The Layman – November 2006 Volume 39, Number 5 – Posted November 27, 2006

Raising high theological impropriety None less than the General Assembly’s Office of the Stated Clerk has advised us that two merging Presbyterian congregations did everything in decency and good order when they sold one of their church buildings and property to an Islamic group that removed the cross atop the steeple and replaced it with the star and crescent. Related article: Islamic symbol replaces cross after sale of PCUSA church Officials spurn offers from Christian groups It’s good to know that a building once used to glorify the risen Christ, the head of the Church, has not been transferred to an Islamic group in violation of any constitutional principle. For all we know, this may be a high mark in Presbyterian-style inter-faith ecumenism – a helping hand, or a cheap price, to a religious body that undoubtedly has many fine people who nonetheless subscribe to beliefs that prompt adherents around the world to lethal and suicidal religious fervor. But even if all was done in decency and order, as the stated clerk’s office reported, Gary Miller’s photographs and page 1 story about the former home of First Presbyterian Church in Bossier City, La., are a sad commentary on the denomination’s limited commitment to theological propriety. Miller, the pastor of Minden Presbyterian Church in Minden, La., noticed the change while he was driving in Bossier City, 20 miles from his home. He could hardly believe his eyes when he saw a steeple, which once supported the cross, now capped by the star and crescent of Islam. He made a second trip, this time with his camera, and contacted The Layman, offering to provide photographs and a story. In his research, Miller found everything was done according to the apologists for Presbyterian polity. Two congregations had decided to merge into a single building. They put up for sale the property of one of the congregations. The key people involved in that transaction were the ministers of the two congregations, who also happen to be the moderator and the stated clerk of the Presbytery of the Pines. The presbytery approved the consolidation of the two congregations. It was never asked to vote on the property sale. Miller asked General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick’s office whether the sale to an Islamic group passed muster. It did, Kirkpatrick’s office responded, because the presbytery was not required to consider the offer. So everything was in order – or was it? Was it appropriate to sell merely to the highest bidder, presumably the Islamic group? Are not the Great Ends of the Church abandoned when property intended to exalt Jesus Christ is transferred to a religious body whose adherents believe Christ was a mere man and Christians are “infidels?” Would it have been too great a sacrifice to have sold the property at a lower price to a faithful non-Presbyterian Christian congregation committed to the gospel that draws its power from the atoning death of Christ on the cross and his resurrection? There’s one more problem. Will the denomination and the presbyteries that are rigidly enforcing the property trust clause in the Book of Order claim they followed the rules when they confiscate church property and sell it … to whom?

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