Who gets to be called 'schismatic?'
October 11, 2007
I continue to find the writings of John Shuck [Letters, October 10, 2007] to be illustrating about what we face by remaining in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Here is a minister in good standing who has publicly mocked our faith, who believes that Jesus' body rotted in a grave, that Jesus will not return again, who mocks Christians on a daily basis over at his blog, and then he has the nerve to label a faithful minister like Bill Crawford a schismatic. What a joke! Friends, when an apostate "minister" stands within our system, not disciplined by his presbytery, who refutes the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and calls a faithful pastor schismatic, we had better know where we stand. How long, brothers and sisters in Christ, will we allow this to go on? How long will we swear our allegiance to an organization that allows a person like John Shuck to wear our label? As my good friend Will Spotts calls us to remember in his farewell address to the PCUSA, we had better remember what is being done in our names. I, for one, will not long abide in an organization that allows this to continue. How about you?
Toby Brown
Cuero, Texas
About letter by John Shuck
October 11, 2007
I think it will be a interesting day indeed when Christian members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) take a moment to see true heresy and apostasy at work by checking out John Shuck's blog "Shuck and Jive." Although offensive, it is a lesson in the practical reality of this institution. I think The Layman Online would do a community service to publish this letter and its links. Shucks, a full-blown investigation would be illuminating.Yes, John Shuck is a minister of Word and sacrament and, yes, he has been reported to the committee on ministry of Holston Presbytery and the reply was that he was a "minister in good standing." You can read the sermons that he preaches from the pulpit of a PCUSA congregation here. Or, perhaps, you would like to read as John talks about the "Rapture" (warning – some medieval nudity here).When John Shuck insults me, I count it all joy.
Bill Crawford
pastor First Presbyterian Church of Thibodaux
Thibodaux, La.
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2 comments:
The great Shuck has replied on his blog. Proclaiming anyone affiliated with a body that broke away from another body is a schismatic.
So
the PCUSA is schismatic since it traces its roots to the Reformation which broke away from the Catholic church which broke away from the ancient church by proclaiming its superiority to the ancient church by informing the ancient centers of Christianity(Eastern Orthodoxy) that it was wrong to allow married priests among other issues such as the Patriarch and pope just not liking each other and anathemas were flung back and forth.
So everyone's a schismatic. Well except for the Eastern Orthodox church unless you want to say they helped bring along the schismatic by refusing to divorce their wifes and bowing down and kissing the feet of the pope.
Keep up the good work Ben.
This Shuck fellow is ridiculous... I believe the Presbyterian Revival Historian Richard Lovelace compared the mainline to a human body with no immune system where killer cells roam free. Perhaps God will graciously give us a greater love for His truth while enhancing our ability to love others for Christ's sake.
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