The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s latest membership drop to under 1.2 million, compared to over 4 million 60 years ago, making it now smaller than the Episcopal Church, is no reason for conservatives to chortle. Yes, liberal Mainline Protestantism is imploding. Yes, its revisionist theology and leftwing politics are blameworthy. But its decline hurts America.
And Evangelicals, plagued with their own problems and demographic challenges, have little room to judge. Mainline Protestantism helped create and sustain America across much of four centuries. Contemporary evangelicalism is mostly a post-WWII phenomenon, many of whose leading congregations are only several decades old. Will it endure as long as Mainline Protestantism?
The query echoes the counter intuitive question about the Roman Empire; Ask not why it fell but how did it last so long and accomplish so much?
Mainline Protestantism began at Jamestown in 1607 where the colonists built the first Anglican church in what would eventually become the United States, foreshadowing the Episcopal Church. In 1620 the Pilgrims built what became the first Congregationalist church, foreshadowing the United Church of Christ. Later settlers of the 1600s built Presbyterian and Lutheran churches, later becoming the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, is credited with founding the first northern Baptist church, father of the American Baptist Church. As latecomers, Methodism in America began in the mid-1700s, foreshadowing United Methodism, and the Stone-Campbellites of the late 1700s foreshadowed the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
These seven denominations are the “seven sisters” of Mainline Protestantism, founding most of America’s colleges and universities, guiding the Founding Fathers and subsequent generations of leadership, stewarding America’s economic growth, and chaplaining America’s democracy, crafting America’s spiritual self-understanding, creating the tools of social and political reform, and generating the language of civil religion functioning as America’s default unofficial state church.
Mainline Protestantism peaked in membership and social influence in the 1950s and began its seemingly irreversible decline in the 1960s. The two predecessor bodies of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1965 had over 4.2 million members, when America’s population was 40 percent less than today. Sixty years ago, the seven sisters had 30 million members, or nearly one of every six Americans. Today they have about 13 million members, or about 1 of every 25 Americans.
By comparison, the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal evangelical denomination, had half a million members 60 years ago and today has 3.2 million, larger than all Mainline denominations except for United Methodism. The Southern Baptist Convention had 10 million members 60 years ago, rose to 16 million, and over the last 20 years has decreased to 14 million.
Why has once predominant Mainline Protestantism imploded so fast? Defenders of the Mainline mostly blame uncontrollable sociological and demographic trends amid growing secularization. Conservatives blame the Mainline’s theological liberalism, starting in the seminaries in the early 20th century, deemphasizing the supernatural and evangelism in favor of ethics and social reform. Later in the 20th century, political radicalization estranged Mainline elites from local members.
There’s a caricature by some conservatives that typical Mainline congregations focus on social justice and wokery. In fact, the average local Mainline church remains mostly traditional in worship and includes conservatives and liberals. Mainline pastors, aware of this diversity, are usually careful in the pulpit and avoid controversy. The political activism is usually confined to mostly out of sight national or regional denominational structures. Mainline pulpits rarely include overt heresy, as some conservatives imagine. Instead, they typically focus on generic moral and spiritual themes. But evangelism is rarely a focus. Congregations are typically old and almost entirely white. Perhaps it’s fair to say Mainline churches are often more focused on affirmation instead of transformation much less salvation. Yet the Gospel is still there, however muted, in the hymns, the liturgy and hopefully even in the sermons.
When Mainline denominations, at least in their national structures, politically radicalized starting in the 1960s they assumed their cultural leadership in America was unassailable. They had been paramount for two or three centuries, after all. And who would replace them? They had not foreseen the rise of evangelicalism, which they had deemed irrelevant as a branch of discredited fundamentalism. Nor did they expect secularization and marginalization for the institutional church. Thanks to the endowments and accumulated cultural capital of the past, Mainline denominations even after losing 50 percent or more of their membership (Presbyterians have lost almost two thirds) still mostly pretend all is well. Mainline Protestants still worship in often beautiful and historic buildings, prominently located in old downtowns, not terribly concerned that sanctuaries with capacity for many hundreds now include just dozens.
