Silencing Dissent In The “Liberal” Mainline

by on January 26, 2015 | 8 Comments

This does answer the question, does the PCUSA still have heresy trials? Of course they do. Heresy or apostasy in the PCUSA is now defined as lack or failure of institutional or corporate loyalty, and or actions, speech against the institution. Where in times past matters of heresy or apostasy was adjudicated over matters of theology or confession, now it is dumbed-down to matters of corporate governance. In the contemporary PCUSA one can easily say on the floor of any Presbytery Jesus and Paul were in essence gay, and Jesus had a biological child with Mary. I doubt anybody would bat an eye. Threaten the institution on either a fiscal or financial level, power, money, control, one is cast into the outer darkness.

—Quoted by Carmen Fowler LaBerge in “Outrage Over Joe Rightmeyer And The Ultimate “So What?” (HT: Aquila Report)

    Post authored by:

  • R. Scott Clark
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    R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

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8 comments

  1. One is tempted to revise this text slightly and apply it to a certain conservative Presbyterian denomination. Keep the first four and the last two sentences intact, except for the abbreviation. Revise the fifth sentence to reflect the recent history of this denomination, and its particular character. And there you have it.

    But that would be way too easy, and perhaps just close enough to the truth to get the writer “cast into the outer darkness.”

  2. The above description can also be said of many so-called “conservative” churches as well. I have a few friends in college who then went on to attend seminary and became pastors at relatively large churches and they experience the same things. Names were not included to protect the innocent and the guilty as well.

    • The area I am referring to is: ”
      Where in times past matters of heresy or apostasy was adjudicated over matters of theology or confession, now it is dumbed-down to matters of corporate governance.”

  4. I am new to the Reformed faith, and I joined a Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) roughly a year ago (after having visited, attended and studied for a while). I have learned much and benfitted greatly from this blog so far…and I do know the PCUSA pitches a “large tent” and has folks from both extremes (from the Fellowship of Presbyterians on one end to the More Light Presbyterians on the other), but overall I truly think the quote above is a bit extreme itself. The Book of Confessions is still the ‘theological component’ of the PCUSA Constitution, and the Confessions are still (officially, anyway) upheld as our best understanding of the faith. Perhaps I am naive since I am still in my Reformed (and PCUSA) infancy, or perhaps I just have a more truly Reformed congregation within the PCUSA… but the quote above hasn’t been my experience. The Divinity of Jesus is central to our covenantal relationship with God. If one professed any of the things expressed in this quote then why even be Presbyterian? Why not join with the Unitarian Universalists or some such denomination?

    Thanks again for your ministry.

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