WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR LEADER
GOES TO THE PRESBYTERIANS?

One of my friends is always saying that we need not be disturbed if the Restoration Movement comes upon hard times since God still has plenty of Presbyterians with which to start another one. It could be added that such ones might well include some of our own number who have recently joined the Presbyterians. I know of two of our brightest young men, both honor students in Bible at Abilene, who have in recent years become Presbyterian pastors.

But neither of them was our leader. What do you do when your leader joins the Presbyterians? It is now a known fact, even if our press has been conspicuously silent about it, that Athens Clay Pullias, longtime president of David Lipscomb College, has gone to the Presbyterians. Lipscomb is not only the leading Church of Christ institution in Tennessee but one that enjoys world-wide influence, and its president, certainly in the person of Athens Clay Pullias, is the leader of Tennessee churches as well as one of the most influential men in larger Church of Christ circles. All these years he has been a defender of the faith, a protector of the true church, and an exposer of those who veer from the Old Paths, such as the Belmont Church of Christ in Nashville. He was so loyal to the truth that he disciplined his faculty members who chose to attend Belmont. But lo, he who once kept the faith has departed from it. He has gone, not to Belmont, which is after all still within Churches of Christ, but to the Presbyterians.

As my Ouida has a way of saying when the impossible happens, Well, what do you know about that!

It is just as well that brother Pullias is not on the faculty at Lipscomb, for he would have to be fired since it is a sin to become a Presbyterian. It is at least as bad as drinking wine (for which a professor was fired at a Church of Christ college in Texas, ostensibly at least) and almost as bad as becoming “charismatic” (for which folk have been fired all over the place). In fact, President Pullias would have to fire Presbyterian Pullias, just as he fired a dedicated teacher who chose to cast her lot with Belmont. It is interesting, is it not, how our deeds of yesteryear sometimes return to haunt us?

Due to a quietness like that inside a tomb it is not yet evident what “those who are somewhat” in Nashville will do about brother Pullias. Those in the editorial office of the Gospel Advocate have not been silent about the Central Church of Christ in far off Irving, Texas, which has chosen to indulge in a cooperative effort, not only with Presbyterians, but with numerous churches. The Advocate was quick to judge Central as having departed from the faith. Since they have presumed to issue such judgments, they might attend to a matter much closer to home. What are they going to do with their leader who is not only cooperating with “the denominations” but has gone over to them? Will he be disfellowshipped? Written up?

While this is not a problem to me, I think I have a responsibility to remind our leaders (many of them at least) that this is a problem to them, whether they do anything about it or not. If we are going to be so sectarian and oppressive as to stigmatize and browbeat every preacher and church that veers from the party line in the slightest degree, then we ought to hang the same washing on the line when it involves our most eminent leaders. If the Advocate, for instance, can muster sufficient mercy to allow the Pullias affair to lie like a sleeping dog (or is it politics?), then why pick on some well-meaning brethren like those in Irving, Texas who only wish to honor Jesus Christ?

Our leaders in Nashville and elsewhere have been less than gracious to Don Finto and the Belmont congregation, who have impressed the world that Christians do care for the downtrodden. For being a different kind of Church of Christ they have, for the most part, been rejected by those who should have welcomed them as a refreshing change. Those who control the power structures can afford to sacrifice the Don Fintos and the occasional Belmonts, as a warning to others if for no other reason, but also as punishment for veering from the party line. But Don Finto, as able as he is, was not one of our college presidents, and Belmont was not David Lipscomb College. What do you do when your leader “departs from the faith”? Nothing perhaps, when it is politically expedient.

When I say this is no problem to me, I simply mean that I do not conclude that a brother necessarily rejects Christ when he leaves what we call the “Church of Christ.” Going to the Presbyterians might be a matter of conscience, not a lack of it, an act of faith and not faithlessness. Even though I went through the same course of study as their ministers (a classmate of mine at Princeton is now the Stated Clerk!), I could never become a Presbyterian. I prize my heritage as a “Christian Only,” and I cannot be run off or scared off, and certainly not bought off. So I choose to remain among Churches of Christ, where I am not fully accepted, than to go to the Presbyterians, where I would be accepted. But some of my sisters and brothers differ with me, and so some of them become Presbyterians or something else, having had it with the Churches of Christ.

They are still my sisters and brothers and I love and accept them no less. I even understand, for it may be the only thing they can do in their search for warmth, acceptance, and usefulness. I sincerely wish for them a blessed peace and ministry, and this goes for Athens Clay Pullias. I do not believe, of course, that the United Presbyterian Church is the church of Jesus Christ, but neither do I believe that what we call the Church of Christ is the church of Jesus Christ. We are Christians and we please God, not on the basis of being Presbyterian or “Church of Christ,” but by our fidelity to him who brought life and light to mankind through his resurrection from the dead. The Body of Christ is made up of all those who are in Christ, wherever they may be. If being somewhat tarnished by a sectarian environment, which is presently the character of the entire Christian world, keeps us from being faithful Christians, we can only conclude that there are very few faithful Christians, if any.

Those who have a problem with their leader going to the Presbyterians are those who harass and badger those who are not their leaders, those that they can afford to sacrifice for the good of the party. But when the party leader defects, what do you do?

An honest confession might be good for the soul and for the party. Some of our folk, even our leader, might be better off among the Presbyterians. They might actually be closer to Christ than when they are with us, as impossible as that may appear. They may be less sectarian than when with us. Our partyism may be so stifling to them that they have no choice but to leave. They did not find us “the true church” after all, not even as our leaders when they mouthed the same shibboleth. Let us learn by such defections and try to be a more responsible people, or simply accept the fact that moving from one denomination to another one is not all that momentous anyway.

So let us remain loving and accepting to the likes of Athens Clay Pullias, but let us be the same toward our own folk who choose to be different. Let us encourage innovation (change), diversity and variety among our own people. This will provide for such elbow room within the “Christian Only” tradition that people will not have to leave.

But if we are going to be rude and crude toward the rank and file preachers and churches who vary from our unwritten but demanding creed, then why not respond the same when the leader snaps his heels and makes a bold exit? Should we not be consistent, even if it does embarrass certain people and institutions? Should we not “defend the faith” when we cannot afford to as well as when we can afford to? Are we going to make distinctions between those who “depart from the faith,” excommunicating the weak and excusing the strong?

Since Nashville has all the answers, they’ll have no problem with these questions?

What do you do when your leader goes to the Presbyterians?—the Editor