It was not always this way with Presbyterians. Many of America’s founders were Calvinists who modeled the Federal system on denominational polity and wrote the US Constitution based on governing church documents. So how have liberal Presbyterians come to their current religious and political irrelevancy?
The answer is an obsession with political correctness in the era of post-modern Christianity. In the mid-1960s when liberals took control of the PCUSA they quickly abandoned definitive truth by declaring that the Bible, rather than being the Word of God merely “contains” the word of God along with stories, myths and some suggestions which, if followed, offered blessed assurance that “I’m okay and you’re okay.” From there it was a short jog to the promised land of moral relativism. Accordingly, the Presbyterian Church plunged into irrelevance. Nevertheless, even as the denomination founders, the governing body babbles in political tongues on vital topics like Israeli security. Don’t listen.
Dr. Earl H. Tilford is Professor of History at Grove City College. He enjoyed an extensive military career and after retiring from the U.S. Air Force, served as an associate professor of history at Troy State University in Montgomery and professor of military history at the U.S. Air Force Air Command and Staff College. In 1993 he became director of research at the U.S. Army's Strategic Studies Institute in Carlisle, Pa., where he worked on a project that looked at possible future terrorist threats. He has authored three books on the Vietnam War and co-edited a book on Operation Desert Storm. He has lectured throughout the U.S. and abroad on the Vietnam War and, more recently, the future of armed conflict. Contact him at ehtilford@gcc.edu.
