Can An Atheist Join a Presbyterian Church?

At the end of March 2006, I posted a pseudo-rant about a University of Texas professor who claimed to be an atheist, but who had joined a local Presbyterian church. I was, to be blunt, outraged.

It turns out that the Mission Presbytery formed a task force, a "listening group" to talk with the church session and the professor. Their report is here, via Presbyweb.

I want to commend the Mission Presbytery for their hard work, and for their willingness to deal with this issue. And I am relieved at their conclusion, that the church remove the professor from the active membership roll, and that they review their process for receiving members. They essentially ask nothing of new members. They want to allow others to describe their own faith journeys, and to be able to say "yes" to the church within their own understanding of it.

Well, color be non-plussed. I am a Myers-Briggs type "J". A pastor friend of mine recently said she was so much a "J" that she was almost a "K"! A "J" likes conclusions, the end of the journey, the destination, judgment. Getting there is NOT what I consider fun, though I do see it as essential.

Certainly, one must believe something in order to be a Christian. And I do not believe it is up to the person to decide what he or she wants to believe! This is not what we call the Lordship of Christ! To be a Christian is not just to embrace Jesus' teachings but to embrace Jesus the person, and all he says and all he is.

I am a soccer referee. Soccer has no rules, they are rather called "laws." I cannot imagine anything but chaos ensuing in a soccer match if the referees were to referee the game not according to the laws, but according to what they felt about the game of soccer. (Not to say that chaos does not ensue even with the Laws of the Game!)

We are responsible to something larger than ourselves, outside of ourselves, not to be solely interpretted by ourselves. The message appears to be at St. Andrews that you can be and do anything you want (except be a conservative Republican) and you can join our church. We make no further demands on you. If this belief is widespread, no wonder the PC(USA) lost 48,474 more members last year!

The congregation at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church identify themselves as "progressive." It is a term I hear quite frequently, and the impression I get is that self-defined "progressives" see themselves as a whole lot smarter than the rest of the human race. They exude the sense, with a self-satisfied smirk, that they know better. So, the church traditionally has had membership questions that have been used for hundreds of years? We "progressives" "know" better, so we will dispense with them.

Now, to be completely fair, there are conservatives who act similarly, with the self-satisfied assurance that they were with Moses on the mountain, and they are privvy to the counsels of God on all sorts of contemporary issues. But that is not the issue for this circumstance.

In reading the Mission Presbytery's report, I was also struck by another issue. The atheist professor actually preached at the church! Now, I am all for people of other religious faiths, or none at all, to speak in a less formal setting that worship. But for an atheist to preach? To handle the Word of God? Now that is a new one for me, and really goes beyond the pale.

Someone who preaches is to live under the authority of God's Word. Someone who professes to have an affinity with Jesus' teachings, but who has not placed themselves under the authority of Jesus' teachings (many of which concerned himself!)

I know this is beyond the scope of the report, but this gets very little attention in the report. It is just passed over.

Well, at the end of the day, I think the Mission Presbytery got it right. I am anxious to see how the church responds to this.