dying, then hedonism is the answer. Why restrain yourself when you can be out having fun, and why support the church when God does not punish sin?
By any measure – numerical, moral or theological – the PCUSA is doomed. But be forewarned, it is not yet dead, and like a wounded tiger it is very dangerous. Having lost almost everything else it still has the legal power to intimidate its members. And, it is prepared to use this to keep its failed dream alive. This clearly shows its true nature. With few exceptions, it built nothing, it paid for nothing, it endowed nothing, and yet somehow all of our treasure and that of our ancestors is in its coffers. Is this God’s church?
There is some good in all this. It reminds us that God works through individuals and not through denominations and human schemes. It reinforces the Reformed notion that religion and faith hinge on a voluntary relationship between mankind and God, not on forced subjugation. By having done it wrong, the PCUSA teaches what the proper relationship between denominations and their member congregations should be. And in recent history, it has shown with certainty that it is so institutionally isolated that it won’t, and probably can’t, change. Thus the excuse for procrastination and inaction has been taken away. Continuing to hide and hope for God to come to the rescue says little about God and a lot about us.
If you don’t like where the PCUSA is going, pray, plan and act. God has given us the U.S. Constitution and a legal system that takes a dim view of unjust claims on the property of others. Like He taught His children of old, with His help Pharaoh can be defeated. Otherwise, learn to be happy living in Egypt, making bricks for a cruel leader and a crumbling empire.
There is no Third Way, and nothing will spontaneously change for the better. To fight and leave or to stay and join the denomination’s cause, those are the choices. Those are the only choices.