Some want to "stay and fight" for orthodoxy and purity in the PC(USA)

by Doug King, Witherspoon Society WebWeaver 
[posted October 9, 2003]

Portland, Oregon, October 8, 2003 - While proposals for "gracious separation" drew the attention and support of many participants in the Presbyterian Coalition Gathering in Portland, there were still important voices raised in support of the Coalition's long-held position that conservatives ought to stay in the Presbyterian Church, working in various ways to return the church not so long ago called "apostate" to traditional beliefs and morality.

In the Tuesday morning Forum of Ideas, two of those voices came from Terry Schlossberg, executive director of Presbyterians Pro-Life and a member of the board of the Coalition, and Bob Davis, executive director of another of the "renewal groups," the Presbyterian Forum.

Schlossberg, who later led a workshop with Susan Cyre, executive director of Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry and editor of Theology Matters, warned her conservative audience that "we're up against aggressive forces that wish to change the church in such a way that what would be passed down to our children would be very different from what we have received." So she said that conservatives must focus on "reform from within" as a way of "restoring the orthodoxy of our church."

While "we are shocked and disgusted" by the present state of the church, she urged people to rely on the power and mercy of God, and to follow the example of Jonah, having pity of "the people of our city, who do not know their right hand from their left." [Being left-handed, your WebWeaver must resist the temptation take that personally.]

Warning of reports that the evangelical churches are the next group to be "targeted by the homosexuals," she affirmed that "we are still one church under one constitution." While some want to uphold it, others "want to undo it ... some by any means possible."

While some see separation from the PC(USA) as the only way to maintain their faithfulness, she said such a course "admits defeat, and yields to the temptation to believe that God is not with us."

Viewing the crisis through her reading of the New Testament, she said that the apostles' letters to the churches show that these are not new problems: false teachings and sexual immorality were problems even then. And the early chapters of the Book of Revelation, she added, are calls to "repentance, to reform and to correction - but never to acceptance." So evangelicals must be the Church Militant, at war with the evils that beset them.

She urged that people must work for reforms that will transform life in congregations and presbyteries, while working also to restore the proper authority of our General Assemblies.

She went on to outline some specific strategies, including:

All of this must be done, she said, by encouraging and activating congregations to engage in this battle ... and "the battle is the Lord's."

If one speaker for separation had a standing ovation of three people (including Parker Williamson of The Layman), your WebWeaver saw just one standing in support of Schlossberg's call for people to stay in the church and continue fighting to gain control - or at least to bring about the return to orthodoxy and morality that is so important to them.

Another call for staying in the PC(USA) came from Bob Davis, executive director of the Presbyterian Forum. He too said that "the fallacy among us [evangelicals] is thinking that the problem is 'out there,'" when the real problem is apathy among those who are weary of the struggle to keep the church true to what they regard as its essential beliefs and morals.

What's needed, he said, is networking. In the congregation that means training elders and members so they can deal with theological questions and defend the essentials of the faith. It also means identifying people that God is calling to positions of leadership, and "grooming them" for ordination. At the presbytery level he called for somewhat the same kinds of strategies: being "intentional about proclaiming Christ" and true beliefs in the presbytery; identifying people "who are being raised up as ministers and missionaries;" helping the churches of the presbytery to "be a blessing to [their] community."

Finally, Davis suggested that it is helpful for evangelicals to give each synod a "clear identity," as has happened with the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii, which is now identified with the affirmation of the "essential tenets."
 

A number of the Tuesday afternoon workshops focused on some of the strategies mentioned as tools in the struggle: