Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Presbyterian Politics

Divorces can be messy, and there are a lot of divorces currently underway in the Presbyterian Church, aka the PC(USA).  

Some of the bigger and more conservative churches are leaving the denomination.

The issues? 

  • Whether persons in same-sex relationships can be ordained as pastors (approved in 2012).
  • Whether same-sex marriages can be allowed (still up for debate).
  • Whether the PC(USA) holds to Scripture 
  • Whether the PC(USA) even holds to the "core theological beliefs" of Christianity.

According to those who are leaving, the answer to all the issues above is NO.

Therefore, they founded a new denomination last year: ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.

This past Sunday the Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas voted to leave the PC(USA) and join ECO.  

Many hearts are grieving as a result, including that of Joseph Clifford, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, which in 1924 sent a group of 84 Christians to organize a new church for the Highland Park area of Dallas.

Here's a link to Clifford's statement posted today on the First Pres Dallas website:

http://www.fpcdallas.org/index.cfm/pageid/2101/index.html?mobile=1

Clifford points out that pastors in the PC(USA) take a vow to serve "in obedience to Jesus Christ, under the authority of Scripture, and be continually guided by our confessions."

In response to the Highland folks' disagreement with the PC(USA) "over the authority of Scripture and salvation through Jesus Christ alone," Clifford quotes from a 2002 General Assembly document titled "Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ."  It's worth reading--look at the link above.  

That document says, "No one is saved apart from God's gracious redemption in Jesus Christ. Yet we do not presume to limit the sovereign freedom of God..." by saying that everyone else on the planet is going to hell. It cites I Timothy 2:4: "God... desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth."

That's "salvation through Jesus Christ alone" but admitting that God holds a wild card.

Then Clifford offers a rebuttal to the departing group's claim that the PC(USA) doesn't hold to the authority of Scripture, citing the Confession of 1967:

The Scriptures are "not a witness among others, but the witness without parallel."  Nevertheless, the church "has an obligation to approach the Scriptures with literary and historical understanding."

For the PC(USA) that study of the Scriptures and their historical setting has led to a modification in our view of long-term, faithful same-sex relationships.  For the ECO folks, that amounts to not accepting the authority of Scripture.

That is, not accepting the authority of their view of Scripture.  

There has been a lot of scholarship on the Bible and homosexuality--books and books discussing the 4-5 mentions of the topic and setting them in context, biblically and historically.  

My favorite: What God Has Joined Together? A Christian Case for Gay Marriage by Letha Dawson Scanzoni and David G. Myers (NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005).  

One of the groups rooting for churches to leave the PC(USA) is the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which left in 1981 over another controversial issue: whether women can be pastors.  There are many books written on that subject too, and fortunately it's no longer an issue for most people.  Except the EPC folks--and the Roman Catholics and the Southern Baptists and the Missouri Synod Lutherans, etc.

Menlo Park Presbyterian Church is one of those considering leaving the PC(USA).  Members were going to take a vote on November 3 over whether to leave the PC(USA), but that vote has now been postponed to January.  

Pastors are sometimes caught in a tough place; their employment and retirement can be affected.  That's hard for some who are close to retirement.

Divorces, grieving, and the holidays approaching... sigh.

Some of us have divisions over these issues within our own families and will not be sitting around the same table on Thanksgiving Day.  It's sad.

No comments: