The Layman – April 2003 Volume 36, Number 2 – Posted April 21, 2003

A wishful-thinking ambassador When he ran last year and was elected to a one-year term as moderator of the 214th General Assembly, the Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel displayed unquestionable winsomeness. He conducted himself as one deeply devoted to Jesus Christ and the mission of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He spoke with a slight Arabic accent – acquired from his upbringing as a Palestinian Christian in Israel – which reminded us all that our mission is larger than stateside. In his year, he has traveled widely and consistently shared the good news of Jesus Christ. He has been a good ambassador. For sure, Abu-Akel has been excessively optimistic – urging Presbyterians in this aging, declining denomination to fix things with a simple task. Each person would bring one more person to church during his moderatorial year, and, presto, the PCUSA would double to 5 million, offsetting the embarrassment of empty pews and shrinking financial support. But optimism itself is no sin. The men and women who have served as directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee have been optimistic for 38 years. They believe, as does our esteemed moderator, that this denomination need not plunge headlong toward oblivion. But let’s be real. Wishing that the membership would double is a flight of fancy if our denomination’s leaders and governing bodies are unwilling to yield to the guidance of God. If they cannot and will not heed God’s own warning – that judgment begins with his people – and continue to challenge his eternal truths, their wishes are mere hallucinations. Building the church is a deep-faith chore, not a chimera. It requires foundational tools – the unquestioned Lordship of Christ, submission to Scripture and a willingness to be obedient to the law of God, even, and maybe especially, when God’s law condemns our culture-driven biases. The institutional leadership of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has faltered in all three areas. Sadly, the moderator became a party to that failing when the leaders in the Office of the Stated Clerk used him in an unseemly strategy that undermined the church’s constitution and prolonged their procrastination against enforcement of the denomination’s Biblical – yes, Biblical – ordination standards. During his video testimony in the trial before the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the moderator said he had not even bothered to read the documents in the case. He said he was not schooled in the Book of Order and that he depended on the stated clerk and others to prescribe his response. The court, using some strong language, concluded that the moderator was wrong. Abu-Akel’s failure was listening to bad advice and not taking seriously his constitutional duties. He treated that part of his work as unimportant. He preferred his trips around the world, from which he could bring glowing reports of buoyant Christians. Don’t bother me with this silliness about a petition for a called meeting of the 214th General Assembly, he seemed to suggest, I’m a pastor to the whole church. But being effective as a pastor to the whole church must begin with a strong foundation, and Abu-Akel stood on shifting sand. Abu-Akel became a cheerleader for a needlessly dying institution, almost as if his eyes were closed. It behooved the moderator to use his office as a bully pulpit to do more than wishful thinking and summon the PCUSA to the kind of faithfulness that will bring people into the pews. May his successor look more closely at the reality.

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