Some evangelicals disdain Mainline Protestants but have not fully considered their own plight and future. Non-racially diverse evangelical denominations are not growing. Denominational loyalties for both conservatives and liberals are dramatically receding. Growing churches tend to be nondenominational, their growth led by dynamic founding pastors, whose successors often cannot sustain the growth. Without the ballast of denominational ties, such churches often divide, decline or implode, sometimes stuck with large and expensive properties. Absent the connectional accountability of denominations, nondenominational congregations sometimes are more susceptible to financial or sexual scandals.
Evangelical churches are themselves sometimes politicized, perhaps even more so than liberal Mainline congregations. Evangelical churches tend to be more politically homogenous than Mainline congregations, so pastors can feel freer to be political from the pulpit. The politics of the Religious Right, although more populist and organic than the more elitist and clergy-driven Religious Left predominating in Mainline Protestantism, has sometimes distracted evangelical congregations and disenchanted some congregants. Evangelicalism has successfully built a subculture, but it has not shaped and led American culture like Mainline Protestantism did across several centuries. Maybe as a mostly contemporary movement it just has not had enough time. Maybe it is too focused on congregational life to build wider multigenerational institutions. Maybe its suspicions of academia, having seen the secularizing of Mainline schools, prevented its building more robust intellectual life with influence beyond its own subculture.
Mainline Protestantism built a nation and a society that, by many political and economic measures, is the most successful in history. The whole world, to the extent it benefits from America’s political and economic capital, can thank, at least partly, Mainline Protestantism. Its failures and decline of the last half century don’t negate its unprecedented accomplishments of the previous three centuries.
Mainline denominations like the Presbyterian Church (USA) may no longer exist in 20 years or less. Their remaining beautiful sanctuaries may largely become condominiums, or restaurants, or transfer to new religious entities. But what they achieved across many generations uplifted humanity and will endure eternally. We can learn from their mistakes and their ultimate demise. But we should more importantly also learn from their unparalleled success.
Comment by David S. on April 26, 2022 at 10:16 pm
“Perhaps it’s fair to say Mainline churches are often more focused on affirmation instead of transformation much less salvation.”
With the whole mainline approach to Matthew 25 Initiatives, it seems that is the bent, which is NOT what the gospel was primarily about.
Comment by Jim Scarantino on April 27, 2022 at 12:05 am
Church of God in Christ now has about 9 million members, almost 50% more than Methodists in the US.
Comment by Dan W on April 27, 2022 at 6:29 am
These Mainline congregations were a great place to raise your children in the mid 20th Century, but the children and grandchildren left for evangelical churches, or just left the church. When the extended family doesn’t worship together, the growth will not be sustained.
Comment by Dan W on April 27, 2022 at 6:42 am
(I want to add to my comment above)
I think in the late 1960s and 1970s it became cool to hate your parent’s and grandparent’s generations. We were told to NOT honor our father and mother, and we moved as far away as possible. I blame it on The Beatles ; )
Comment by Sigma on April 27, 2022 at 8:55 am
America went from a nation to an international superpower during the 1960s. No one factors in this huge political change and how it affects everything in our society.
Comment by David on April 27, 2022 at 9:14 am
What makes a denomination “mainline”? I assume it can’t be size because there are several denominations in the US that are quite large but are not considered part of the mainline. Examples:
Southern Baptist Convention: 16.2 million members
The Church of God in Christ: 5.5 million members
National Baptist Convention: 5.0 million members
Assemblies of God: 2.9 million members
African Methodist Episcopal Church: 2.5 million members
National Missionary Baptist Convention of America: 2.5 million members
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS): 2.3 million members
Churches of Christ: 1.6 million members
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World: 1.5 million members
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church: 1.4 million members
Altogether these make up around 41 million people, or not quite 13 percent of the population of the United States. The numbers encompassed by these “ten sisters” far exceed those of the so-called mainline churches.
Does having a longer history make for a mainline denomination? The Pentecostal churches are indeed quite young, but the historic black churches, the Baptists, and the Lutherans are quite old, especially as compared to the upstart nondenominational evangelical churches.
One observer defined mainline as largely liberal with respect to their confessional orientation, albeit with pockets of orthodoxy therein. Clearly the seven sisters have much in common, but it seems to me that the most salient shared characteristic is precipitous decline over a fairly brief period of time, following a period of complacency combined with cultural hubris.
