letters: July letters


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July letters, page 2 The 'wide path' and the 'narrow gate' July 26, 2002 I once again am not entirely shocked by this article. The only comment I can make is in the article already. The minister said his friend's religious path was "so wonderful" because of its "width." Matthew 7:13, 4 (KJV): "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Marc Karasek Who's going to lead the way for PCUSA? July 26, 2002 How are the real Presbyterians ever going to get the self-serving "leadership" staff out of Louisville? It seems obvious that the recalcitrant general assemblies are unwilling to step up to the plate and do all the right things that should be done in our PCUSA. It's time for either a mass exorcism or a mass exodus of all the real Presbyterians. Who's going to lead the way? I'm ready to follow. Elder Rabun B. Harper Saint Stephen Presbyterian Church Chatsworth, Calif. 91311 So, what is enforceable? July 26, 2002 Please help me out here. If our constitution is unenforceable, are other foundational PCUSA documents also unenforceable? If so, perhaps local churches can now leave the PCUSA without penalty. Is this possible? Bill and Toby Faith West Lafayette, Ind. Presbyteries determine the conditions under which a congregation may leave the PCUSA. The Editors When is someone going to lay down the law? July 26, 2002 I am so troubled by the lawlessness in the Presbyterian Church – especially in the Hudson River Presbytery. I have heard it referred to as the Mafia presbytery (maybe a more appropriate name) because it thumbs its nose at the laws of the church. To me, the actions of the Yorktown Presbyterian Church are disgusting and a total rebuff of Jesus Christ. How can those people sleep at night? I am ashamed to say I am in the Hudson River Presbytery. When is somebody in authority going to start laying down the law? Howard Fogle Katonah, N.Y. New moderator should help end bias July 25, 2002 As one of the 30 percent, I will admit that at times I felt that I was spinning my wheels at the 214th General Assembly. I was on the Christian Education and Publications committee and I supported and spoke for the minority report, to no avail. While I would like to look back on something positive that happened in Columbus, about the only things that I can come up with are that 1) we did not vote down the "Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ" statement and 2) we elected Fahed Abu-Akel. Clearly, the moderator has a strong role in the next General Assembly. I believe that Abu-Akel is more likely to select committee leaders who will be less biased than in the past years. It may take time for our denomination to turn around, but I think we may be on the right road. What we need more than anything is prayer. Amy Florence Elder commissioner Indian Nations Presbytery We need a renewal of faithfulness July 25, 2002 This commentary expresses my view that our problem must be addressed by a renewal of faithfulness among Presbyterian national leaders as well as among local leaders. We err when we focus on the actions of the summer orgy when 70% or 30% voted on questions that have been so tightly nuanced that they are nearly devoid of meaning. Still, renewal and revisionist activists study the outcome of each assembly. Our hopes rise and fall with every political victory or defeat. I thought this commentary was just another "woe is us, the assembly let us down" piece, but it wasn't (entirely) that. At the end – sadly, it was placed at the end and not at the beginning – the writer spoke the truth and pointed the light where it rightly belongs. The assembly is given far more importance than it deserves. I think it is what St. Paul would call a "civilian pursuit." I think renewal groups ought to sponsor a national mission conference during the time when the assembly meets. It ought to be in a different city and put forward real projects with real funding. The next year, it ought to meet to report on what God has been doing through our projects. We should demonstrate to the rest of the denomination what Presbyterian evangelism can look like. If we grow our part of the PCUSA large enough, the silliness of the revisionists will simply look small and insignificant. They can show their token statements. We can show our changed lives. Gary Miller Where is the PCUSA's light? July 25, 2002 I heartily concur with Mr. Kibler that the PCUSA has compromised itself on many fronts. I read with interest his account of the recent General Assembly. I must be clear that I am not a PCUSA member. I am a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America – a very small, but true denomination. The one account I could hardly believe was the fact that the PCUSA now sanctions partial birth abortions. The PCUSA long ago renounced Christ as the only way of salvation. It long ago departed from the Biblical truths of justification by faith alone. Knox and Calvin have been turning dizzily in their graves for many years over the departure from a Biblical/Reformed framework. The fact that this denomination now sanctions the most horrid form of abortion is mind boggling! The Roman Catholic