The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Machen, Christianity & Liberalism

For all the worries about democracy’s death after 2016, some of the most ardent worriers also seem to think restricting debate will advance democratic ideals. Concerns about misinformation and disinformation (and even malinformation) are not merely the fears of a few journalists or professors. Government agencies and big tech companies have cooperated to prevent the spread of claims that depart from certain institutional views. Another set of worries follow from those troubled by the free flow of ideas. These liberal worriers argue that restricting access to information violates freedom of speech, which in turn threatens the very character of a democratic society.

As novel as the recent debates about freedom of speech in journalism and politics may sound, one hundred years ago the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA) established a precedent for suppressing speech, ideas, and assembly. This is ironic if only because churches are not typically supposed to have a diversity of ideas like a democratic society. On paper, church officers and members are united in faith, worship, and piety. But when a disagreement surfaces, Presbyterians, at least, have a variety of ecclesiastical processes for fostering debate and preventing the abuse of power. As good as the Presbyterian system may be, it failed J. Gresham Machen when he spoke out against liberal theology and its influence within the PCUSA.

His book, Christianity and Liberalism, published one hundred years ago in 1923, was a warning to American Protestants about the dangers of theological modernism. Within the PCUSA, that book met a chilly reception. For twelve years after publication, Presbyterians leaders used various methods to muzzle Machen, as I will show. Worse, rather than responding to his arguments in the give and take of ecclesiastical debate, many influential Presbyterians labeled his criticisms incautious and even extreme. By the end of his career, his Presbyterian peers brought Machen to trial for violating his ordination vows and spreading “misinformation” within the church. In hindsight, the Presbyterian controversy was a poignant instance of elites deeming certain views unacceptable and then using institutional levers to suppress those ideas.