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The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), delivered a hateful and antisemitic sermon on the day one honors the memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The fact that Herbert Nelson II is black helped spare him criticism from the politically correct liberal media, who would normally castigate such hate-filled false and malicious libel if given by a white person. Nelson’s poisonous words were morally repugnant, factually false, and certainly worthy of collective denouncement. He stated: “The continued occupation in Palestine/Israel is 21st-century slavery and...

More than half of female clergy in the Presbyterian Church USA have reported experiencing discrimination on the basis of gender, according to a recently released survey.In 2019, PCUSA Research Services conducted a 110-question survey of 4,495 ministers, or nearly a quarter of the mainline Protestant denomination’s total number of clergy.In the “Discrimination, Opportunity, and Struggles of Leadership Report” based on the survey responses, researchers found that 58% of women reported experiencing gender-based discrimination in the denomination. By contrast, only 4% of male respondents reported the same.Additionally, 63% of female clergy reported experiencing any kind of discrimination, such as age-based or...

A letter by an official with the Presbyterian Church (USA) to Christians living in Cuba declared their support for the nation’s people, but blamed United States' foreign policy for its poverty and instability while lacking any mention of communism or government repression.Recently, due to factors including medical supply issues and an economic depression, there have been widespread protests in Cuba against the communist government, which has been in power since 1959.The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Advocacy Offices, penned a letter that was published last Friday in response to the protests in Cuba.In the letter, addressed...

Presbyterian Church (USA) recently reported that it lost around 50,000 members and over 100 congregations in 2019, which was hailed as a slowing of their years-long decline.The largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States released a report last Thursday regarding the current membership and church numbers.From 2018 to 2019, PC(USA) went from approximately 1,352,000 active members to approximately 1,302,000 members, or a drop of around 50,000.The number of congregations belonging to PC(USA) also declined, going from 9,161 in 2018 to 9,041 in 2019. This is around 400 fewer congregations than the denomination had in 2016.The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson,...

A Washington State-based regional body of Presbyterian Church (USA) is encouraging congregations in the Seattle area to cancel in-person worship services due to the coronavirus.The Presbytery of Seattle posted a letter to its website last Friday that was signed by the Reverends Eliana Maxim and Scott Lumsden, the co-executive presbyters of the regional body. The leadership of the presbytery stated that it was “time to cancel regular worship” due to the recently reported cases of coronavirus in the state.“Eliana and I, as pastoral leaders in this presbytery lament this conclusion, but believe in our hearts that it's in the best...

A Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in New York made news this week after it featured the sculpture of a pagan deity in its chancel. The United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton hosted “the Sviatovid idol” which depicts a ninth-century Slavic deity, as part of a September 6-7 festival of lights. Sviatovid (alternately known as Svetovid, Svantovit, Sventovit, or Svantevit) was a local Slavic god of war, fertility, and abundance in the Baltic region. In the early twentieth century, an idol was discovered near the Zbruch River in Western Ukraine (accessible with free JSTOR account). This idol pictured was originally thought to...

All Christians should be aware of and be prepared for the arrival of the ‘gay church’ that will rewrite the Bible and begin to push the narrative that God loves you “just the way you are” with no change required on your part. We will be writing about this in detail in the coming weeks., and have already begun to tell you about in articles like this one here and many others as well. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, the Church Age is coming to a close, and things are getting ready to break into tiny,...

Presbyterian Church (USA) officials are reporting that the oldline Protestant denomination shed another 62,375 members the same year that their governing General Assembly declared “Zionism is based on racism” and denounced religious freedom protections. At its current rate of shrinkage the PC(USA) will not exist in about 20 years. Statistics made available this week by the PC(USA) Office of the General Assembly (OGA) show the denomination continues to decline, dropping to 1,352,678 active members in 2018. A net 37 percent of members have died, transferred out, or simply vanished in the past decade. The drop of nearly 5 percent is...

The old argument that defends abortion now has a new twist. This time, it’s wearing a clerical collar. It’s not enough these days to champion abortion by mere reason. Trying to convince women that ending a pregnancy is actually a shame-free “positive good” is starting to ring hollow as well. So now the latest wave in promoting abortion comes from a most unlikely source. A social ethics professor of religious studies at Elon University makes her case for declaring that abortion can actually be considered Christian. Rebecca Todd Peters writes in her new book, “Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument...

