We tend to think of Schism as something dramatic, out of a novel. Where clergy renounce presbytery and march out en mass out of some meeting. Or someone writes big wordy theological statements that sets the church in a new direction. That is rarely the case and never as dramatic. Schism is the end result of a process, a method, a movement played out over years is not decades. It is evolution, not revolution. And in that light American Presbyterianism has been in schism since 1728. And will continue to be so in the future. In the Presbyterian DNA are two unreconcilable concepts, the quest for theological purity, and the urge, drive to con-temporize the faith, harmonize it, for the human historical context the church finds itself in. In one Truth is fixed and certain, the other, Truth is a moving object subject to the winds of change. The house divided cannot stand.

The way the PCUSA since reunion, and prior has attempted to reconcile these dynamic tensions has been to replace theological, confessional or doctrinal unity with the bogus unity based upon administrative structure, polity, institutional unity based upon the lowest common denominators of per capita and property in trust. Such a construct could not last. And yes, religious liberals and progressives put far, far too much faith and believe in formal institutions and institutional structures, assuming a top-down power dynamic, which more or less ran the church into a ditch. That if you "build it" they will come. Well its built, but it has been met by apathy if not hostility. As American Protestantism continues to migrate to these two poles of relativism/universalism at one end, orthodoxy at the other, people, churches, groups will find where they fit along the spectrum. And will move accordingly, with or without permission of their theological betters.

Being Memorial Day were we celebrate the cost of freedom, and those who made it possible, lets remember the American religious experience has been based upon freedom of thought, freedom of association, and freedom of choice. And people do move and vote with their feet, their money and time. It is not about sex, gays, or who you sleep with. It has always been does Christ judge culture, or does the culture judge Christ. Does the Bible judge us, or we it. How you respond will tell you where you end up in time. It is process, a path one takes, not so a schism or future. But the living process of life and faith with real living people.

I would hope at the end that we remember how to treat each other with compassion and empathy, and kindness, and let the bile, the hate, the mistrust, the fights over property and money just fade away, The final job of the PCUSA is the witness and example we set for all to see.