Bad religion’ needs to be ‘yanked out’
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, November 7, 2006
GREENVILLE, S.C. – “I’m tired of waking up daily and wondering how the Presbyterian Church (USA) has embarrassed the gospel,” Ron Scates, senior minister of Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, told about 280 Presbyterians at the Nov. 3-4 gathering sponsored by Constitutional Presbyterians.
Scates preached during the opening worship service on the fourth leg of a varied evangelical search for a response to the 2006 General Assembly’s approval of an authoritative interpretation that allows presbyteries and sessions to decide whether they will ordain self-affirming, practicing homosexuals.
The previous groups gatherings – sponsored by the New Wineskins Association of Churches, the Presbyterian Coalition and the Presbyterian Global Fellowship – have suggested responses ranging from considering leaving the denomination, closing ranks with like-minded evangelicals and remain, and rallying behind a global mission ministry.
Constitutional Presbyterians call on Presbyterians to stay and fight by using the constitutional process to change the direction of the PCUSA.
Scates gave a sweeping indictment of the “heresy, false teaching and bad religion” that permeates the denomination. He focused on religious pluralism and declared, “I defy you to read the Scripture and make a case for religious pluralism.”
“There is no perfect church,” Scates said, “never has been, never will be until Christ’s feet touch terra firma again. The Scripture is clear: The church will always be a mixture of wheat and tares. But sometimes the church becomes so acutely infected that its toxicity threatens the very life of the church.”
The problem in the PCUSA, he said, is that there is a “bunch of folks who set themselves up as spiritual authorities, who convince others to chase after their brand of what they call contemporary faith.”
Members of the church are free to ask questions, he said, “but when it comes to worship and teaching, you and I have taken ordination vows … spiritual muzzles.” And those vows require ministers and elders “to sharply rebuke and silence these purveyors of bad religion,” he added, citing admonitions in Titus 2:10-16.
Scates said he believes “one of the things wrong with the PCUSA is that a lot of folks love the PCUSA as an institution, but when they lose their faith, rather than bring themselves under the community of faith, they want to change the community of faith to be like them.”
“I find nothing in Scripture about theological diversity,” he added. “It equals bad religion, confusion, chaos and toxicity. Do you and I have the courage to say no to that?”
He defined “bad religion” as “incurably egocentric,” “all bun and no burger,” “about magic. Magic is getting God to do what you want. Bad religion destroys grace either through legalism or cheapens it through licentiousness. Bad religion will talk about grace as if sin is inconsequential. Bad religion is always manmade. Let’s call progressive theology what it is – creative unbelief.”
But “bad religion” is not confined to the liberals. “Fifty-three million Americans claim to be born again, but if you read studies, they live like hell. Seventy-eight percent of Americans do not know who lives next door. Many are Christians. What’s wrong with them? Bad religion.”
“The PCUSA is full of bad religion,” Scates concluded. “But you know what, so is my life. I invite you to examine our lives, reach down and yank out what bad religion is there. No matter what it costs us, the church of Jesus Christ is too valuable to tolerate bad religion.”