Posted Thursday, March 27, 2003
Excellent work in reporting the misconduct of our leadership. It is truly sad to see and to contemplate the consequences of such devious conduct in manipulation of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Let us remember to thank God in all circumstances. Pray always and rejoice always and rely on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
R.H. Sharrett, Elder Fanwood Presbyterian Church, Elizabeth Presbytery
Membership decline – a different slant
Posted Thursday, March 27, 2003
I am responding to the article that points out that the membership declines in Confessing Churches is less than in the denomination as a whole. That is true.
It has also been noted that there is an even stronger correlation between membership loss and presbyteries that voted against the fidelity and chastity ordination standards.
I would suggest a modification in your data presentation to make the comparison more fair. When you compare the decline of the Confessing Church congregations to that of the denomination as a whole, you are double counting the Confessing Church members.
The truer comparison is between the Confessing Churches and the others (not including the Confessing Church numbers). When you do this you see that while the decline of the denomination is 11.6 percent, the decline for the non-Confessing part is 12.7 percent. The conclusion, taking into account the 6.3 percent decline for the Confessing Churches, is: Membership decline in Confessing Church congregations is less than half that of other PCUSA congregations. Keep up the good work, and may God bless you.
Owen Smith
Expect heavy-handed politicking
Posted Thursday, March 27, 2003
Watch for heavy-handed politicking on the part of the stated clerk and his minions to void any move to set aside “the action on biennial assemblies and returning to the denomination’s historic practice of holding annual meetings,” as proposed by overture 03-15 from the National Capital Presbytery. But, if the commissioners give any serious thought to this matter, they will understand the absolute need to restore the annual assembly.
After all, if we maintain biennial assemblies, and a need arises to recall the assembly, the only way open to do so is by petition in accordance with G-13.0104. Given the precedent set by the ruling of the GAPJC in the remedial case brought by the Westminster session in the matter of Alex Metherell’s recent petition to do just this, it is obvious that no future petition to recall the assembly will ever have a chance of actually resulting in a meeting being convened.
The PCUSA has become the only jurisdiction in the nation where a petition is not final upon delivery to the proper authorities. Instead, until the moment the moderator actually calls the meeting commissioners can sign on or off at will. The stated clerk has been granted license and all the time he wants to try to get the signatories to recant as he engages in the same shenanigans seen recently in a so-called “verification process.” This is because the constitutional “shall,” as in “The Moderator shall call a special meeting at the request or with the concurrence of twenty-five elders and twenty five ministers, representing at least fifteen presbyteries, under the jurisdiction of at least five synods,” apparently places no obligation upon the moderator to act with alacrity.
The GAPJC has done mischief to an important constitutional protection. They have set a foolish precedent that makes bad law. And the price will be paid by any minority that foolishly thinks it still has anything resembling a right to petition for redress.
Rev. Bill Pawson Westminster Church, Canton, Ohio
Layman Online misses point
Posted Thursday, March 27, 2003
The Layman Online has missed a main point of the Detroit Presbytery overture concerning Chevrolet sponsorship of the “Come Together and Worship” tour.
This is not a matter of the Presbyterian Church seeking money from the Wal-Mart heirs to build new churches. Those are matters that should be discussed, but are not part of the Detroit overture.
A primary concern of the Detroit overture is evidenced by the fact that the only cross on the official tour poster was the Chevrolet logo. Chevrolet, by its own admission, was motivated by a desire to sell cars to what it believes is a ripe market – the concert attendees.
Will Wonder Bread become the official bread of communion? Will the Welch’s grape juice logo appear on communion cups?
Or maybe we should state the truth about the American addiction to materialism and print on our currency: “In Chevy we trust.”
Paul Peterson, minister Royal Oak, Mich.
Membership loss: 130 a day for 37 years
Posted Thursday, March 27, 2003
Thanks for the letter by Cliff Mansley Sr. regarding the numbers of Presbyterians leaving the denomination annually over the last 37 years. I attend a Presbyterian church with slightly more than 130 in membership. Based on your figures, the Presbyterian denomination is losing a church our size every day for the last 37 years. Shocking!
