The biennial General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) met in Detroit from June 14 to 21, 2014. It adopted two widely reported measures—one allowing same-sex marriages to be celebrated in the PCUSA, the other divesting the latter from three American corporations whose products supposedly help the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
The PCUSA is the largest of several Presbyterian churches in America. It resulted from the merger of two earlier churches in 1983. Endless divisions, schisms and mergers are presumably in the DNA of American Protestantism because of the combination of two factors–the luxurious flowering of pluralism in this country, and the vigorous legal foundation of religious freedom. [Old joke: Two American Protestants stranded on an island will organize three churches. Somewhat related joke: One American Jew so stranded will build two synagogues–one where he goes to pray, the other in which he would not want to be found dead.]
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