“Could it be that the denomination once renowned for sending evangelical missionaries around the world…could now be aptly described as pagan?”

The first charge of paganism I heard at the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly came from the lips of an Iowa farmer who serves as a Commissioned Lay Pastor in his small town church. His tear-streaked cheeks quivering, he stood in the exhibit hall following the assembly’s opening worship service and grieved, “Paganism, that’s all I can say. Sheer paganism.”

The charge was leveled again on the floor of the assembly itself from a representative of the global Church. Standing before plenary, Archpriest Siarhei Hardun looked the role of a prophet. When he opened his mouth, it was confirmed.

Representing the Orthodox Church in Belarus, which he described as having “an unbroken, unchanged and unreformed tradition,” Hardun confessed the faith once delivered to the saints. And for that faith he called Presbyterians to contend.

Tragically, what he witnessed at the assembly was something far different. He was struck by the open discussions of homosexuality, same-sex marriage and other moral issues. As if Christian morality could be re-invented. Apparently he was not familiar with the PCUSA’s proclivity for re-imagining.

Then he delivered the words that cut to the heart, these “attempts to invent new morality look for me like attempts to invent a new religion – a sort of modern paganism.”

Carmen Fowler is president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and executive editor of its publications.