Presbyterians Debate Theology of Division
Although no conclusions were drawn at the March 2-4 meeting, the task force members seemed to agree that while unity is desirable, it is not a required condition to being a part of the body of Christ
The Presbyterian Church USA tackled the controversial issue on the divisiveness of the current day protestant church, during the denomination’s Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church (TTF) meeting in Dallas, last week. Although no conclusions were drawn at the March 2-4 meeting, the task force members seemed to agree that while unity is desirable, it is not a required condition to being a part of the body of Christ.
The meeting was a follow-up to the controversial statement the group issued last summer regarding individuals and congregations leaving the denomination.
“Christians cannot even entertain the notion of severing their ties with sisters and brothers in Christ without also placing themselves in severe jeopardy of being severed from Christ himself,” the TTF’s preliminary statement read. “Unity with one another is not an optional feature of life in Christ. It is a necessity: union with Christ means union with all other members of Christ's body, including those with whom one would not ordinarily choose to associate”
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Mark Achtemeier, of Dubuque Theological Seminary, led the follow-up conversation on the statement by asking if that means Presbyterians who separate from the denomination are also in “severe jeopardy of being severed from Christ.”
“Is it appropriate to equate the PC(USA) with the Body of Christ?” Achtemeier, one of the principal writers of the task force’s preliminary report asked.
In a five page response to the report, Achtemeier, Joe Coalter of Union Theological Seminary and Jack Haberer, a pastor in Houston, suggested that was not the case. They argued that the task force’s interim report was based on unity in a Biblical perspective for the body of Christ while the PC(USA) is more of an “arbitrary construct” within the larger body. Therefore, leaving one denomination to join another does not necessarily jeopardize the unity of the Body of Christ, the co-authors suggested.
"The task force's claims about the implications of separating from the true church may be accurate and faithful," Achtemeier said, "but that is not the issue at hand in current debates about the future of the PCUSA.”
The suggestion brought them to another question regarding the theological identity of a denomination. If one accepts the Westminster Confession’s concept of the “Invisible Church,” then the PC(USA) could be considered a “bureaucratic nonentity, theologically,” Achtemeier said, according to the Presbyterian Church News.
However, this would be a misinterpretation because the “invisible church” is not an abstraction but rather a community of real people.
“It is the boundaries of the church that are invisible,” the TTF paper stated, “not the church itself.”
“Claiming the abstract while breaking the visible fellowship is hypocrisy,” Achtemeier insisted, according to PCN “Our separated denominations fall short of God’s ultimate will for the church and Jesus’ prayer for unity.”
However, “divided churches don’t cease being the body of Christ; they’re just the broken and divided body of Christ.”
“So what about leaving one fragment of the divided church in order to seek more congenial company in another?” the paper asks. “Honesty compels us to affirm that there are clearly instances of this kind of action that any reasonable person would recognize as blameless.”
But North American Christians in particular are drawn to a consumer culture where they pick and choose the denomination of their liking and just as easily switch when they are dissatisfied.
We “are tempted to carry over the understandings and attitudes associated with our consumerist culture into the church’s life. ... American Christians are tempted to view themselves as religious ‘consumers’ seeking a denominational ‘product’ that suits them, and if they become dissatisfied with one brand, they switch to another one that is more to their liking,” noted Achtemeier. That kind of attitude “distorts the Biblical image that the church is God’s creation. The message of Pentecost is that God draws us all together in one church, and by hooking and unhooking we are denying that connection through the Holy Spirit and proclaiming a gospel of comparison shopping.”
The ultimate outcome of the TTF’s deliberations will not be known until the group’s final report is released in September.
