Fogbow

Presbyterian Church in America Leaves National Association of Evangelicals
The PCA has been connected with the NAE since the denomination's founding, but has always fought about it.

Presbyterian elders voting for the breakup cited the NAE’s increasing political advocacy, which sometimes conflicted with more conservative Presbyterian churches. Elders mentioned the NAE’s advocacy on climate change, immigration, the death penalty, and COVID-19, among other issues.

Elders who wanted to remain with the NAE argued the groups had a historical bond and that in a culture increasingly hostile to Christianity, churches across denominations needed to work together on issues of common cause. The vote to leave was about 60 percent to 40 percent.

The NAE represents 39 denominations, from Free Methodist USA to the Foursquare Church, as well as nonprofits, schools, and individual congregations. It was founded in 1942 as a response to the mainline National Council of Churches and the fundamentalist Presbyterian Carl McIntire’s American Council of Christian Churches. In representing evangelicals in various spheres, it issues statements on political issues, files Supreme Court briefs on church-related cases, and generally connects evangelical groups to work together.

The head of the NAE since 2020, Walter Kim, is a member of the PCA and a teacher-in-residence at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. (He is also on CT’s board.)

“It is a little awkward,” said David Coffin, a PCA pastor who supported the measure to leave, about Kim leading the NAE. An NAE spokesperson said the group does not comment on denominational decisions.

Roy Taylor, the former and longtime stated clerk of the PCA, was strongly in favor of remaining with the NAE, where he has served as chairman of the board. He filed a protest against the vote, which he had never done before. In the PCA, filing a protest is like a Supreme Court justice dissenting from a majority opinion, explaining why a decision was wrong.

The PCA’s ties to the NAE have been controversial since its founding. The denomination’s mission arm joined the NAE in 1973, and the full denomination joined in 1986. In 1974, at the PCA’s second general assembly of its existence, a number of overtures (essentially legislation) demanded that the new denomination avoid affiliation with any ecumenical organizations. One overture called for a termination of the PCA mission’s agency’s relationship with the NAE, which the fledgling denomination rejected.

northland10 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 28, 2022 3:24 pm Interesting how they are breaking from NAE which is made up of denominations like the Assemblies of God, the various flavors of the Church of God, and the Church of the Nazarine. It was probably predestined.

in a culture increasingly hostile to Christianity

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Tue Jun 28, 2022 9:55 pm

in a culture increasingly hostile to Christianity

in pseudo-Christian religious cults increasingly hostile to Christianity

Fixed it.

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Tue Jun 28, 2022 9:55 pm

in a culture increasingly hostile to Christianity

in pseudo-Christian religious cults increasingly hostile to Christianity

Fixed it.

Foggy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 16, 2022 7:31 am "My cup overfloweth."

Ol' Wifehorn: "Umm, you spilled coffee on the counter top. You going to clean that up?"

Me : "Wait, you heard me; this is biblical now."

OW: