To: The Presbyterian Church, USA (PCUSA)
From: Mitch Berg, Disgusted Congregant
Re: Amen
Dear PCUSA,
I’ve been a Presbyterian my entire adult life, And as a practical matter, that’s meant “PCUSA”, by far the largest organization of this rather small denomination.
And I’ll stay Presbyterian, because on theological matters, I believe the Presbyterian liturgy puts the least BS between man and understanding God. And as an American who believes in representative, constitutional democracy, I believe we owe a debt to the Knoxian revolutionaries who had a disproportionally large role in founding not only this nation, but our nation’s system of governnment in its purest form.
But the PCUSA General Assembly’s canoodling with political correctness – endless pointless, mindless debates about fripperies like gay marriage and divestment from Israel – as the denomination erodes, fast, have eroded my faith, not in the core of the liturgy that descended from Knox, but the politically-correct bobbleheads that have hijacked the PCUSA’s temporal governance.
These repeated diversions into temporal political correctness give onlookers the impression that the PCUSA – and Presbyterians in general – are spending their time trying to build a deeper relationship with the lords of temporal political correctness. And although the General Assembly vote on the Israel divestment was close (310-303), reflecting the fact that many, many congregations don’t share the General Assembly’s passion for PC, at all too many PCUSA churches, especially in the major metro areas, it’s not an invalid impression.
So I’ll be leaving the PCUSA behind, and moving to one of your less BS-clogged breakaways – the Presbyterian Church in America, or the Orthodox Presbyterian Church – once and for all.
I hope you come around someday. But I’m done hoping.
That is all.
In the 70’s/early 80’s, I was a member of The Lawron Chapel in Lawrence Lake (Itasca Cty), a Presbyterian church.
I got into reading those un-p.c. Christian tracts by Jack Chick. One of my faves was ‘Support Your Local Jew.’ This was before I ever even heard the term ‘politically correct’.
I wonder if Chick tracts are still allowed in some of these Presbyterian churches. Or support for Israel.
This is a rare example where the alleged “separation of church and state” would actually be useful. Christian religions, not just the Presbyterians, keep going deeper and deeper into issues that don’t concern them. I think this mad dash for relevance is more off-putting to many than any old tenets and/ or dogma.
Many seek guidance from their faith, which is impossible when your access to it changes like the cover of People magazine. Maybe there was something to be said for the Latin Mass, front-facing altar, strict birth control bans, and even denouncing a person’s sins, not their “bad choices”.
If I were a Presbyterian, I would feel somewhat better if I found out that these Israeli-based investments were coincidentally tanking in synch with this PC divestiture. Conversely, my donations or tithing to the church would be drastically cut if I learned that the investments in question were sound and profitable …
Your experience with the PCUSA is identical to mine (and many others) with the very liberal ELCA. Part of it is the churches being taken over by progressive who want to remake the church into their own image, part of it is a marketing tool to attract urban liberals in an increasing secular, and almost anti-Christian, society. The problem is, urban liberals will not stay in and give money to a church when there is so much competition from other entities. Trendy restaurants, NPR, new I-phones, Sierra Club.
Biblical churches have problems also keeping attendance. But at least if they have non-negotiable doctrines, true believers will stay. And support. To them, their church isn’t just a social club with religious themes.
And the Israel thing. I cannot figure out why liberal Protestant churches have sided with the Arabs over the Jewish state. As a Christian, where would you rather live? Iraq or Israel? If they are concerned about events that happened in 1948 with the creation of Israel, why not complain about the 12 million ethnic Germans, many many of them Lutherans, who were removed at gunpoint from their ancestral homelands in 1945/46? How come the PCUSA and the ELCA don’t complain about “occupied Silesia” like they do about “occupied West Bank”?
“The Lawron Chapel”
I remember that place, nice little country church on the Scenic Hwy by the banks of the Prairie River
Gracious host, may you be blessed far beyond simply having your tithe no longer used to support people who launch rocket attacks from elementary schools at elementary schools. I personally left a theologically and politically liberal mainline church back in 1987 first because of anti-military stands the campus parish was taking, and then permanently because the Gospel was not being preached from the pulpit.
Have you ever considered crossing the Tiber, Mitch?
Y’know, I’m starting to sense that there’s a market opportunity here…
JAM – looked at it, decided no .
Might be me and the Methodist Church in the future.
Starting in the 1960’s, the Catholic Church in Latin America was infiltrated by Liberation Theology commies and in the United States, by homosexuals. The Church has been in decline ever since.
I know, post hoc ergo prompter hoc, the timing doesn’t prove the commies and homos destroyed the Church in America. But if I awake and see the sidewalk is wet, it’s fair to assume it rained overnight, at least until some other more compelling explanation is offered.
As a lifelong Missouri-synod Lutheran, I am constantly impressed by the number of congregants who bristle at the doctrine of actually believing the Bible is inspired from a God who has RULES.
I’ve always felt that the Catholic Churches decline started with Pope John XXIII and his Second Vatican Council (1962-65). It was responsible for a number of the modernizations which, in my opinion, made the church easier to disregard; familiarity breeds contempt. In some organizations, a dogmatic “because I said so” is not the wrong answer. The Pope seemed, if I remember correctly, a pretty decent fellow. However, I see a lot of similarities between he and our current model, Pope Francis. If true, we and the Catholic Church are in for an interesting ride.