Unbelief unveiled
Commentary by Parker T. Williamson , The Layman, April 2, 2012
“I preach on the Bible about as much as any other preacher. I don’t preach on it as if it were a book to believe. I don’t find most of it particularly believable, at least in the way that we were supposed to believe it … When I suggest that Jesus in the Gospel of John is a more of a fictional character than an historical figure, and that John is using his creative imagination in creating this story [John’s account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead], it isn’t that I am saying throw out the gospel.”
Preached on March 4, 2012, these are the words of John Shuck, a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister. But that’s not the only notch he has carved on his cross: Shuck has been elected by Holston Presbytery to serve as a voting commissioner to the PCUSA’s 2012 General Assembly.
Lest we be accused of pulling one unrepresentative quote out of context, consider Shuck’s sermon on February 28: “John’s gospel is about Jesus. But the Jesus depicted here is not the historical person. John’s Jesus is an imaginative construction. The events and the dialogue we just read from chapter 10 are probably not events and dialogue that took place, that someone (i.e. The author we call John) wrote down, but rather, a scene created by some author we call John.”
Shuck continues with accolades for the Jesus Seminar, a project by a handful of academics to discredit any passage of Scripture that portrays Jesus as divine. Supporting the seminar’s view of Scripture, Shuck said, “The Bible is not always what it seems. It was created by numerous human authors. Every one of them had an agenda. They created these stories and these images for a variety of reasons. Reasons that we may never know.”
Shuck’s rejection of Biblical faith is not new. In 2010, two years before his presbytery elected him to the PCUSA’s highest governing body, he wrote: “I have been pretty clear on ‘Shuck and Jive’ [Shuck’s blog] that I don’t think/believe/hope/trust/have faith that Jesus rose from the dead … When I hear a story of someone rising from the dead, I think that is a bit unusual. It sounds made up to me. It would sound made up to you as well and it does, unless it is the story of Jesus rising from the dead … The issue for me is whether or not I have faith in these supernatural events occurring. I don’t.”
Shuck is not alone. At the General Assembly, he will find allies who are equally dismissive of God’s Word. The Rev. Janet Edwards, a self-identified “bisexual” whose officiating at lesbian wedding ceremonies have made the news in recent years, will also be there as a voting commissioner, promoting her bid to become moderator of the General Assembly.
How do these things happen? How is it that one who repeatedly and publicly denies the church’s faith and another who defies the church’s ethic are voting members of the General Assembly? It happens because this “big tent” denomination’s preeminent mantra is “inclusiveness.” One can believe anything – or nothing – and be not only a member, but a leader of the PCUSA. We flaunt our unfaithfulness.
Although this revelation may appear shocking to those who are just now becoming aware of the denomination’s apostasy, it is old news for those who have been paying attention in recent years. For more than a decade, the PCUSA has been firmly in the grip of an infrastructure that has little regard for Scripture and is determined to advance its liberationist agenda at every turn. The few Scripturally faithful policies that were adopted by the General Assembly were routinely undermined by those entrusted to implement them.
A recently published statement by the Rev. Brett Webb-Mitchell, an “out and ordained” homosexual in the PCUSA says it all. Remembering earlier times when he had been ordained illegally, he told the Huffington Post, “The reason no formal complaint was brought against me was because I was part of a presbytery where powerful people protected me as a gay pastor. There was an informal ‘underground railroad,’ where those in authority shielded us from prosecution but could not assure us employment.”
Increasingly aware that those “powerful people” have had their way, Biblically faithful Presbyterians by the tens of thousands are heading for the exit. That massive migration has so seriously enervated the few evangelical Christians remaining that Edwards may now campaign for the once-esteemed office of moderator while Shuck parades with impunity his unbelief.
The Rev. Parker T. Williamson is editor emeritus, consultant to the Presbyterian Lay Committee, and an honorably retired PCUSA minister.