Comment by Herb on April 27, 2022 at 9:15 am
A gracious and cautionary take on a very sad story. I was 5 years old when The United Methodist Church was birthed in 1968. That little country church a half mile up the road from my boyhood home was the incubator of my faith and the launchpad for my ministry. Like the article says, I don’t think I heard outright, overt heresy, but I was fed a steady diet of moral platitudes and I’d sum up much of the messages to be, “Go out there and find somebody to be nice to this week.” A really good lesson, but hardly transformation or salvific.
Comment by David on April 27, 2022 at 9:20 am
There are also non-theological considerations. The large downtown churches sometimes found themselves in declining areas with high crime by the 1970s. Those members who had moved to the suburbs became less willing to travel to these and new churches were slow in coming to them.
Then there was the shift away from classical music which was the norm half a century ago in Mainline services. The selection of a church may depend more on what sort of music is to be found there than many realize.
Mainline churches maintained a de facto dress code of men wearing coats and ties probably longer than other churches. Today, informality is more the norm everywhere.
Comment by Richard Hyde on April 27, 2022 at 2:13 pm
Excellent, fair-minded analysis. Thanks, Mark.
Comment by Tom on April 27, 2022 at 3:26 pm
“But evangelism is rarely a focus.”
Which says it all. If you don’t have anything to offer people, they won’t come.
Comment by Steve on April 27, 2022 at 4:54 pm
The term mainline Protestant was coined during debates between modernists and fundamentalists in the 1920s. Several sources claim that the term is derived from the Philadelphia Main Line, a group of affluent suburbs of Philadelphia; most residents belonged to mainline denominations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainline_Protestant
Comment by betsy on April 28, 2022 at 3:59 pm
Thank you for this perspective. As a lifelong member of the Methodist/United Methodist Church, i have been forced to acknowledge the deficiencies of Mainline Protestant Christianity. However, I can never regret its presence in my life. It provided a stabilizing influence that I would have not otherwise had. We should not be doing a happy dance with the demise, because despite all its faults, I am finding that there is absolutely nothing that can replace it. It simultaneously fed my faith and left me frustrated.
Comment by Timothy Dawkins on April 29, 2022 at 2:07 am
Mark… how can you do this to me? You say we conservatives shouldn’t chortle, but then immediately begin listing all the reasons that we are.
As for myself, I will keep laughing. It’s true that these churches once did great things. It’s also true that they’re no longer worthy of being called churches. Does a vacant building deserve respect because great things once happened within? Once devoid of worshippers, a church is spiritually no more relevant than an empty warehouse, and given what some of these once mainline (I don’t think it’s fair to call them that any longer) churches now believe, I think the empty warehouse would be slightly less heretical.
However, you did mention one important criticism.
“Non-racially diverse evangelical denominations are not growing.”
Poorly worded, I’m going to assume you mean ‘White.’ To which I ask: how are White people not diverse?
Regardless, the answer is for churches and pastors to begin stressing fecundity as much as the mormons used to. It doesn’t matter if you hit every correct theological note in the song because if you skip the verse ‘be fruitful and multiply’ no one’s going to be around to sing it.
Comment by Joe R on April 29, 2022 at 8:31 pm
When I moved from Catholicism to Methodism my Father in Law said “don’t worry they won’t require anything of you..” He left the Methodist church late in life as he felt the name of Jesus was only being mention by accident.
Jesus IS the answer. Transformation is possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We have soft pedaled that transforms ring power so as to make “Church” palatable. We should be talking the story of Jesus and asking people to count the cost before casually feigning interest.
Comment by James Collins on April 29, 2022 at 9:23 pm
I join you in feeling a deep sadness at the decline of the Mainline. I love history and enjoy the biographies of many of the great people who built the Country. Often they were people of faith, formed in Mainline Churches. The great George Marshall when asked if he was a Democrat or Republican responded ” I am an Episcopalian “. The decline of the Mainline is a great disaster for the Country. With the Catholic Church currently battered, bruised and weakened we have we have almost a total lack of courageous, faith filled Christian leadership. We need to pray for good shepherds to help revive our faith and fight for a stronger Christian influence in our country.
