 Death wish  The Layman Volume 35, Number 4, Posted July 19, 2002
Then, in a withering series of actions, the General Assembly brought Isaiah’s words to mind: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Presbyterian Church (USA) leaders are pursuing a death wish. No longer does this assembly declare its disdain for those who kill full-term babies. Grasping an infant by its feet, a doctor can stab scissors into its skull without a word of contempt from the Presbyterian Church (USA). He may now gain support from activist members of the Advisory Committee on Litigation, who, prior to this assembly, were blocked from filing amicus briefs favoring partial-birth abortionists. Meanwhile, members of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy are dying to help the frail elderly and handicapped accelerate their demise. And what has this assembly done with the life-giving Word? It rejected a proposal from Yukon Presbytery to establish an evangelistic youth ministry. During committee discussion, a commissioner actually argued against programs that evangelize young people because, he said, they should not be subjected to manipulation. Meanwhile, the attempt by some to ensure that Presbyterian participants in Christian/Muslim dialogues proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord of all was spurned as an inhospitable barrier to interfaith peacemaking, and 34 missionary positions were ripped out of the mission budget. In another instance, this assembly, by refusing to enforce the Constitution, shredded the document that defines who we are as Presbyterians. Now nothing more than a piece of paper, it becomes sentiment without substance and we become not a people but a diverse collection of individuals. The prophet Ezekiel warned that forsaking God’s Word would lead Israel to the boneyard. That is precisely what is happening to the Presbyterian Church (USA), whose leaders have presided over the loss of 1,760,816 members since 1965. The Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky, whose churches are most directly infected by our national staff culture, lost 25.5 percent of its membership in the ten-year period between 1991 and 2000. Compare that with the 1,265 Confessing Churches that lost just 4.7 percent during the same period. Those who trust God know that the death knell being tolled by Louisville’s bureaucracy is not the final word. The last word is God’s Word. Trusting his promises, we believe that he who breathed life into a valley of dry bones will, in his own good time, restore a remnant in this decaying denomination. Anticipating that grace, Presbyterians who are faithful to the gospel can declare with confidence: “O death, where is your sting? O death, where is your victory? But thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” Parker T. Williamson is editor-in-chief of The Layman. |
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