The denomination took a year to get its apology just right.
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) overwhelmingly voted last night to repent for its racist actions during the civil rights era, even though the denomination wasn’t founded until nine years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
But “during the civil rights period, there were founding denominational leaders and churches who not only failed to pursue racial reconciliation but also actively worked against it,” read the one-page overture, which passed 861 to 123.
Those churches segregated worshipers by race, barred blacks from membership and black churches from joining presbyteries, participated in and defended white supremacist organizations, and taught that the Bible sanctioned segregation and opposed inter-racial marriage, the overture said.
The PCA also confessed to failing to “lovingly confront our brothers and sisters concerning racial sins and personal bigotry.”
“I’m overjoyed & overwhelmed to be present at this historic moment in racial reconciliation at #PCAGA,” tweeted K. A. Ellis, ambassador for International Christian Response.
Fourteen years ago, the PCA confessed their “covenental involvement” in the “heinous sins” the United States committed, but didn’t take responsibility for specific denominational offenses.
The PCA considered a specific apology when the issue was first raised at its annual meeting last year, but decided after nine hours of debate to defer it in order to perfect the language, allow for specific examples for repentance, and give churches time to study the PCA’s complicity. The goal: a more “heartfelt and accurate” repentance. (CT covered the pros and cons of that decision.)
Corporate repentance takes more …
