reactions<\/a> from proponents of gay ordination very much reflect that for them the question was not whether the church would adhere to God’s word but whether the denomination would find a place for victims of discrimination. <\/p>\nAccording to Trice Gibbons, Co-Moderator of More Light Presbyterians, “My heart is full as I think of all of those children of God who were hurt, who persevered, who left, who stayed and who worked so hard to make the Presbyterian Church (USA) truly reflect the wildly inclusive love of Jesus Christ—too many to name.” <\/p>\n
Michael J. Adee, also of More Light, stated, “It is necessary and absolutely OK to celebrate this moment in the life and witness of our Church, the end of categorical discrimination against God’s LGBT children which was wrong in the first place.” He added, “what a journey this work for justice and equality has been.”<\/p>\n
For those who trust Scripture as the font of eternal life and regard the Reformed tradition as a worthy expression of biblical truth<\/strong>, this development in the PCUSA is a sad day. It is also an eye-opening one for those evangelicals who have remained in the mainline denomination. The argument for the better part of a century has been that the Presbyterian Church could maintain a faithful biblical witness without being overly scrupulous about the details of its theology—from the doctrine of Scripture to the five points of Calvinism. <\/p>\nOn the surface, it is not obvious how affirming and defending the imputation of Christ’s righteousness adds weight to ordaining only candidates who affirm and try to live by biblical standards of morality. But just as New York City experimented with the policy described as “broken windows” and discovered that cracking down on petty public nuisances could also reduce harder crimes, so the PCUSA may be discovering that once you lighten your grip on seemingly arcane doctrines you also lose the ability to enforce any sort of doctrinal or moral standard. <\/p>\n
The era of neo-orthodoxy and the heady tomes of Karl Barth and Reinhold Niebuhr appeared to steer the mainline Protestant churches from the excesses of liberal Protestantism. However, that theological era came to an end during the 1960s when the theologies of liberation and identity politics pushed aside the theological and ethical reflection of dead white men of European descent. <\/p>\n
But what is now obvious is that the right-turn of neo-orthodoxy did little to correct a much deeper problem, one stemming from the contradictions of ecclesiastical inclusion. The United States is, of course, a free country, and communions like the PCUSA are free to be as inclusive as the nation whose name they bear. But other Americans are also free to wonder if such a church can still credibly claim to speak for God. <\/p>\n
Darryl Hart, a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, is a visiting professor of history at Hillsdale College and the author of<\/em> From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism (Eerdmans, forthcoming). <\/p>\n