July-August 2011 – Another U. S. mainline denomination has succumbed to persistent pressure from homosexual rights activists.
In May, the Presbyterian Church (USA) joined the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in allowing the ordination of homosexual clergy.
The change came quietly as the PCUSA Office of the General Assembly received the majority vote from the nation’s 173 regional bodies (presbyteries) on a measure that had been put before them last summer for ratification. The change took effect on July 10, 2011.
The new amendment to the denomination’s Book of Order deletes a key phrase that required ministers, elders and deacons to live in “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”
The new language, according to Alan Wisdom of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, replaces the clear teaching of Scripture with a “vague statement that gives no specific guidance for sexual behavior.” IRD is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that works to restore biblical Christianity in mainline denominations.
The ratification of the new amendment highlights divisions in the church: first, between the PCUSA Book of Order and the Book of Confessions; and second, between the views of church leaders and rank and file members.
The Book of Order and the Book of Confessions make up the PCUSA constitution. The Book of Confessions consists of 11 historic Christian creeds, some of which explicitly uphold the biblical view of sexuality.
However, that conflict between the two official church documents doesn’t seem to bother most in the PCUSA, Wisdom explains, since the Book of Confessions is generally no longer recognized as binding authority in the practice of the PCUSA. Documents that make up the Book of Confessions include the Nicene Creed, the Apostles’ Creed, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and others.
However that doesn’t mean that a majority of PCUSA members necessarily support the change. Wisdom said that polling among PCUSA members shows that they continue to support fidelity and chastity in their clergy.
Forty year push
Wisdom said that until the 1970s, Presbyterians largely agreed that those who were involved in sexual relationships outside marriage were disqualified from church office. When that assumption was challenged in future decades, the General Assembly, the denomination’s governing body, would uphold a traditional biblical view of sexual morality.
Then in the 1990s, the permanent judicial commission, the church’s highest court, ruled that guidance from the General Assembly was not sufficient to be binding, and if the denomination wanted to require clergy to be faithful in marriage or chaste in singleness, it would have to add that language to the Book of Order. That was done by a majority vote of the presbyteries in 1997 and has been the standard until now.
Disheartened and declining
Wisdom says that although some local churches may leave the PCUSA, many members will express their discontent by simply distancing themselves from the denomination and seeking fellowship with like-minded churches that affirm scriptural teaching concerning sexuality.
“I think it’s going to create alienation,” he said. “People in local churches that uphold the biblical teaching are going to feel that the denomination is no longer supporting them. And particularly in this culture where not only homosexuality, but cohabitation is so widely accepted, it will take some strength to be counter cultural and try to live to the standard of Scripture.”
If Wisdom’s predictions come to pass, the PCUSA will continue a decline in membership that began in 1965 when the denomination counted 4.25 million members. By 2010 that number had shrunk to 2.07 million. 
Case of mistaken identity
The PCUSA is the largest Presbyterian denomination in America, but in practice, the liberal mainline shares little more than a history and a name with other groups that identify themselves as Presbyterian. Below is a list of other sizable Presbyterian groups around the country. All are evangelical; confess Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Sovereign Lord over all of life; and affirm the inspiration, inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible and look to it as the only rule of faith and practice.
▶ Presbyterian Church in America – 346,408 members; 1740 local churches; www.pcanet.org
▶ Evangelical Presbyterian Church – 115,000 members; about 300 churches; www.epc.org
▶ Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church – 35,472 members; 255 local churches; www.arpsynod.org
▶ Orthodox Presbyterian Church – 30,000 members; 335 churches; www.opc.org
▶ Korean-American Presbyterian Church – 33,000 members; over 400 churches; www.kacp.org
