In my travels nationwide, I found vibrant congregations altogether different, and often qualitatively better, than the Presbyterian church of my childhood. I found abundant reasons to celebrate what God is doing among us, even as I found considerable fear and trepidation about how we live amid this change. Whenever God leads the church in new ways, voices arise lamenting the change and calling for a return to former days of righteousness. Wood whines about the decline of the Presbyterian presence in American religious life, which, for better or worse, has been on the decline since the huge post-Civil War immigrations.
Wood perpetuates the myth that evangelism and social righteousness work against each other.
How quickly we forget that much of Jesus' ministry involved social reform and still the numbers grew. As a graduate of Union-PSCE and a member of its alumni board, I am constantly amazed by the love and dedication to the church exhibited by an outstanding faculty, president and board of trustees. And I am tired of hearing the constant carping of those like Wood, who claim to love the church and the seminary and live in some romanticized and narrowly scripted version of the past. Finally, I rejoice in the increased role and leadership of women in the church, and yet, recognize that women have hardly taken over the church. As General Assembly Moderator Freda Gardner notes from her travels, the role of women in the church is still far from where it needs to be.