Church, for all its doctrinal heresy and scandal, still takes at least a watered down stand on routine abortions. Most Roman Catholics detest the thought of a baby half-delivered and then murdered! My only question to Mr. Kibler is where is this light? The light is so dim or so obscured that the outward testimony and effectiveness of this church is nil. What will it take to get quasi-conservative churches to pull out of the PCUSA? Your effectiveness for Christ and the gospel have long been gone. Now you sanction murder? Is there no thought given to the 6th commandment? Kirk Dickerson Widow's mite being used for alien purposes July 25, 2002 The slippery slope of irrelevancy in my opinion has already long ago been slipped down by our denominational leadership. Our congregations hardly care what new pronouncement is made from on high in Louisville. Sadly, our congregations are still helping to support a Brahmin class of church elites and tangential causes through our per-capita giving. The widow's mite and the deep-pocket givers are finding their gifts being used for all sorts of alien purposes. I am beginning to wonder if the old Presbyterian lamp stand isn't flickering, as, one by one, the essential tenets (whatever they are) have been trivialized, ignored or brutally twisted into some unintended but grotesque shape. Without a change of heart, pretty soon we will be nothing more than a valley of dry bones. Is our first love Jesus or is it the institutional church? Either way, the big question remains: Can these bones yet live? Glenn Buzbee Conyers, Ga. We didn't need two-thirds requirement July 25, 2002 Just think if we would have needed a super majority – two thirds of the presbyteries – to have passed "fidelity and chastity." We passed it with 59 percent and change. But we would have needed 67 percent of the Presbyteries. It would not have passed. Also remember Ronald Reagan? Many Republicans wanted him to run for president for a third term, but that was not allowed. Why? Because of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He ran for four terms and won four times. The reason he didn't run a fifth term: He died. Well, many conservative Republicans did not want another liberal Democrat to win so many elections for president. So, they ran through the House and Senate a bill that allowed a person to win only two elections. Doug Gailey Bible-believing commissioners needed July 25, 2002 Why can't strong General Assembly commissioners with Bible-oriented beliefs be elected to represent us? Is there nothing that can be done? I am so disappointed. As a member of the Confessing Church Movement, I am appalled at the lackadaisical attitude of supposedly Christian people. Can there not be some strict guidelines about the qualifications of commissioners? I am so afraid the gays will take over our church, as they have taken over every other aspect of government and civic organizations, thanks to the ACLU. Lona McArdle New moderator born in 'Palestine' July 25, 2002 Your misstatement in the August 2002 Layman, jump page 9 of "Assembly follows staff's lead," that the new moderator of the 214th General Assembly, the Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel is Israel-born needs a correction: He was born in April 1944 in Mandate Palestine to Greek Orthodox parents in Kuffar Yassif, Galilee, 25 miles northwest of Nazareth and that's why he – like millions of Arab Christians – has called for the recreation of Palestine in Gaza and the West Bank. The legal basis for the establishment of a Jewish Zionist state on 57 percent of Mandate Palestine (14,500 square kilometers, with less than 7 percent of Jewish individual and corporate landholdings) lies in the United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. 181 (II) of Nov. 29, 1947. The Arab Christians and Muslims were to live on the remaining 43 percent (11,000 square kilometers). How many people know this? Even inside the U.N.'s proposed boundaries for the Jewish Zionist state, the Arab Christian and Muslim population had a slight majority over the Jewish population, which in 1947 was less than half a million in all of Palestine. In other words, 7% of Mandate Palestine of 1947 was owned by Zionists and 93% by Arab Christians and Muslims. After the First Palestine War of 1948-49, Zionists controlled 78% of Palestine. Since the 1967 War, 100% of Palestine and the Golan Heights of Syria, where I was born to Semitic Arab Christian parents, who trace their faith to the Church of Antioch, Syria – 16 months before the Partition Plan – has been settled by Zionists from the former Soviet Union, Europe, America, etc. Concealing the facts has been one of the reasons the Zionists – Jewish and their misguided so-called "Protestant Christian" supporters (who are really Jews in church pews) – have succeeded in hijacking not only Palestine but also America. Terrorists who claim to be Muslim hijacked airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001 – but Jewish Zionist terrorists have hijacked two whole countries! Arab Christians and Muslims need security from American and Israeli Jewish and Christian Zionist terrorists as well. That's why the longtime battle cry of Arab Christians