Comment by Loren J Golden on April 29, 2022 at 11:10 pm
“Later settlers of the 1600s built Presbyterian…churches, later becoming the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
• 1706: Founding of Philadelphia Presbytery, first presbytery in the American colonies
• 1717: Philadelpha Presbytery reorganized as the Synod of Philadelphia, which is subdivided into four presbyteries
• 1729: The Synod of Philadelphia, what became known as the Adopting Act of 1729, adopted the Westminster Standards and the church’s confessional standard
• 1741: Old Side/New Side Division: The Synod of Philadelphia is split into the Synod of Philadelphia (Old Side) and the Synod of New York (New Side), over the issue of subscription to the Westminster Standards
• 1753: Associate Presbytery planted by Scottish immigrants (Seceders), independently of the two existing Synods
• 1758: Old Side/New Side Reunion: The Synod of New York and Philadelphia formed by a merger of the Synod of Philadelphia and the Synod of New York
• 1774: Reformed Presbytery planted by Scottish immigrants (Covenanters), independently of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and the Associate Presbytery
• 1782: A portion of the Associate Presbytery merged with most of the Reformed Presbytery to form the Associate Reformed Synod, while the rest of the Associate Presbytery continued as the Associate Synod of North America
• 1788: The Synod of New York and Philadelphia reorganized as the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, or PCUSA (no parentheses)
• 1798: The congregations from the Reformed Presbytery that did not join in the merger with the Associate Presbytery reorganized as the Reformed Presbytery
• 1802: The Associate Reformed Synod reorganized as the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
• 1809: Reformed Presbytery reorganized as the Reformed Presbyterian Church
• 1810: A group of disaffected congregations in Kentucky and Tennessee broke from the PCUSA to form the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, because of the Calvinistic theology in the Westminster Standards
• 1822: The Synod of the Carolinas and Georgia withdrew from the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, to form the Associate Reformed Synod of the South
• 1828: A group of Welsh Calvinistic Methodist immigrants in upstate New York formed the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church
• 1833: Old Lights/New Lights Division: The Reformed Presbyterian Church split over the issue of civic engagement in the government of a country that did not expressly recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ (New Lights for; Old Lights against); the Old Lights eventually became the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, and the New Lights eventually became the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod
• 1837: Old School/New School Division: The PCUSA split over revivalism (New School for; Old School against)
• 1840: A number of congregations broke from the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Old Lights, under the leadership of charismatic preacher David Steele, who wanted tighter restrictions on voluntary associations, to form the Reformed Synod of North America
• 1844: The vast majority of churches in the Reformed Synod of North America broke from Steele’s leadership to join the Associate Reformed Synod of the South
• 1847: Abolitionists in both the PCUSA Old School and New School broke from their respective denominations to form the Free Presbyterian Church over both Schools’ refusal to exclude slaveholders from church membership
• 1858: The New School PCUSA divided over slavery, with the Southern New Schoolers organizing the United Synod of the South
• 1858: The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church merged with most of the Associate Synod of North America to form the United Presbyterian Church of North America, or UPCNA, while the rest of the Associate Synod of North America continued on in that name
• 1861: The Old School PCUSA divided over slavery, with the Southern Old Schoolers organizing the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America
• 1863: The Free Presbyterian Church merged into the New School PCUSA
• 1864: The United Synod of the South merged into the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America
• 1865: The Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America reorganized as the Presbyterian Church in the United States, or PCUS
• 1869: The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church renamed itself the Calvinistic Methodist Church in the USA
• 1869: Old School/New School Reunion: The Old School PCUSA and the New School PCUSA reunited as the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, or PCUSA
• 1874: The Cumberland Presbyterian Church divided over race, with African American Cumberland Presbyterians organizing the Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church, later to be renamed the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and later still the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America
