"God's Heart is Broken" by PSW Decision Declares Dr. Medley; Wishes PSW Well as It Leaves

PSW REGION VOTES TO SEPARATE FROM AMERICAN BAPTIST DENOMINATION

VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS)—The Board of Directors of the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest (ABCPSW) voted at a meeting on May 11, 2006 to withdraw from the Covenant of Relationships and Agreements with the American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA).

"PSW had been moving in this direction for some time over theological differences, " said Dr. A. Roy Medley, general secretary of ABCUSA. "God's heart is broken when sisters and brothers in Christ divide over matters of scriptural interpretation. We pray God's blessing on PSW as they go their way from the ABC family." Medley added that "this parting of the ways will not diminish our passion, commitment and undaunted spirit to move forward in mission and ministry."

I always wonder when church leaders baldly declare the Lord's opposition to separation over issues of scriptural interpretation. Surely Dr. Medley does not believe what he writes? If divison over matters of biblical interpretation breaks God's heart, does not that imply that we ought to undo all such organizational heartaches? And, if so, why does Dr. Medley devote so much time to defending "Baptist" polity anyhow?

Isn't it a matter of "scriptural interpretation" that causes us to have a Valley Forge headquarters instead of simply joining with the Presbyterians, Methodists, or Lutherans? If all such organizational distinctions are hurtful to the Lord and, therefore, ipso facto, wrong, let us encourage Dr. Medley to move with all dispatch to propose union with all professing Christians, regardless of their various "interpretations" of the Bible (including the LDS).

Perhaps we should immediately discard Baptist distinctives in favor of organizational union that would presumably go a long way toward mending the broken heart of God. Matters such as "soul liberty" would become not only insignificant differences of "interpretation," but irrelevant once we unite with all professing Christians and accept the role of the Holy Father in Rome.

And, if differences of scriptural understanding and core beliefs are not sufficient grounds for separation, what on earth would be? Indeed, every ecumenical council of the early church involved delineating differences "in scriptural interpretation." Dr. Medley's words resonate on the rhetorical and affective levels but prove meaningless when subjected to analysis.

["His Barking Dog" takes some differences of interpretation as justifiable grounds for organizational separation even though I still have no authority to speak for the hierarchy of the new Transformation Ministries (aka ABCPSW)]