Parker T. Williamson
editor-in-chief
Reflecting on an Episcopal Church (USA) decision that has
fractured its communion, Diane Knippers, an Episcopalian, finds
painfully relevant a quote from Karl Marx: “The English Established
Church would more readily pardon an attack on 38 of its 39 articles than
on 1/39th of its income.”
But faith and fortune are related. As the Episcopal Church (USA) budget
will soon discover, there is a price to be paid for abandoning one’s
standards. Huge deficits loom in this denomination’s future.
Parallel problems
The Presbyterian Church (USA) infrastructure is infected by the same
ideology that has corrupted its Episcopalian counterpart, and it is only
a matter of time until ecclesiastical politicians launch another assault
on the moral standards that are embedded in our Constitution. The
strategy employed by many of our national church leaders is clear:
Refuse to enforce the standards while working to overturn them.
Thus the stated clerk of the General Assembly, whose office is funded by
our per-capita contributions, continues his dereliction of duty by
insisting that it is not his job to enforce the Constitution. Meanwhile,
multiple agencies in Louisville, whose offices are funded by our mission
contributions, continue to promote curriculum materials, conferences,
programs and publications affirming an aberrant sex ethic that the
denomination’s standards officially reject.
Mission and per capita
Having concluded that our national church program agencies are
intractably corrupt, many Presbyterians are redirecting their
contributions to causes that they can trust, primarily in mission work
that is conducted by their local churches. Louisville’s annual
mission budget deficits testify to this trend.
Now the stated clerk’s $12 million per capita budget is also under
fire. If this office will not preserve and protect the Constitution –
including its standards of sexual behavior that were recently reaffirmed
by almost three fourths of the presbyteries – why should
Presbyterians pay its bills?
Applying Coercion
Feeling the pinch from redirected contributions, some presbyteries are
turning the screws on their churches. The Presbytery of Long Island
tried to coerce Central Church in Huntington, N.Y. But Central’s
session took the presbytery to court and won its case against this
patently unconstitutional power play. Undeterred by that ruling, the
Presbytery of Scioto Valley applied pressure on its churches, an act
that was declared unconstitutional by a unanimous Permanent Judicial
Commission in July. But those two strikes did not deter Heartland
Presbytery, whose leaders adopted a policy punishing non-paying churches
by denying them access to mortgage money. We are confident that when
this case goes to court, Heartland’s coercion will also be struck
down.
These unlawful acts by heavy-handed presbyteries would stop in an
instant if the stated clerk’s office drew the line. But it is
apparently too much to ask that an office whose income is derived from
per capita would defend the constitutional rights of those who refuse to
pay it. On the contrary, this office is bending over backwards to
encourage coercion, including the issuance of a bizarre opinion that
while local churches may have a constitutional right not to pay per
capita, ministers who encourage them to exercise that right can be
disciplined.
History reminds us that coercion is the final act of a crumbling regime.
Having lost any moral credibility with its people, Louisville can expect
continuing deficits. And on the day that Presbyterians face what has
just been done to the Episcopalians, the denomination’s moral
bankruptcy will trigger a financial one as well.
Parker T. Williamson is chief executive officer and editor in chief
of the Presbyterian Lay Committee’s publications.