Although white evangelicals receive most of the press coverage, beneath the surface of American Protestantism are believers who challenge the red-state, blue-state analysis of faith and politics. One indication of this non-conformity: annual denominational meetings where church leaders review finances, propose new strategies for evangelism, and hear reports on the state of the larger Church. In June, three Reformed denominations – the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) and the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) – held meetings to assess and plan for another year of the business of the church At each of these three meetings, these descendants of John Calvin and John Knox shocked anyone who thought they had discovered white evangelicals.
There were burning issues: homosexuality, racism and the climate. The CRC strengthened its commitment to heterosexual marriage as the only legitimate outlet for sex. The OPC condemned racism even without the issue on its agenda. And the PCA abandoned membership in the National Association of Evangelicals because this umbrella organization for conservative Protestants has a progressive bent. For anyone trying to locate these decisions on a map of the white Protestant electorate, existing guides offered little help.
A largely ethnic (Dutch-American) fellowship, the CRC used to be one of the most progressive denominations in the world of American evangelicalism. In 1973, the denomination adopted a report that distinguished homosexual practice from orientation in a way that avoided condemning same-sex attractions as sinful. Then, in the early 1990s, the CRC began ordaining women as ministers.
Then, last month, at its seemingly out-of-the-ordinary annual synod, the CRC decided to elevate its teaching on sex to formal position status. With a vote of 125 to 53, the 2022 Synod made bans against “adultery, premarital sex, extramarital sex, polyamory, pornography, and homosexual sex” binding on members, officers, and agencies. The decision sparked protests from faculty at the denomination’s flagship institution, Calvin University. As one delegate who voted “no” explained, “This motion harms LGBTQ people, harms the church’s testimony and calling it a confession will have disastrous consequences for people and institutions.” For Kristin Du Mez, a prominent historian of Calvin, the decision could divide the Church and lead to the resignation of teachers. The action of the synod, he said, is out of step with many congregations where LGBTQ members venerate side by side with “members who maintain traditional views of sexuality.”
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Almost as surprising was the OPC’s condemnation of racism at its General Assembly, meeting on the campus of Eastern University. A denomination of microscopic proportions (33,000 members compared to the 205,000 of the CRC), if the OPC is in the news is not usually good.
While critics have used the racism of OPC founder J. Gresham Machen to tarnish the denomination as a white supremacist, at its recent General Assembly the Church issued a statement on the race that challenged the its recent reputation. When Eastern University staff informed the OPC moderator that church delegates had made racist comments to student workers and interacted inappropriately with black staff in the cafeteria, the assembly reacted. quickly. In its statement of “pain and repentance,” the body declared, “there is no place in the church for this conduct” and “we reject and condemn all sins of racism, hatred, and prejudice, as transgressions against the our Holy God, who calls us to love and honor all people. “
What made this denunciation especially unusual was that the assembly, discarded by the procedure in ecclesiastical politics and in debate, seemed to admit guilt without due process. No one knew who the victims or criminals were, which meant the defendant could not confront his accusers. This answer seemed to go directly against a fundamental principle of Presbyterian jurisprudence. Still, no one protested.
The statement was created to avoid admitting guilt, even when critics interpreted it as one. Some said the OPC had been captured by the “awake” agenda. Whether true or not, the statement left the denomination for the time being in agreement with a university known for its progressive advocacy.
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The last denomination to meet was the PCA, which convened its General Assembly in Birmingham, Alabama. At that meeting, the PCA voted to leave the National Association of Evangelicals, an activist organization that lobbies for its members (some evangelical Protestant denominations) in culture and public affairs. The NAE represents a wing of white evangelicals (at least among the leaders) who are drifting away from conservative politics thanks to the unpopularity of the Iraq War and the Great Recession.
Many keeping score at home couldn’t be sure what that meant. Did the PCA become progressive by rejecting an evangelical organization at a time when most observers of American religion associate evangelical Protestantism with Trump, Christian nationalism, and white supremacy? Or did the PCA move away from its own recent flirtation with progressive Christian governments and ministries?
While PCA members likely lean Republican, the denomination’s reasons for leaving the NAE had more to do with the organization’s progressive advocacy. The official wording of the opening march mentioned the NAE’s defense of the “Equity for All” Act, which proposes “a political commitment regarding sexual orientation, gender identity and religious freedom” and an NAE statement of cooperation with Muslims that had “the implicit premise that our historic faith and Islam worship the same God, but in different ways.”
To make sense of all these church decisions, we need to look beyond recent evaluations of evangelism and conservatism. Church members and denominational structures are important. Reformed Protestants with roots in Scotland or the Netherlands often look at American society from a different lens than do Protestants who attend large independent, box office churches. Reformed Protestants remember the churches that were part of the political establishment and regularly issued statements about society. Its members also have expectations, even after dissolution, that law and public policy will conform to Christian norms.
Unlike some evangelicals for whom church membership is an adiaphora, for Presbyterians and Reformed Christians, membership and active participation is part of the DNA of a congregation. In denominations such as the CRC, the OPC, and the PCA, where lines of responsibility and fraternal good will still prevail, debates about American politics are taking unpredictable turns. The recent synod of the CRC and the general assemblies of the OPC and the PCA may not predict how church members will spend their political capital. But deviating from the standard narrative of white evangelism and American politics (nationalist, white supremacist, and toxic), they suggest that more attention should be paid to institutional churches than to personal piety.
D. G. Hart is a Distinguished Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College.
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