The Problem of Communion: The Necessity of Church Discipline

A church that does not care enough about truth to discipline does not care enough about truth.

As a teenage Christian, I was precocious about the necessity of church discipline. I was influenced by Francis Schaeffer, and he wrote that discipline and boundaries were essential for a church to be the church. Also, I already noticed that some churches and clergy taught and acted out error and downright evil. And little to nothing was done about it. Even in my youth, that provoked me.

Later, studying and working in North Carolina, I was provoked by some things I saw even among Southern Baptists. I saw one Southern Baptist woman cleric openly advocate for abortion at Duke. Over in Raleigh, W. W. Finlater of Pullen Memorial Baptist was constantly on the local news advocating for all things Leftist, including pushing the Soviet line during what became the last decade of the Cold War. If there was a such a thing as Communist Baptist, Finlater and Pullen Memorial was it.

That the Southern Baptists put up with that stuff was one reason I did not even consider Baptist churches when I moved back to North Texas. Maybe I was too harsh. For, to their credit, they did get act together. For one thing, the Southern Baptist Convention expelled Pullen in 1992. I was not too harsh with the mainline Presbyterian Church, my home denomination since birth. I wiped the dust off my feet and was done with them when I moved back to Texas. And they have proved me right ever since. (Take that, Redeemed Zoomer.)

By the way, Pullen Baptist is a total clown show now as a tour of their web site quickly reveals. Their lead pastor is a “married” lesbian and their Minister of Social Justice and Students is a they/them. There is more there, much more. See for yourself if you like. And, no, that is not a parody site.

I’ve already told you that tolerance of Bishop Spong told me The Episcopal Church was no-go as well. But I did lighten up slightly on TEC decades later. When I moved again to South Texas, I thought the diocese here might be sound, but when it proved itself to be weak instead, I backed off.

Yes, for better or for worse, I am not quite as inflexible about insisting on right church discipline as I used to be. One reason is that I am more aware that there is no perfect church. I’m also more aware that there is more to church polity than denominations. You can’t judge a congregation or a diocese by the whole denomination — something particularly important to remember when considering the Anglican Church in North America. I can better see now one can be faithful in a bad denomination although I would rarely recommend that. (I’m not saying ACNA is a bad denomination although it has significant problems.)

Oh, I went on a bit and almost foamed at the mouth without telling you what prompted this post. It’s Jesuit James Martin of the Drag Queen of the Perpetual Alphabet urging Catholics to celebrate Pride Month. That the likes of Martin and American Cardinals Cupich and McElroy and the German bishops remain in good standing with the Vatican while good men like Bishop Joseph Strickland and Fr. Frank Pavone are put down tells me the Roman Catholic Church is no-go if Pope Leo does not change policy and crack down on the wolves. I am not holding my breath for that. I pray and hurt for faithful Roman Catholics, but I think they should reconsider their excessive loyalty to Rome. But that’s a whole ‘nother post.

How much one should insist on church discipline as a condition of communion is not an easy question. If you are as unyielding as I once was, you either end up congregational, as I was for years, or in a small jurisdiction. Now small can be better. And I think we have to be willing to be small if that is what it takes to be faithful. But that’s a whole ‘nother post, too.

But if church discipline is weak or, worse, is exercised against the faithful instead of the unfaithful, that is serious enough to be grounds to avoid or leave a church or at least consider doing so. Usually leaving such a church is eventually necessary for one’s faithfulness and spiritual health. Personally, it would eat me alive to remain in the Roman Catholic Church or in a mainline Protestant church.

Bigger picture, there are two big problems with churches that persistently fail to exercise church discipline. Two problems that can be summarized by two laws. And if you read me enough, you know what the first one is — Neuhaus’ Law:

Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed.

I am unaware of that law failing yet. If a church leaves off disciplining heterodoxy, it is only a matter of time before it leaves off being a church. A church that allows itself to be a home for heterodoxy will eventually become a home for little else. Heterodoxy is like cockroaches and black mold that way.

The second law is, well, it’s one I made up. If you want to call it Marshall’s Law, I won’t stop you.

A church that does not care enough about truth to discipline does not care enough about truth.

Perhaps a more targeted way to put it would be:

A church that does not care enough about The Faith to discipline does not care enough about The Faith.

Church leaders can insist all they want they are orthodox. But if they don’t do anything about heterodox clergy in their church, then their fecklessness makes a lie of their words. It at least lets you know orthodoxy isn’t really all that important to them.

So church discipline is much more than fussing about church canons or being a holy control freak. As Schaeffer wrote, to preserve the church, to preserve The Faith, there has to be boundaries that are not to be transgressed without consequences.

But how much flexibility there should be in church discipline and how much weakness and mistakes in church discipline should be tolerated I do not presume to know. That said, I can with certainty tell you of both laxness and legalism that goes too far. And, of course, clergy should be under stricter standards than congregants. Nonetheless, for a church to be the church and to be faithful and remain the church, discipline and boundaries are necessities. They are certainly necessities for communion.

Otherwise, one might as well join the Lion’s Club.