• 1906: The Cumberland Presbyterian Church split, with two-thirds of the congregations merging with the PCUSA, while the rest continued on as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
• 1920: The Calvinistic Methodist Church in the USA merged into the PCUSA
• 1935: The Associate Reformed Synod of the South renamed itself the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
• 1936: A coalition of confessional Presbyterians and Presbyterians concerned about premillennialism and opposition to the consumption of alcohol, joined together in opposition to the increasing liberalism in the denomination, separated from the PCUSA to form the Presbyterian Church of America
• 1938: The coalition that formed the Presbyterian Church of America fell apart, with the latter group organizing the Bible Presbyterian Church
• 1939: Under a lawsuit by the PCUSA, the Presbyterian Church of America renamed itself the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, or OPC
• 1956: The Bible Presbyterian Church split into the Bible Presbyterian Church, Collingswood Synod, and the Bible Presbyterian Church, Columbus Synod
• 1958: The PCUSA and the UPCNA merged to form the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, or UPCUSA; it had been intended as a three-way union with the PCUS, but conservative Presbyterians in that denomination derailed those plans
• 1961: The Bible Presbyterian Church, Columbus Synod, renamed itself the Evangelical Presbyterian Church
• 1965: The Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod, merged with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, to form the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, or RPCES
• 1967: The UPCUSA replaced the Westminster Standards with a Book of Confessions, and revised its ordination vows to no longer require subscription to its confessional standards, in effect undoing the Adopting Act of 1729
• 1969: The Associate Synod of North America merged into the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, whose opposition to civic engagement had eased considerably
• 1973: Concerned about the denomination’s trajectory toward a merger with the PCUSA, dozens of congregations, representing about 41,000 Presbyterians, separated from the PCUS, to form the National Presbyterian Church, which, under thread by a lawsuit by a Washington, DC, congregation of the same name, changed its name the following year to the Presbyterian Church in America, or PCA. After the Kenyon case in 1975 made the UPCUSA inhospitable toward Presbyterians who opposed the ordination of women, the PCA began receiving churches from the UPCUSA as well. The PCA continued receiving churches from the PCUS, the UPCUSA, and the PC(USA) well into the 1990s.
• 1981: Conservative Presbyterians from both the UPCUSA and the PCUS who had not departed for the PCA separated to form the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, or EPC. The EPC continued receiving churches from the PC(USA) well into the 2010s.
• 1982: The RPCES merged into the PCA
• 1983: The UPCUSA and the PCUS merged to form the Presbyterian Church (USA), or PC(USA)
• 2012: Conservative Presbyterians from the PC(USA) who had not departed for either the PCA or the EPC separated to form ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians, or ECO (they originally wanted to call their new denomination the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, but the Evangelical Covenant Church objected, concerned that the similarity of the two denominations’ names might be too confusing)
Comment by Stephanie Jenkins on April 30, 2022 at 8:43 am
I agree with Betsy. The Episcopal Church sustained me as a child and as a young mother. Unfortunately the church has chosen culture over scripture. Sad really.
Comment by Robert Howard on April 30, 2022 at 10:49 am
A sad commentary, sadly written. We should celebrate the destruction of the “Mainline” Church, because it did a lot of good a century ago? Church buildings turned into condos and restaurants?
Why not a mass movement back to the Roman Catholic or Orthodox Churches? The things that separated us from the Catholics–too much Mary, to much Saint veneration, etc.–how small is that compared to the godless destruction of the “Mainline.” Why not celebrate that Catholics will not take a vote on the divinity of Christ, the Virgin Birth, marriage of a man and a woman, the family unit as the building block of society, and all the things the woke “Mainline” church has forsaken.
Comment by George on May 2, 2022 at 2:18 pm
Be careful when comparing different churches. Some are run as businesses. Some are quite wealthy. Some use their wealth to help pay for lawsuits and to cover up the harm that some of their business managers have caused. You can’t be more mainline than these churches. So don’t expect a MASS movement.
