Concern v. Concerned

Every major U.S. Protestant church by now can be roughly divided between members who favor greater involvement in social issues and those who feel that the church should stick to the problem of helping individuals find salvation. Within the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (Southern), this division has hardened to the point that some church leaders fear a potential schism precisely because the divergent views have become embodied in well-established pressure groups.

Representing the liberal outlook is an organization of ministers and laymen, founded four years ago, called A Fellowship of Concern. Now boasting a membership of more than 5,000, the fellowship has an influential journalistic voice in the Presbyterian Outlook (circ. 9,000). Church officers credit the organization with helping to promote such actions of recent general assemblies as a series of strong statements on racial equality and the 1966 vote to join nine other denominations in the Consultation on Church Union.

The voice of conservatism in the church comes from a group called Concerned Presbyterians, which has a full-time field director who lobbies for its outlook with local congregations, and whose members help support a new and extremely orthodox seminary in Jackson, Miss. Concerned Presbyterians fear that the church's increasing involvement in social issues is a radical departure from its historic traditions. The group, explains its president, Miami Realtor Kenneth Keyes Sr., "would like to return the church to its basic purpose--leading unsaved souls to Christ. We think that the individual Christian should be involved, but we do not think that the church should enter into these matters."

Church leaders worry that the growing strength of these two organizations could crystallize into irreparable hostility. In April, 30 leading Presbyterians published an open letter in several church journals, warning against the possibilities of rift. Last week Southern Presbyterian Moderator Marshall Dendy of Richmond announced that he had invited leaders of both factions to a peace parley in Atlanta next January.

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