Now What?

With both ECUSA and PCUSA, to differing degrees, thumbing their noses at Scripture, the historic church, their own theological tradition, and their own creeds/constitutions with their actions this week, the question now becomes, "Now what?" Will conservatives leave in droves and drive the membership of both denominations down to its true critical mass? Or will conservatives try to hang on in these denominations, given the certain fights over property and pensions with the denomination that principled separation will bring?

No doubt, there will be some evangelicals in these denominations (and some outsiders too) who will confidently predict that the sky is officially falling and that the actions of the national leadership this week are the last straw. They will offer bold predictions about mass defections of evangelicals in the coming year as a reaction to what has happened this week. There will likely be obituaries pronounced on these denominations. But I wonder. In the case of ECUSA, conservatives are a decided minority in both the pulpits and the pews across the country. They have no power to change things at the national level, and they know it. They also have no power to stop liberal dioceses from seizing assets, replacing rectors, and taking over conservative parishes if they grumble too loudly about what the national leadership is doing. This is particularly true if the parish is small, as most conservative parishes are. In the case of larger conservative parishes such as The Falls Church and Truro church, will they really leave ECUSA and submit themselves to an evangelical bishop from Africa and then fight the fights they will inevitably have to fight with their current diocese to maintain their property? Are they going to be willing to part with their impressive facilities and 'start over' with virtually no tangible property in a geographic area where good property is extremely expensive and hard to come by? These are very tough questions, and they are a large part of the reason why conservatives stay put, despite all the huffing and puffing about apocalyptic defections that we often hear after each national meeting.

It's easy for me to make a blog entry discussing all this, because I'm not part of ECUSA or PCUSA. It's easy for me to simplify the very real turmoil that exists in the hearts of people who are in these denominations and feel as if they are in exile because of the direction the national leadership has taken. I take Scripture's repeated call for unity very seriously, and as an evangelical, it pains me when other evangelicals flippantly dismiss the command of unity on the altar of protecting truth. The truth is that true truth leads to unity among the Body; they are not opposed to each other. Truth is not subservient to unity as liberals like to maintain, but unity based on truth is essential to carrying out the Great Commission and living out the 2 great commandments. But Scripture is also clear that unity based in falsehood, sin, and fleshly motives is not unity, but self-deception. By claiming that their actions foster unity and justice, the liberal leadership of these denominations are deceiving themselves. The truth is that their actions are schismatic through and through. They have separated themselves from the clear mandates of Scripture. They have cut themselves off from their own community (past and present). They have made a mockery of their own theological confessions. And they have told evangelicals in their ranks to get with the program. These are not actions of unity, but of schism. They are deliberately going down the very path that is antithetical to their stated principle of unity. They have made truth and unity opposed to each other, and this should serve to demonstrate how far afield their actions are, despite the rhetoric behind them.

Will evangelicals leave en masse? I don't know, and neither does anyone else.