(Photo: Courtesy of PCUSA)The national office for the mainline denomination Presbyterian Church (USA), located in Louisville, Kentucky.Presbyterian Church (USA) will soon have a new Book of Common Worship, which will include a new marriage service text that will feature "inclusive language."Scheduled to be released in May, the latest edition of the BCW is the first revision of the voluntary worship resource since 1993.Among the changes made, the new edition will feature what the PCUSA publication Presbyterians Today described as "inclusive language" for its marriage rite."A revised marriage service features inclusive language and a flexible format, making the service useful...

(Photo: Q via The Christian Post)Eugene Peterson concludes his discussions with Q Ideas Gabe Lyons today with a conversation on Being Immersed In Scripture.Eugene Peterson, the Presbyterian pastor who wrote the The Message, has come out in support of gay marriage, saying that he would officiate a same-sex wedding if asked.In an interview with Jonathan Merritt at Religion News Service Wednesday, the author of more than 30 books said that he knows many gays and lesbians who "seem to have as good a spiritual life as I do," noting that he would not have said that 20 years ago. He...

Tim Keller founded one of the most influential urban churches in America, Redeemer Presbyterian, which is theologically conservative, racially diverse and growing across its three New York City congregations. He was set to receive an award from Princeton Theological Seminary, also a Presbyterian institution in the Reformed tradition, for his contributions to the “Neo-Calvinist vision of religious engagement.”

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is looking into ways to handle an apparent drop in satisfactory rates in Bible test scores among people preparing for ministry within the Mainline denomination. Earlier this month, a task force created by the executive committee of the Committee on Theological Education released a statement on the Bible Content Examinations and a trend of lower than average evaluation rates that began in the summer. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is looking into ways to handle an apparent drop in satisfactory rates in Bible test scores among people preparing for ministry within the Mainline denomination. Earlier this month,...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Thieves broke into Caldwell Presbyterian Church on East Fifth Street in Charlotte late Wednesday and vandalized a painting with Scripture that targets homosexuality. Church members called it a personal attack on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The church embraces its call to be a diverse, progressive and mission-oriented congregation centered on justice and advocacy, according to its website.

President-elect Donald Trump started his Sunday by going to church, attending services at the Lamington Presbyterian Church in Bedminster, New Jersey. Trump was accompanied by his Vice President-elect Mike Pence, his incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus and his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.

The newly selected Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in the USA (PCUSA), Rev. Dr. J Herbert Nelson II, recently released a statement about the presidential election entitled, “When Incivility Becomes the Norm.” Nelson characterized his missive as a “response to the violence on America’s streets after the election of Mr. Donald Trump as President–Elect of the United States of America.” One might think, upon reading this introduction, that the venerable Reverend Doctor would be making an appeal for peace and calm. After all, peaceful protests are a proud legacy of the church, while violence and riots are generally discouraged...

Connor Brewer is fiercely loyal to his college football team. But he is also fiercely loyal to the United States of America. So when the Millikin University football team decided to protest the national anthem by remaining inside the locker room – instead of on the sidelines - Connor was faced with a decision. Would he join his teammates in their university-approved safe space or would he stand on the sidelines and honor America? Connor chose to stand – alone.

A judge has ruled that a Mississippi church – not the Presbyterian Church (USA) – owns its property. In First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) of Starkville Mississippi vs. Presbytery of St. Andrew, the Presbyterian Church (USA) Inc., the Honorable H.J. Davidson Jr., granted the church’s motion for summary judgment “affirming its right to hold title to its property without interference of claim from the PCUSA.” FPC-Starkville filed a lawsuit in early 2015 with the Chancery Court of Oktibbeha County in Miss., asking for a declaratory judgment “recognizing that FPC Starkville alone is the absolute, full, exclusive, fee simple owner of all...

The assembled Presbyterians no doubt thought they were being wonderfully open-minded and ecumenical; they did not realize that Wajidi Said was openly proselytizing for Islam. “Lead us on the straight path” is straight from the Fatihah, the Opening, the Qur’an’s first chapter and the most common and oft-repeated prayer in Islam. Islamic scholars identify the straight path with Islam itself. And in invoking “Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad,” Said sounded beautifully ecumenical himself to the ranked Presbyterians, aglow in their bloomin’ primness, but in reality he was reflecting the Islamic belief that those figures and the other Biblical...

The Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. is raising eyebrows after lifting up prayers to Allah at its General Assembly meeting last week. "Allah bless us and bless our families and bless our Lord. Lead us on the straight path - the path of all prophets: Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad." These were the words that rang out over the congregation at The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, USA meeting in Portland, Oregon. Wajidi Said, co-founder of the Muslim Education Trust, led the attendees in the prayer to the Islamic deity - a move arranged by the Ecumenical and Interfaith...