For the fifth time the General Assembly has asked presbyteries to ratify an amendment to the Book of Order’s Form of Government, Chapter 6, paragraph .0106, sentence b. What’s the difference?

(Among other things) guidance replaces obedience: Currently, the express standard is that each and every ordained officer in the PCUSA “lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church.” If amended, language of “obedience” and “conformity” is replaced with “guided by.”

This third concern amplifies a recurrent question being faced by Presbyterians and other mainline Christians in the 21st century. The question is one of authority…

(PCUSA) Stated Clerk, Gradye Parsons…freely quotes (Phyllis) Tickle as an authority on the shifts taking place in the American religious and cultural landscape…she makes the point that as “religion is a social construct,”[1] every 500 years the same primary question demands to be answered: “where now is the authority?”

Last posed in the days of the Reformation, the answer for Protestant Christians has been sola Scriptura. According to Tickle, that authority has been vanquished…

Some may be seeking a new answer to the question of authority for faith and life, but I find that the answer of the Reformation works well if we actually live into it with submission, humility, obedience and candor. If you agree, vote “no” on the proposed Amendment 10-A when the opportunity presents itself in your presbytery.