Parker T. Williamson
Editor emeritus and senior
correspondent of The Layman
As leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) navigate the shoals
between Christ and culture, artful dodgers craft statements that sound
Scriptural while giving license to those who have no use for the Word of
the Lord. The resulting duplicity has often left those who love the
Bible in a quandary: Are the words, policies, and programs that we are
witnessing apostasy, or might they be regarded only as troubling, but
not definitive aberrations?
Postmodernism plays word games with finesse. By reducing truth to
feeling, it twists the plain meaning of a text to such a degree that
reason is jettisoned and emotion rules the day. Believers become
confused, for the words of Scripture and 2,000 years of church tradition
continue to be referenced, but with vastly different meanings. Scripture
is employed to promote what Scripture denies.
Presbyterians who call themselves “moderate” and who are
determined to preserve the denomination at all costs are particularly
vulnerable to postmodern doublespeak. Grasping any flotsam indicating
that the foundering Presbyterian Church (USA) has not sunk, they cling
to shreds of hope, found in nuanced statements by the General Assembly.
One such statement is “The constitution has not changed.” On
its face, that is technically true. No amendment was enacted that
removed words from the constitution. But in fact, it is false, because
the General Assembly gave each governing body license to set aside
portions of the constitution with which it does not agree. This
de
jure/de facto disjunction, of course, did change the constitution,
albeit without altering a single word.
Those who say the constitution was not changed – no matter how
high-minded their motivation for making such an affirmation – are
not telling the whole truth. As a consequence of what this assembly has
done, Presbyterians can expect to see the ordination of persons who
blatantly and openly engage in sex outside of marriage.
Wordsmiths are also palliating the General Assembly’s Trinity
paper. Some argue that the assembly did not “adopt” the paper.
It only “received” it. But sleight-of-hand technicalities give
scant comfort to those who understand the significance of what happened
in Birmingham. Having “received” the paper, General Assembly
agencies are now free to promote it through curriculum and liturgical
materials, conference platforms and a variety of implementation
policies. The vote had hardly been tallied when a commissioner led the
assembly in praying to “Compassionate Mother, Beloved Child and
Life-Giving Womb.”
We are reminded of what happened after the 1991 General Assembly
declined to adopt a human sexuality report that justified adultery and
homoerotic activity, but merely “received” the report as a
resource to the church. Within months, that “recommended resource”
was promoted by the National Network of Presbyterian College Women,
whose Web site at the same time contained a link to an online lesbian
dating service.
Anyone who says the assembly only “received” the Trinity
paper – no matter how sincere their motivation for making such a
statement appears – is not telling the whole truth. As a result of
what this assembly has done, Presbyterians can expect to see litanies
naming “Rock, Cornerstone and Temple” and similar abstract
triads in lieu of “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Revisionist
liturgies that promote such substitutions ditch the divine communion of
three distinct Persons within whom we are redeemed and through whom our
souls are restored in relationship with the one Triune God.
Make no mistake about it: The 2006 General Assembly has rendered our
constitution impotent, and it has turned its back on a foundational
doctrine of Christian faith. Oily utterances, however artful, cannot
cover up what this assembly has wrought on the covenant community of
Reformed faith and practice.
So what must we do when the ecclesiastical body with which we are
associated has departed from the faith “once and for all delivered
to the saints?” We will do what faithful followers of Jesus Christ
have done under similar circumstances in every age when their leaders
have committed schism. We will cling to Scripture’s counsel: “Look
to the rock from which you were hewn, to the quarry from which you were
dug.”
Carl Sandburg’s words prophetically describe the current state of
the Presbyterian Church (USA): “When a nation goes down, or a
society perishes, one condition may always be found; they forgot where
they came from. They lost sight of what had brought them along.”
Contrary to revisionists’ redefinition, Reformation is not
novelty. Rather, it is new life that blossoms when the body of Christ
re-anchors itself in that rock-solid confession that signaled the birth
of the Church. “On this rock I will build my church,” said
Jesus after Peter confessed the faith, “and the gates of Hell will
not prevail against it.”
A column by Parker T. Williamson, editor emeritus and senior
correspondent of The Layman.