05126
March 4, 2005

A gospel of comparison shopping?

'Split denominations fall short of God's will,' theology task force is told

by Jerry L. Van Marter

DALLAS — The Presbyterian Church (USA)'s Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church (TTF) is revisiting the question of whether leaving the denomination — individually or as congregations —  is tantamount to dividing "the body of Christ."

     During TTF’s March 2-4 meeting here, member Mark Achtemeier, of Dubuque Theological Seminary, led a follow-up conversation on a controversial statement in the group’s preliminary report of last summer:

     “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.”

     That conviction, Achtemeier said, begs the question, “Is it appropriate to equate the PC(USA) with the body of Christ?” In a paper titled “Denominations,” co-authors Achtemeier, Joe Coalter of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA, and Jack Haberer, a pastor in Houston, addressed the question.

     The outcome of the TTF’s deliberations will not be known until the group’s final report is released in September. Few hints were available at this meeting. Half of the meeting itself — and all TTF deliberations about the final report — were closed to the public and the media. The 2003 General Assembly granted the closed-meeting privilege to the TTF, which has used it sparingly in the past.

     On the separation issue, Achtemeier said, three questions must be addressed:                             

• What is a denomination, theologically?
• What is the relation between a denomination and the body of Christ?
• How should one regard the act of leaving one denomination for another?

     If one accepts the Westminster Confession’s concept of the “invisible church,” meaning the body of all believers in all times and places, Achtemeier said, a denomination like the PC(USA) could be considered “a bureaucratic nonentity, theologically.”

     But that would be a misinterpretation, he said, because the “invisible church” is not an abstraction, but a community of real people.

     “It is the boundaries of the church that are invisible,” the TTF authors wrote in their paper, “not the church itself.”

     “Claiming the abstract while breaking the visible fellowship is hypocrisy,” Achtemeier insisted. “Our separated denominations fall short of God’s ultimate will for the church and Jesus’ prayer for unity.”

     Scripture doesn’t contemplate the existence of fragmented ecclesiastical bodies such as exist today, the paper says.

     “Even when Israel went through a split, which the Bible calls an act of unfaithfulness, neither side lost its identity as Israel,” Achtememeier said. “God considered them unfaithful, but still Israel.”

     Likewise, he said “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.”

     One example Achtemeier cited is that of a Presbyterian family moving from one town to another and joining the Methodist church because the new town doesn’t have a Presbyterian congregation.

     A second example: A family with children changes churches to take advantage of a better Christian education program.

     “There’s a difference between moving from one town to another and moving in anger,” Achtemeier said. “You have to look at intention.”

     The paper says that North American Christians, in particular, “are tempted to carry over the understandings and attitudes associated with our consumerist culture into the church’s life. ... A merican 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.”

     That kind of attitude “distorts the Biblical image that the church is God’s creation,” Achtemeier said. “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.”