everywhere, "Justice and Only Justice." (Deuteronomy 16:20) and "No Justice, No Peace." Zionists, funded by U.S. taxpayers, have chosen to violate every stipulation of the U.N. General Assembly as a condition for the legitimate establishment of a state for the Jews in Mandate Palestine. Your statement, also on the jump page, the first Arab Christian naturalized U.S. citizen to lead a major Protestant denomination ever, "describes himself as a moderate Palestinian Christian" needs elaboration. Arab Christians and Muslims of Palestine are resigned to live with pre-1967 War Zionist Israel, although they are afraid Zionists won't stop their colonization and apartheid state until they settle the area from the Euphrates to the Nile. Samear Zaitoon Samear Zaitoon Baton Rouge, La. Fahed Abu-Akel describes himself as a Palestinian Christian who was born and raised in Israel. Sheep converted to wolves July 25, 2002 I had to read this article twice to believe it actually took place! How this congregation continues to call itself Christian and Presbyterian is beyond me. These are not sheep torn by wolves – these are sheep that have been converted to wolves! May our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ have mercy upon them before it is too late. Carl R. Smith The non-Presbyterian church July 25, 2002 I don't know what this "church" thinks it is; it's not Presbyterian Elaine Crocker Yorktown Church went beyond the pale July 25, 2002 If the First Presbyterian Church in Yorktown, N.Y., held an inter-faith service that included prayers to pagan gods like Allah and Hindu and Buddhist chants, it went beyond the pale. The Presbyterian Church – even the PCUSA – is a Christian denomination and our own recent General Assembly affirmed our corporate commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ as God incarnate and the only way to salvation. The first commandment is that God is God and there are no other gods. In Deuteronomy 7:16, God ordered the children of Israel to destroy all the nations delivered into their hands and instructed them to have no pity, "Do not worship their gods, if you do, it will be a sad day for you." Let me remind you that He who cannot lie and does not change told us that He is a "jealous God" and will not hold them blameless who take his name in vain. The open worship of false gods and conducting of pagan rituals simply cannot be ignored. It is the duty of Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk, to enforce the constitution and to assure compliance with the Book of Order. It is not, absolutely not, within his purview to interpret, only to execute. If he cannot in good conscience perform his duties, then only alternative is to resign. Otherwise it is our duty to remove him from office. The people who sponsored this service and those Presbyterians who actively participated in it must be disciplined. The Lord God will not hold them blameless who take his name in vain. That means much more than placing the word "damn" after his holy name Earl H. Tilford Jr. East Main Presbyterian Church Grove City, Pa. What can other gods do? July 25, 2002 "Presbyterian pastor leads multi-religious memorial" is a top-class apostasy. I wish to see and read Presbyterians worshiping "God" as He is the only God and Lord Jesus Christ as He is the only Lord. What can other gods do? Timotheus Nasir Pakistan Who's on first … and at home? July 25, 2002 Re: money problems involving Victor Makari. I hope and pray we do not have this situation: Who's on first; what's on second; don't know who is on third; and there is nobody home. Can someone tell me who is at home? The body of Christ needs to pray for this situation. Lou. S. Nowasielski Wilmington, Del. A list of the 'essential tenets' July 25, 2002 I am a certified director of Christian education and usually do not read The Layman but I wanted to see your reporting on the 214th General Assembly. The article on page 17, titled "Parlimentary ax falls on call for listing essential tenets," caught my eye. This is something I insist on teaching every year to our new officers in our new church officer class. I, too, have realized that most people do not know what they are agreeing to when they take their ordination vows and state they sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets. Where are they found? Let me share this information with you and your readers: It is not a great mystery – they are already listed in the Book of Order G.2.0300 - G2.0500. They are: Trinity, Incarnation, Justification, Scripture, Sovereignty, Election, Covenant, Stewardship, Sin and Obedience. Numbers 1-2 (faith of the Church catholic) we have in common with most Christian denominations; numbers 3-4 (faith of the Protestant Reformation) we have in common with all Protestants and numbers 5-10 ((faith of the Reformed tradition) is uniquely Reformed and Presbyterian. There is a little saying that can help people remember the essential tenets – taking the first letter of each tenets you come up with: "this is joyous sweet song every child should sing." I hope your readers will find this information useful and will include it in their new officer training classes. Dana Marzolf Cerified Director of Christian Education Chapter 2 of the Book of Order has sometimes been described as a listing of the "essential tenets." However, the General Assembly has declared that none is actually essential. The following is a statement by the General Assembly, now published in The Book of Confessions: "The ordination question that asks for commitment to the 'essential tenets' of the confessions brings freedom in the church at several levels. 