A true lack of leadership that does not hold itself accountable to Biblical standards.
Peter Nelson Thermal, Calif.
Progressive’ missing life-support
Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2003
The sermon preached at Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago on March 16 was entitled, “The Value of Life.” Yet there have been several proclamations of support for abortion from this same pulpit.
I wonder where they were when the GA voted in support of partial birth abortion? The supporters of “progressive theology” are sadly in need of a basic understanding of logic. Their thought processes do not follow any reasonable or rational path.
Ron McCormick Philadelphia, N.Y.
Where are the leaders of the PCUSA?
Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2003
It is astonishing that the leadership of the Presbyterian Church (USA) seems completely oblivious to the gravity of the present state of our beloved denomination. After 37 years of losses averaging 48,000 members annually, one would think that our national leadership would urgently re-evaluate and eliminate the ultraliberal, duplicitous policies that have plunged us into a full death spiral. Doesn’t it mean anything to them that we’ve lost an average of 4,000 people a month for 444 months or 769 per week over 1,924 weeks?
Where are our leaders?
I don’t believe they exist. If we had authentic leadership, we would be deeply committed to the great commission of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. If we had authentic Christian leadership, they wouldn’t be ignoring or defying the constitution. If we had authentic Christian leadership, our judicial process wouldn’t consistently turn out rulings that twist the Book of Order. If we had authentic Christian leadership, they wouldn’t support and promote pagan practices that are antithetical to the Scriptures such as partial-birth abortion, the ordination of homosexuals, the goddess Sophia, and the promotion of the Vagina Monologues on our denomination’s Web site as a fundraiser for the Women and Children Ministry Unit.
At best, the kind of leadership that promotes these behaviors is utterly immature at worst it is utterly apostate and schismatic.
Where are our authentically Christian denominational leaders? It breaks my heart to say … I don’t know! O, that our Lord would raise up godly leadership in the PCUSA. Maybe then, we wouldn’t constantly commiserate over our precipitous decline in membership and resources.
Cliff Mansley Sr., pastor Brookdale Presbyterian Church, St. Joseph, Mo.
The condescension of liberals
Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2003
The elitists are and always have been acting in very condescending ways. They believe they have a lock on morality and they have to lead the misguided in ways that will transform the misguided beliefs to the elitist mold. Of course, war is not good; but sometimes it is necessary. Christ said we would have wars and rumors of wars to the end of time. Believe it, brothers.
Tom Bargeron
Violence a type of ‘practical atheism’
Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2003
In a recent letter to the editor regarding war with Iraq, Philip Pettus wrote, “No message from Christ ever said to surrender to a thug or to allow evil nations to enslave and slaughter innocent people.”
I would direct people who hold such views to the words of Christ found in Matthew 5:38-48, where Christ himself said, “Do not resist an evil person.” We often forget that Christ himself lived during a time of terror, ruled by a military regime – Rome – that did not think twice about torturing and executing those whom it saw as threats to imperial power. Christ himself willingly and knowingly surrendered himself to “thugs” and an “evil nation” (Rome) that slaughtered the innocent Lamb of God. What’s more, Jesus expected his followers to do the same, to suffer and die at the hands of evil, without violently resisting the forces that sought to destroy them.
Paul was well aware of this struggle. In 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, he speaks of his trials. While this surely refers to the inner struggle between the Spirit and the flesh, it is also certain to refer to the fact that Paul suffered mob violence and torture. Yet when Paul sought to strengthen the church in times of persecution, he reminded Christ’s people that “our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).
Those who are righteous are not to find freedom in their own strength or might or smart bombs, but in the sure knowledge that it is God himself who will vindicate them. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, just as the gospel that Paul embodied and proclaimed has outlasted countless empires and kingdoms, so God will continue to vindicate the righteous ones who live by faith, those who live not by might but by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts. Violence, seen from a biblical perspective, is a type of practical atheism where we do not believe God will act so we are forced to take matters into our own hands.
