Viewpoint
January 18, 2007

"Presbyterians and separatist Evangelicals"
Reviewing an article that maligns Jesus Christ and all who belong to him
By Viola Larson

Several years ago, I was on my way to Louisville to give a workshop on Racist Paganism for a conference held by Evangelical Ministries to New Religions. On the train I ate dinner with a Southern Baptist Pastor and his wife. When I told him I was on my way to the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, he became very excited and explained to me how that particular Seminary was now the flagship of Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Church. The Pastor was himself a Calvinist and we had a wonderful discussion.

I thought of this event, this morning as I spent my time reading "Presbyterians and Separatist Evangelicals: A Continuing Dilemma," by Milton Winter. It was one of the articles in the new issue of the Presbyterian publication Perspectives to which Presbyweb provided a link. I was attracted to the article because I have a History Masters, love reading history, particularly church history, and I thought the article was going to be about the history of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. I was wrong! I was instead reading a diatribe against Evangelicals in the Presbyterian Church USA.

For instance Winter writes:
Evangelicals must assume some responsibility for their strident language, for no other group in the church has resorted to such. Many have remarked upon the intense anger toward the church exhibited by persons at both ends of the theological spectrum, but particularly in the conservative wing, as evidenced by letters and editorials of the influential Presbyterian Lay Committee's newspaper and web site. Psychologists such as Wayne E Oats in his book When Religion Gets Sick have commented that, for some, religion becomes an organized expression of anger. The same observation can be made in the political arena at far extremes of issue polarities. (26)

How this insulting and erroneous article made it into an official Presbyterian publication I do not know, but someone should apologize. Whether one is an Evangelical leaving, which I am not, or staying, which I most certainly intend to do, this is an affront to all Presbyterians whether they consider themselves to be Evangelicals, orthodox, Reformed or hopefully all three. Not only is Winter's article offensive, it is also filled with misinformation. I will list some of the errors, but not necessarily in order.

The first bit of misinformation is connected to my train trip mentioned above. On page eleven of his article, Winter states that since the Southern Baptist Church has moved into a more conservative stance it has embraced dispensationalism. He writes, "Since the fundamentalist takeover of that denomination, dispensationalism has become the principal belief-system of the Southern Baptist Convention-although never officially adopted by that body." But the real truth is just the opposite.

I became a Christian in a Southern Baptist church more than half a century ago. At the time, I rode to church with my Pastor, since my parents did not attend and were opposed to my Christianity. It was from my Pastor and his wife that I learned eschatology. It was dispensational in nature, including belief in the rapture of the church out of the great tribulation. Even as a teenager I disagreed with a great deal of it since it did not seem biblical, however, the point is, the movement toward renewal in the Southern Baptist Church has also precipitated that denomination's move away from dispensationalism. There are many in the Southern Baptist Church who now claim their Calvinistic roots.

With a great deal of inanity Winter tries to lay a foundation for seeing Evangelicals as an almost secret sect which applies ritual tests to those wishing to belong. Under the subtitle "How Evangelicals recognize fellow-believers," Winter writes, "Discernment of believers from unbelievers is achieved by recognition of accepted words and phrases, Bible translations, styles of prayer and praise, and the acknowledgement of common friends and institutions-one observer has remarked-'a sort of tribalism by cliché'-what psychologists identify as 'the language of a subculture.'"(6) Perhaps I should quote a verse from my favorite translation, the New American Standard, so Winter will know I don't belong; I must not be a believer.

Winter's history, such as it is, begins with praise for the "conservative ethos of the old Presbyterian Church in the United States," partly because it was fed from a wide list of "saints." He names, "Abraham, Paul, Augustine, Calvin, Witherspoon and Woodrow Wilson," which really did make me laugh but also clued me to the reality that this author was going to lump all kinds of peoples and movements together in order to back up his "facts." He then attempts to show how this all changed as different Christian movements affected the conservatives in the church.

Winter lumps together fundamentalism and Pentecostalism as influences on an older Evangelical Presbyterian community and goes on to say, that "nationally evangelical and Pentecostalism are virtually synonymous terms." This helps him to later write that the older Evangelical or conservative movement in the Southern Presbyterian Church was influenced by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell who, "downplayed older evangelical emphases on personal spirituality and adopted a 'culture wars' ideology that measured Christian faithfulness by willingness to engage in efforts to elect leaders who would oppose abortion, divorce and homosexuality."

Several things are wrong with this understanding of the evolution of conservatism in the Southern Presbyterian Church. (And this is really a matter of logic, not history.) First, the older Evangelicals were not facing the problems of abortion, divorce or the ordination of practicing homosexuals until sometime in the early 80s. How could they have opposed it in the fifties, sixties or even the early seventies? Surely it was abortion, the breakup of the family and the pressure of gay activist that had something to do with the reaction of conservatives and Evangelicals in the Presbyterian Church.

Secondly, the question must be asked, "Have the Evangelicals, as a group, in any part of the Presbyterian Church, before or after reunion, intentionally, let go of personal spirituality?"

The truth of the matter is, Winter's article, the further one reads, has far more to do with his progressive view of theology than it has to do with the desires of some Evangelical Presbyterians to separate from the PCUSA. Sometimes, in reading between the lines, sometimes in reading the actual lines one notes the theology of Winter, and it is not middle of the road!

Winter – among his other more pressing theological concerns, such as the ordination of practicing monogamous gays and lesbians – uses this publication to defend the most problematic heretical teaching troubling the PCUSA. That is the progressive belief that people of other faiths do not need Jesus Christ in order to be saved. Winter insists that it is acceptable, indeed needful, to hold the view that Jesus Christ is not the only way of salvation.

Using most of his gathered theological conservative groupings, seemingly as a means of insult, Winter writes, "At, times neo-fundamentalist evangelicals in the Presbyterian Church (USA) have attempted to defend traditional beliefs by applying them in ways that are more exclusive than has ever been the practice previously." He uses as an example the Confessing Movement's statement that, "Jesus Christ is 'alone' Lord of all and savior of the world." (17)

Via some of the early church Father's suggestions that some of the Greek philosophers were saved, a controversy between Calvin and Zwingli, as well as several other questionable texts, (1) Winter pushes for the importance of not seeing Jesus Christ as Lord of all and savior of the world.(p.18) One of his comments is:
Coming at a time when vast amounts of new information and understanding of other world religions is available and when inter-religious conflict in Israel, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, the Balkans, India, Sudan, and Pakistan – and now when the free nations of the world find themselves at war with Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Lebanon – the question must be asked whether the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) truly wishes to harden its position with regard to other religions? Also, an un-nuanced and forceful declaration that there is no salvation outside Christ could open our American Church to charges of anti-Semitism – a position that would not only be historically un-Presbyterian, but which would go against the passionate conviction of many evangelicals, that God has not abandoned his covenant with Israel. (p. 19)