The Layman – August 2002 Volume 35, Number 4 – Posted July 19, 2002

‘70-percent assembly’ didn’t act out the faith An analysis published by The Presbyterian Outlook suggested that the 214th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) was the “70-percent General Assembly” – as if a popularity contest were a litmus test for faithfulness. If so, the test rendered some strange results. Consider how the 553 commissioners voted in majorities that were 70 percent or better: for late-term abortions against enforcing the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) against restoring cuts in mission and evangelism for biennial assemblies and less accountability by the Louisville staff for spending more money on boycotting Taco Bell and other contrived social issues for continuing to sell a sexuality curriculum that three consecutive general assemblies ordered the denomination’s staff to revise and take off the shelves for spending $750,000 on new curriculum after the last curriculum-publishing venture lost more than $1 million in two years for “dialogue” with Muslims that diminishes the urgency of the gospel Not all was off the moral and theological track. The commissioners did approve by 97 percent a statement that says Jesus Christ is the only Lord and Savior for the entire world. But it was a statement with a caveat, that God is sovereign and that he may save people who do not confess that Jesus is Lord, so we’re not sure. That caveat will license some to declare – as they have done in the past – that Jesus is only one of many salvation-granting deities. What was missing? We’ll concede that, when it comes to human decision-making, 70-plus percent beats whatever’s left every time. But does it trump the Word of God? Where was the compassion for the “least of these” when the General Assembly said it was all right for a doctor to stab a pair of scissors into a baby’s skull and use a vacuum to suck out the brains so that a viable child could be “extracted” like a rotten tooth? Where was the commitment to exercise discipline as a means of grace so that pastors and sessions would not have a license to do “what’s right in their own eyes?” Where was the conviction of the General Assembly – hypocritically calling itself the “mission assembly” – when it refused to call for mission and evangelism priorities that reflect the Great Ends of the Church? Where was the will to reverse the membership hemorrhage – the worst of any mainline denomination in America – by insisting on annual, not biennial, oversight of the work of the denomination’s staff and the General Assembly Council? Why’s Taco Bell the issue? Where was the sense of outrage over our denomination’s ineptness in social and political affairs that would have prompted commissioners to rise up and insist that Taco Bell is not the enemy? It is, as Pogo said, us. Where was the God-given assurance to tell the denomination’s staff that it had no right to refuse to comply with previous general assemblies that had ordered Louisville to revise sexuality curriculum that essentially endorses sex between children and extramarital sex? Where were the godly skeptics who would challenge spending $750,000 to produce another curriculum that is likely to fail? And where were those who could remember that the Presbyterian Church was once one of the leading producers of great curriculum because it was then faithful to God’s Word? Where were Presbyterians who would love Muslims enough to boldly declare to them that Jesus Christ alone is Lord and they must believe in Him to gain eternal life? Kudos to the 30 percent We would call this the “30-percent assembly” in honor of the men and women who tried to raise the standard. Often eloquently, always politely, they rose to speak the truth in love. Those who rejected their appeals were just as polite, so this was not an assembly that indulged in acrimony. Rejection of God’s principles was not delivered as a slap in the face – it came with the deceptive balm of unity and peaceful coexistence at all costs. Some may applaud that peacefulness, but there was a huge price: Scripture and the Reformed understanding of what it means to be the people of God. There was a mock holiness to the 214th General Assembly. Instigated by Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel’s call for commissioners to raise “holy hands,” delegate after delegate chanted the word “holy” as an adjective to weigh in on issues and matters that deserved no such modifier. Most of the “holy” banter was light-hearted, for sure, but the contrast between true holiness and the decisions of the General Assembly seemed unreal. What’s ahead for the PCUSA? The General Assembly has moved this denomination even closer to its structural dissolution. But, thank God, there is a remnant, including many within the denomination’s greatest, but ignored, human treasure: the Confessing Churches. Like Luther, they have declared, “Here we stand.” Their hope is anchored in Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior, with no caveats. Their confidence is in God’s revelation of himself through the incarnate Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Their platform is the written Word of God. Their voice has been restrained, not demanding. Their emphasis has been congregational, not denominational. They were an aside to the 214th General Assembly, gathering daily in a small, representative group to pray for the commissioners. For the sake of the Presbyterian Church (USA), our prayer is that they would step up to a larger stage.

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