Comment by Jeff Swan on May 2, 2022 at 2:38 pm
I attended Fifth Avenue Pres in NYC in the early 80s, visited St. Bart’s Episcopal Church in the same time period, attended Highland Park Presbyterian in Dallas in the early 90’s (wonderful singles class) and attended two United Methodist Churches in the Dallas suburbs from 2000 – 2011, and was even elected president of our UMC adult Sunday School class. Although it’s true Mainline ministers rarely preach outright heresy from the pulpit, many of the ministers, not to mention the seminary professors, do not believe in the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of Jesus. What percentage? I don’t know, but it’s high. In the early 1920’s, Princeton stopped requiring students to sign a statement of faith in the virgin birth and bodily resurrection in order to be ordained. A friend who went to Perkins Seminary at SMU in the early 2000’s told me less than half the professors believe in the deity of Christ. My local United Methodist minister met with me in his office to discuss the teaching in the official adult Bible study curriculum, specifically the teaching there was no such person as “Daniel” and no lion’s den, no surviving the fiery furnace, etc. He told me he *did* in fact believe in the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Jesus, claiming that put him on the far right fringe of the United Methodist clergy – but that he did not believe in any other miracles in the Bible. The reason the Mainline has declined has many causes, but certainly a big cause has to be the fact the seminaries and ministers stopped believing in the deity of Christ and thus, they don’t preach that people need to be saved through faith in the atoning work of Christ. My mainline church relative told me once that she didn’t need to be born again because she was born right the first time. Well, if people are born right and in no need of salvation, including the salvation from their own harmful tendencies, what’s the point of going to church? You might as well go to Rotary each week – they do a lot of good deeds in the community, too, without any religious baggage, as it were.
I would love to help fund a survey to see what percentage of Mainline seminary professors currently believe in the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of Jesus, and to see what percentage of ordained Mainline clergy actually believe Jesus atoned for our sins on the cross and rose again in bodily form and was seen by human witnesses before ascending to the right hand of God. If someone would conduct that survey and publish the results I would contribute $500 to the cause.
Comment by George Zelensky on May 3, 2022 at 8:39 pm
Bragging about his church’s “eternal legacy” the same week the SCOTUS is overturning it. Silly boomer.
Comment by Loren J Golden on May 4, 2022 at 12:09 am
“In the early 1920’s, Princeton stopped requiring students to sign a statement of faith in the virgin birth and bodily resurrection in order to be ordained.”
I think you have your facts confused. Princeton Theological Seminary was still very much orthodox in the early 1920s and would have held a high standard for the statement of faith it required of its students. (Also, seminaries do not ordain anyone in the Presbyterian Church; that is the role of the presbytery for teaching elders, and the session of the local church for ruling elders and deacons.)
To be sure, the Virgin Birth and the Bodily Resurrection played a significant role in the controversies of the PCUSA of the 1920s, as two graduates of New York’s Union Theological Seminary (which disaffiliated from the PCUSA in 1893 but continued supplying the denomination’s northeastern churches with theologically liberal pastors pastors) were ordained by New York Presbytery, despite having publicly expressed disbelief in the Virgin Birth, and as the Virgin Birth and Bodily Resurrection of our Lord were denominated only as “certain theories concerning…the Incarnation…(and) the Continuing Life…of our Lord Jesus Christ,” by the notorious Auburn Affirmation, signed by 1293 PCUSA teaching elders, by the time of its second printing in May 1924, in advance of the General Assembly.
Remember, however, that Princeton Seminary in the 1920s was the home of J. Gresham Machen, whose Christianity and Liberalism, published in 1923, denominated Theological Liberalism as an altogether different religion from Christianity. Princeton remained a stalwart defender of Christian orthodoxy in the PCUSA, until the General Assembly reorganized it in 1929, naming two signatories of the Auburn Affirmation to its board of directors. At that point, the Biblically faithful professors at PTS saw the handwriting on the wall, and Machen, together with several other orthodox professors, resigned their posts and established Westminster Theological Seminary, just across the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Any relaxation of the statement of faith required of students studying for the pastorate would have been made after that time.
Comment by Rev. Dr. Lee D Cary (ret. UM clergy) on May 7, 2022 at 8:41 am
“…Mainline Protestantism is imploding…But its decline hurts America.”
I disagree.
We’re witnessing a cleansing of the Augean stables.
New wine in new wineskins.
The dissolution of decrepit, self-serving, hierarchical, ecclesiastical bureaucracies.
Christ overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple.
It is God’s will, and better will come of it.
Comment by steven takai on May 9, 2022 at 3:38 pm
I wonder if the overturning of Roe v Wade will save the mainline churches since their women won’t be able to abort all the next generation anymore.