Tuesday, February 28, 2006
According The Layman:
"We will not resume that giving until we are able to see a significant change in the spiritual direction of our church," Dr. David Swanson, senior minister of the congregation, said in the Feb. 22 edition of Columns, the congregation's newsletter...
...PCUSA budget-makers have already predicted record-setting membership declines of 65,000 in 2005 and 85,000 in 2006, which would dramatically shrink already dwindling support for the denomination. The General Assembly Council is recommending that the per-capita rate be $5.72 in 2007 (based on 2005 membership) and 2008 (based on 2006 membership.) The financial loss for those membership declines would total $1.6 million over the two years...
...Swanson also identified other issues: cutting missionaries; making them raise their own funding; giving large sums to political causes ("such as a Pro-Choice March in Washington"); and the proposed divestiture of Presbyterian funds in corporations that do business with Israel "as a faulty means of promoting peace in the Middle East, serving to inflame Jews against our church both in this country and abroad."...
Note the reference to "record-setting membership declines" -- something occuring across many of the mainline Protestant denominations as they continue to mix Leftist politics with religion. See: PCUSA nears half-life as exodus accelerates.
Individual congregations holding back funds to the central organization until they get back on the Christian message? Sort of a divestment movement in itself, eh?
A growing number of PCUSA churches, still not enough though, are fed up with the leadership and have stopped sending them money to support the leadership's leftist agenda including the divestment.
The fastest way to put an end to the Israel divestment by the presbyterian church is for more churches to do what First Orlando has done.
Without money the bureaucrats in the denomination will find their jobs have either been eliminated or they will no longer have the funds to go on multi week junkets to the mid east and while there have lunch with Hezbollah.
No Money = No Presbyterrorism
Withholding funds is a solid idea. A handful of churches are doing it. More pronounced, however, is the giving of designated funds (with specific purposes) and the drop of individual undesignated giving. Also more pronounced is the rapidly increasing number of people who leave. It is predicted that 85000 people will leave the denomination this year.
I have my doubts that this withholding strategy will work -- at the very least it will require a long time to work. One reason I say this is that properties (church buildings) are held in trust for the national denomination. Few local churches will be quick to do something that could lose them their buildings (an extreme situation, yes, but one that has happened). This particular trust clause is being challenged in various courts and may not hold up -- but for the time being, the properties are very real leverage held by the national leadership over local churches.
Another reason I'm skeptical is that the leadership in this denomination at the national level seems to have totally bought into its anti-Israel emphasis. They will not likely attribute any losses to their own actions, and will continue with those actions.
(Obviously the anti-Israel stance is only one of several actions which are not really supported by many of the Presbyterian rank and file. But at least its good to see that individual churches are opposing it.)
Maybe the church will do like the NCC -- become dependent on grants from foundations. Then they won't need parishoners.