Christ seemed to anticipate this struggle. In Matthew 13:24-30 he tells the parable of the wheat and tares. While the servants are eager to uproot the weeds, the master knows this would also destroy the wheat. Therefore, they had to wait for the harvest to sort it all out, with weeds and wheat coexisting with one another.
As we struggle against the cosmic forces aligned against the righteousness of God, we need to be careful that as we struggle we do not uproot all that is good in our desire to be rid of evil. Instead, we need to trust that God is a just judge and the living active Lord who will indeed render judgment and bring about the new creation, bringing vindication to those who struggled against evil while waiting patiently for God to act.
It shows a considerable lack of “sanctified imagination” that the only options people have seen regarding Iraq is to either do nothing or launch a full-scale military invasion, especially since some of the greatest revolutions of the twentieth century were accomplished without violent means.
Martin Luther King Jr. won this nation by nonviolent means. Ghandi helped win independence from Britain without the use of arms. The Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain fell because even in the midst of persecution and oppression groups advocating freedom and liberty were (by the grace of God?) formed, groups that acted, but without violence, to struggle against the dark forces around them. Faithfulness to Christ does not only mean pursuing right ends – even those of us opposed to war want freedom for Iraq – it also means pursuing these right ends with right means. We would do well to remember that part of the great mystery of the cross is that God conquered the forces of sin and death not by conquering violence with violence, but by submitting to it, and through the strange wisdom of the cross made the forces of violence, sin and death null and void.
Rev. A. E. Kross Ash Grove, Mo.
Kudos to Ohio pastor and session
Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2003
The Rev. Bill Pawson and the session of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Canton, Ohio, are to be commended for their recent judicial action regarding the moderator’s handling of the petition for a special General Assembly.
During my time in the Presbytery of Tropical Florida, I became a close friend of Rev. Pawson. He is a man committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Word of God. He takes seriously his ordination vows with the PCUSA and strives always to uphold faithfully its constitution. He is openly evangelical – embracing historic Christian orthodoxy – without apology, embarrassment or timidity. Moreover, he is a man of integrity, with a quick mind, enviably articulate, an affable manner and a compassionate heart.
Both he and the Canton congregation, especially its session, are to be applauded for their public expression of moral courage. At one level, they did not prevail. But at an eternal level, they did.
Michael T. Girolimon Lakeland, Fla.
Mainline denominations have crises of vision
Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2003
Alex Metherell nearly succeeded in officially defining current agonies as a “constitutional crisis.” It was a noble expedition but doomed. Mainline denominations of advancing age don’t have constitutional crises; such revolutionary upsets are not part of their conceptual software.
Aging Mainliners are only allowed crises of vision and staying in the market.
Alas, but church watchers had hoped for more substance from this case than just an impressive but empty fireworks show.
Gary Starkey Yakima, Wash.
Support for war is sickening
Posted Monday, March 24, 2003
The Layman’s support of this war in Iraq is sickening and disgusting. It continues to define The Layman as exactly what it is: An ultra right wing conservative organization advocating steam rolling and pushing aside all those who disagree with the particular views and theology of its member hierarchy.
Paul Clark Tampa, Fla.
Network’s statistics are designed to mislead
Posted Monday, March 24, 2003
The recent spin document publicized by the Covenant Network – a statistical report of mission giving, comparing Covenant Network/MLP churches with those in the Confessing Churches is a good example of Mark Twain’s comment that “there are lies, damn lies and statistics.”
The Covenant Network statistics are deliberately designed to mislead. The only meaningful statistic in terms of the church’s mission is the total funds given by churches to mission, not just to those controlled by the church hierarchy. I suspect that the picture would change significantly if these adjustments were made.
The churches in the Confessing Church have learned by experience that funds given to higher church bodies frequently have not been used well or wisely. They have learned that many church officials have little sense of accountability to the communities they are charged to serve and represent.
Therefore, it is both their democratic right and responsibility to protest and to ensure accountability in the only effective way left open to them, by maintaining control of their mission giving. It is as American as the Revolutionary War protest of “no taxation without representation.” The vote of the Confessing Church Movement is a vote of “no confidence” in our church leadership and vision, as is the annual departure of 35,000 of the church’s membership. Yet we continue to persist in this path of folly, a path of which the Covenant Network is a sign.
