A Tale of Two Denominations

Gregory Alan Thornbury, Ph.D. - Dean of the School of Christian Studies

This past week’s news headlines offered the American public an increasingly clear picture of the polarities of Christianity in the United States. Two denominations – The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and the Presbyterian Churches in the U.S.A. (PCUSA) – both held their annual meetings, with the Baptists in New Orleans and the Presbyterians in Louisville. The hundreds of miles which separated the two bodies geographically does not even begin to offer an adequate metaphor for how far apart the two are theologically. The issues for discussion, affirmation, and debate between these denominations demonstrates that the two groups truly live in different universes.

The 213^th meeting of the General Assembly of the PCUSA made headlines on two fronts. First, the General Assembly struggled to respond to an official overture brought by three presbyteries requesting that the General Assembly reconfirm its commitment (as stated in the PCUSA’s own Book of Confessions) to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the exclusivity of the Christian gospel – the belief that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” than Jesus Christ, our Lord. (Acts 4:12) After some considerable debate and a substantive minority report, the General Assembly approved the measure affirming the Lordship of Christ. The Assembly did, however, add the following important caveat to their statement: “we do not know the limits of God’s grace and pray for the salvation of those who may never come to know Christ.” This admission amounts to a tacit repudiation of the very meaning of Acts 4:12 which clearly outlines the limits of God’s purpose of grace. “Salvation in no one else” means plainly just that – no salvation is to be found outside of Jesus Christ. Couple this affirmation with the New Testament’s clear linkage between intentional and self-conscious confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and there is no room for doubt: the only way of salvation is through explicit personal confession of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.

The uncertain sound of the PCUSA’s statement on salvation may be contrasted with the other, more widely reported decision of this year’s General Assembly. On Friday, June 15, the PCUSA voted overwhelmingly to overturn a ban on the ordination of homosexuals in the Presbyterian church. The previous qualifications for ordination required ministers to “live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.” The ordination and affirmation of homosexuals, the primary issue of contention in the last few years in PCUSA, has now been decisively addressed and approved by the representatives of the nation’s largest Presbyterian body. In so doing, the PCUSA swept aside clear biblical teaching against homosexuality and nearly two millennia of Christian affirmation to such conviction. The General Assembly’s decision now goes to individual presbyteries nationwide for local approval.

Contrast the denominational decisions recounted above with the actions taken last week by the 144^th meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant body. Rallying behind the theme of missions and evangelism, the SBC made clear once again its belief that men and women have no hope of eternal salvation apart from belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ. In his June 12 presidential address, SBC president James Merritt exhorted Southern Baptists to take their place on the front lines of the culture war by sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is done, Merritt explained, by stating clearly Christian convictions on the growing threats to the family in today’s society, and by standing firmly on the theological assertions of biblical revelation. Later, during its scheduled business session, messengers to the SBC heeded Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr.’s call to “keep our witness clear before the watching world” by voting down overwhelmingly three attempts to modify last year’s clearly conservative evangelical 2000 Baptist Faith and Message confession of faith. As a result, Southern Baptists emerged from their meeting resolute in both purpose and mission.

In sharp contrast to the Presbyterian meeting in Louisville, Southern Baptists unanimously passed a clearly worded resolution on covenant marriage, and endorsed the biblical definition of marriage as a covenant before God, between one man and one woman for an entire lifetime. The resolution also encouraged Southern Baptist churches to observe a Covenant Marriage Sunday as a forum to preserve and strengthen the traditional understanding of the family. In an interview with Baptist Press, Resolutions Committee chairman Daniel L. Akin, dean of the school of theology at Southern Seminary, explained that the support of Southern Baptists for this and similar resolutions was “reflective of the heart” and unity of the denomination on such critical cultural issues.

In a recent penetrating analysis of contemporary culture, author David Brooks analyzed the beliefs of “the new upper class” in American society, and suggested certain central themes in the worldview of those whom Brooks calls “Bourgeois Bohemians”, or “BOBOS” for short. Addressing the spirituality of BOBOS, Brooks observes that when it comes to religion, such persons esteem the virtue of “flexidoxy” (flexible beliefs) over orthodoxy (right belief). According to Brooks, BOBOS want the forms and rituals of traditional religious belief without having to subscribe to the particular boundaries of a given theological tradition. Says Brooks of this approach, “This is a morality, in other words, that doesn’t try to perch atop the high ground of divine revelation.” No perching indeed.

Brook’s helpful demarcation of modern religious belief can be profitably applied to last week’s meetings of two major Protestant denominations. One denomination self-consciously aims for the value of flexidoxy in which theological assertions are qualified beyond recognition – unless, of course, one is overturning the previous affirmations of traditional Christian belief and practice. The other denomination aims at orthodoxy – confessing rightly “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” The former appears to follow wherever the winds of secular culture blow. The other looks for and treads upon ancient paths often forgotten, but, nonetheless, straight and narrow.