Liberals among Methodists and Presbyterians

                                                                                                                           Vol. IV, No. 2, March 1991

[From 10 January 1991 Word and Way.]

James V. Heidinger II, executive director of the Good News movement, wrote in the organization's magazine that "the conservative 70% of United Methodist laity must awaken to the fact that their church has been hijacked ... a small group has slipped into the cockpit and assumed the controls and is taking those on board to destinations they haven't chosen ... It's a betrayal of trust." As evidence, Heidinger cited findings of the survey of both delegates and non-delegates to the church's 1988 General Conference. It concluded that "clergy were consistently more liberal than lay respondents" and that "non-delegates were consistently more conservative than delegates." He said "...the United Methodist Church is basically a conservative denomination being controlled, if not dominated, by a liberal minority."

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has sent letters to each of its 11,505 congregations rebutting a December 1990 Reader's Digest article that charges denominational leaders with ignoring conservative sentiments of people in the pews. The article, written by John S. Tomkins, a member of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, in New York, claims the Presbyterian Church and other mainline denominations are filled with conservatives who are fed up and "turning by the millions to more faith-oriented, nonpolitical churches – many of an evangelical strain."