If we take their statistics to be taken at face, we should understand that it is a clear statement that their priorities value the church as an institution above its tasks and mission. However, making institutional loyalty the criterion for faith is a sign and acknowledgement that moral authority and trust, the only real basis for community, is institutionally bankrupt.
The sad thing for me about the Covenant Network as well as other “progressive” groups is that while I can accept that they are genuinely well-intentioned, I also recognize that they have institutionalized hypocrisy, sophistry, equivocation and deceit in pursuit of their goals. When I hear their pronouncements, it continually reminds me of a comment that Lloyd George once made about the British General Staff during World War I: “They keep three sets of books – one to deceive the enemy, one to deceive the public – and one to deceive themselves.” We may label ourselves as Christians today, but it seems that we frequently no longer know what it means to follow Christ.
Bruce M. Williams San Francisco, Calif.
What’s new?
Posted Monday, March 24, 2003
So what else is new? The leadership of the Presbyterian church never represents what a majority of its members want or believe.
Ed McLean Maitland, Fla.
Now moderator can get back to serving the church
Posted Monday, March 24, 2003
Those of us in the great middle of the church (less the 10 percent or less that comprise the extremist groups on the far left and the far right) can certainly rejoice in the decision of the GA Permanent Judicial Commission to dismiss the complaint of Westminster Presbyterian Church against Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel.
Maybe now he can sleep a little easier and get back to serving out his term as moderator and his pastoral duties. It is unfortunate that they felt it necessary to chastise him for writing a letter to those who signed Alex Metherell’s petition cards to consider withdrawing their names. The PJC completely ignored the pastoral tone of his letter and seemly acquiesced to Paul Rolf Jensen silly argument the moderator was trying to intimidate them into recanting. Shame on them.
Their decision in this case was certainly more reasoned than their recent decision in the case against the Presbytery of Redwoods in the matter of their examination and ordination of Katie Morrison. They deserve even more shame for their politically correct decision in that case, which turned on their interpretation of section G-6.0106b of the Book of Order.
They seemed to have ignored the second sentence about “fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness,” jumped over “persons refusing to repent” in the third sentence so they could fixate on “self-acknowledged practice of what the confessions call sin.”
Wow, what a bounding leap! And then they land foursquare in the middle of the doctrine of total depravity. Simply put – since Katie Morris’s’ sinfulness (i.e. homosexuality) is no greater that the sins of all others seeking ordination, Redwoods Presbytery should not hold her sinfulness against her. Then they loop through the Book of Confessions to a new doctrine of justification. But to get there they have to bypass repentance, atonement, effectual calling and some others I have probably missed.
Katie Morrison works for More Light Presbyterians. This group seeks to promote the ordination of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals. They want us to believe that these individuals deserve full inclusion in the life of the PCUSA. They want us to believe that they were born the way they are and that we should accept them as such and celebrate their lives with them.
Now, they want us to affirm their re-interpretation of the doctrine of creation in regards to “transgendered” persons who they have brought “into their organization to broaden their political base. Well … I am sure to tell you that these “transgendered” persons were not born they way they are today. They want us to side-step our understanding of the doctrine of creation and embrace their new found doctrine of feel-good election to justify their position and affirm their sinfulness.
Now, if Eric is baptized into the life of the church, confirmed and even perhaps ordained as Eric, we could affirm the doctrine of election and say that he was elected as Eric. But then he becomes Erin. What happens when he decides to became Erin? Could we now say that he was re-elected as Erin? Was Eric “predestined and foreordained” to become Erin? Where in the confessions is there a statement on the doctrine of justification for this notion. Is it a new doctrine of transfiguration?
Of course these “More Light” folks will certainly write back to say that I am an unrepentant, self acknowledged practitioner of the sin of homophobia, although I cannot find where the confessions call that sin.
In the Redwoods case, the GA Permanent Judicial Commission has clearly demonstrated that their theological skills are at least on a par with their logical and judicial skills.
David Walters First Presbyterian Church, Andalusia, Ala.