'Ordained persons are free to be "instructed," "led," and "continually guided" by the confessions without being forced to subscribe to any precisely worded articles of faith drawn up either by the General Assembly or by a presbytery.'" The Editors Hold fast to the standard July 25, 2002 The Presbyterian Church (USA), "For God has not given us a Spirit of timidity, but one of power, love and discipline (II Timothy 1:7). Many of our leaders have forgotten from whom righteousness and judgment come and tolerate sin in the name of political acceptance of free choice, of lifestyles, however evil. We must hold fast to the standard of the one and only true God. Richard Sloma First Presbyterian Church Georgetown, Texas Thanks for your defense of the Good News July 25, 2002 Thank you for the clarity and logic of your defense of the Good News. Such a statement convinces me that the Triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is still at work within a remnant of the PCUSA. Yes, there is hope. Thanks be to God for His grace. Art Montgomery Elder First Presbyterian Church Salt Lake City, Utah Princeton Seminary is not the university July 17, 2002 Just a reminder to readers: Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary are separate institutions and have been since 1810. Please don't think that your students at Princeton Seminary are spending the Lord's money on the kind of academic incontinence they see across the street at the U. As an alum, I can assure all readers that "Don't fool with the flock" was always the standard, both literally and figuratively. As for our other seminaries, their silence on the issue can and must be read only as disapproval. Noel Anderson, pastor Michillinda Presbyterian Church Pasadena, Calif. Illustrious company for a 'weird' cause July 17, 2002 I am uncertain whether to be pleased, or otherwise, that your writer omitted the name of a noted pioneer Presbyterian missionary who was included in "Rev" Moon's claim of heavenly support. Moon included in his list of sainted Christian leaders now supposedly speaking from heaven on his behalf the name of the Rev. Horace G. Underwood. Our family has written in protest to one of the papers which carried this preposterous claim, but then concluded that the less attention it got, the better. We are gratified to see our grandfather listed in such illustrious company but far from pleased that he is supposedly supporting the outlandish heresies of Moon. Perhaps our best approach would be to submit his thesis to some compiler of "Funniest" or "Weirdest" newspaper ads. Dick Underwood Urbana, Ill. Pittsburgh Seminary needs Barnes July 17, 2002 It is certainly with great sorrow that Craig Barnes is leaving National Presbyterian Church but, at the same time, it is true that seminaries like Pittsburgh need men of his caliber to train others. I find it interesting that there are more evangelicals at schools of the old Northern church than there are in those once affiliated with the Southern church that had the reputation for evangelical witness. Tom Scandlyn Harriman, Tenn. MLB, PCUSA under same management? July 17, 2002 After Tuesday night's mangling of the All-Star game, which ended in a tie because of ineptness and a lack of passion for the game, this thought came to my mind. The PCUSA and Major League Baseball either are twins or are managed by the same group of people. Rus Howard Would prof have had an audience at General Assembly? July 17, 2002 I'm really glad that Princeton University "disgrace" [bioethics professor Peter Singer] didn't come to the General Assembly recently concluded. Do you suppose he might have found an audience? Just wondering how many of his other ideas would have found fertile ground. Perhaps we could have had him lead us all in the anti-Taco Bell cheer. Ken Tazelaar Waukegan, Ill. A new teaching for Louisville? July 17, 2002 Here's a News Flash! The Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church has discovered that in order to grow a congregation must proclaim Jesus Christ. A working document on identifying and developing church growth pastors states, in part, "they must have a strong desire to proclaim Jesus Christ and introduce people into a personal relationship with Him. People will not join a church for a 'cause.'" I know this is not news to those of us who have read and take seriously that worn-out first century document called the Acts of the Apostles. But, for the folks at Louisville, who still wonder why our denomination is losing members or having trouble attracting members, this study may open their eyes. Perhaps we could get them to read the document under the guise of it being an "ecumenical" document? Donald D. Denton, Jr. Richmond, Va.
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