Dear Editor:

So The Advisory Committee on the Constitution advice on Overture 02-15 said, "The practice of withholding the payment of per capita as a strategy of protest of the actions of the larger church has frequently undermined the precious connections within presbyteries, synods and with the General Assembly." If memory serves, a recent press release from the folks in Louisville strongly affirms that current giving to all causes have risen AND that there has been no major loss of funds due to congregations withholding funds. So unless I am having a Senior Moment, I wonder to what The Advisory Committee is referring.

More seriously, our system of polity is an effort to avoid the ravages of both rampant Congregationalism and Episcopacy. The former style of polity, so evident among our various Baptist friends, leads to congregations who have conflicting standards on ordination and mission co-existing in the same town.
Likewise our United Church of Christ companion congregations are noted for having almost no theological center. On the other hand, a robust Episcopal style of government can lead to a kind of institutional arrogance that Americans rightly reject.

It appears that some members of our communion want the worst of both worlds - Congregationalism when it comes to ordination and theology but Episcopacy when it comes to finances. I cannot imagine a worse posture
for a denomination that is already approaching the status of a religious sect (2.4 million and losing more)! As in marriages where a couple opines their
argument "isn't over money," an astute therapist maintains the clinical perspective that the argument really is over money. The prospect of an aroused membership refusing to support programs and policies that vitiate or insult their values strikes fear into the hearts of people who have grown comfortably arrogant in their power. A precious connection, indeed!

This stance will certainly help our efforts to evangelize Americans who fought the Revolution over taxation without representation! Presbyterianism grew in Colonial America precisely because the colonists wanted the freedom to make up their own minds about theology and the contribution of their tithes!